Reconfigurable optical add-drop multiplexer

The main advantages of the ROADM are: ROADM functionality originally appeared in long-haul dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) equipment, but by 2005, it began to appear in metro optical systems because of the need to build out major metropolitan networks in order to deal with the traffic driven by the increasing demand for packet-based services.Colorless implies every port in the ROADM can handle or accept any wavelength or color of light.Contentionless means several identical wavelengths or signals can be dropped from several ports at the same time.Gridless means that the ROADM can handle frequencies or signals that aren't precisely 50 GHz apart from each other.This is relevant because 50 GHz spacing has been traditionally used in fiber optic communications.
optical communicationoptical add-drop multiplexerwavelength-division multiplexingwavelengthwavelength selective switchingpacketmicroelectromechanical systemsliquid crystalwaveguideoptical filterOptical mesh network