OPTICAL CROSS-CONNECT FOR AN OPTICAL-NETWORK NODE

An optical cross-connect having ingress and egress wavelength-selective switches (WSSes) interconnected such that at least some ingress/egress WSS pairs are connected by two different respective optical paths originating at two different output ports of the ingress WSS. One of the two optical paths may include an optical splitter, different optical outputs of which are connected to different respective egress WSSes. Some embodiments may include 2×1 optical couplers, each configured to join the two respective optical paths before connecting them to the egress WSS. In some embodiments, the ingress WSS may have two sets of wavelength channels characterized by two different slot widths and be configurable to direct optical signals corresponding to one set through one of the two optical paths while directing optical signals corresponding to the other set through the other one of the two optical paths. Some embodiments may be used to implement a reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexer.