In one embodiment, optical node includes an input port configured to receive an input optical frame and a first optical switch coupled to the input port, where the first optical switch is configured to remove the input optical frame to produce a removed input optical frame when an address of the input optical frame is a node address of the optical node and to pass the input optical frame to a second optical switch when an address of the input optical frame differs from the address of the optical node. The optical node also includes the second optical switch coupled to the first optical switch, where the second optical switch is configured to output the input optical frame to an output port when the address of the input optical frame is not the node address of the optical node and the address of the input optical frame is not an empty address.