Low loss and cost-effective hierarchical optical path cross-connect switch architecture based on WSS/WBSS

We propose a novel hierarchical optical cross-connect node architecture that consists of WSSs/WBSSs (waveband selective switch). The proposed architecture reduces the number of WSSs/WBSSs by effectively utilizing star couplers. The large power loss of the couplers is efficiently offset by the novel waveband drop function.