Optical network and switch control method for use in the optical network

DETAILED DESCRIPTION What is claimed is: 1.
A method of controlling a switching operation of an optical network comprising: a plurality of optical transmitters; a plurality of optical receivers, each said receiver having an optical preamplifier; an optical switch being between said optical transmitters and said optical receivers; and a switch controller controlling the optical switch, said method comprising the steps of: transmitting an input signal to each of said optical receivers at a time interval shorter than a predetermined time interval, said time interval being controlled by said switch controller; choosing said time interval whereby no optical surge takes place at a posterior optical input signal.
2.
A method of controlling a switching operation of an optical network comprising: a plurality of optical transmitters; a plurality of optical receivers, each said receiver having an EDFA (erbium doped fiber amplifier) as an optical preamplifier; an optical switch being between said optical transmitters and said optical receivers; and a switch controller controlling the optical switch, said method comprising the steps of: transmitting an input signal to each of said optical receivers at a time interval shorter than a predetermined time interval, said time interval being controlled by said switch controller; choosing said time interval whereby no optical surge takes place at a posterior optical input signal.
3.
The method of claim 1, wherein the step of transmitting further comprises a time interval shorter than one millisecond.




Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to an optical network which connects each of optical transmitters to each optical receiver through an optical switch and, in particular, to a method of controlling the receivers and the optical switch.
Heretofore, it is known in the art that an optical spatial switch in an optical network is large in capacity and small in size as compared with an electrical switch.
Such an optical spatial switch has been proposed together with an optical network in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No