A network arrangement for aggregation of groups of tunable sources in a photonic network is disclosed. The network arrangement includes transmit edge elements having a plurality of tunable optical transmitters, an optical switch and a cyclic optical multiplexer, and receive edge elements having optical demultiplexers, optical switches and a plurality of optical receivers. A variety of arrangements are disclosed including protected and unprotected network architectures. The network arrangement disclosed is particularly useful for overcoming the problem of scaling a photonic network.