Wavelength-selective cross-connect architecture interconnecting multiwavelength self-healing rings

We present a wavelength-selective cross-connect (XC) switch architecture interconnecting multiwavelength self-healing rings (SHRs). It preserves the fault protection and routing properties used in the WDM SHRs while keeping the process completely transparent. The main component of any XC that interconnects any two SHRs was found to be a 3/spl times/3 switch. A unique architecture and transition algorithm for this switch was developed using 2/spl times/2 switches in a wide-sense nonblocking configuration and a design incorporating multiwavelength 2/spl times/2 switches was presented.