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US 10,320,484 B2Granted
Optical networking with support for unidirectional optical links
AssigneeNeptune Subsea IP Limited
InventorHerve A. Fevrier
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An apparatus includes bidirectional communication equipment for communicating information along optical fibers, where the bidirectional communications equipment is configured to provide a first unidirectional communication link from the equipment to a first location and a second unidirectional communication link to the equipment from a different second location.
Claims20
An apparatus comprising:
- bidirectional communications equipment configured to communicate information along optical fibers;
- wherein the bidirectional communications equipment is configured to provide a first unidirectional communication link along the optical fibers from the bidirectional communications equipment to a first location and a second unidirectional communication link along the optical fibers to the bidirectional communications equipment from a second location that is different from the first location;
- wherein the bidirectional communications equipment comprises a transmitter and receiver of a bidirectional interface card;
- and
- wherein the transmitter and receiver are configured to:
- provide a bidirectional communication link over an optical fiber pair with a transmitter and receiver of a second bidirectional communications equipment;
- and
- alternatively provide the first unidirectional communication link between the transmitter of the bidirectional communications equipment and the receiver of the second bidirectional communications equipment and the second unidirectional communication link between the receiver of the bidirectional communications equipment and a transmitter of a third bidirectional communications equipment.
5 more elements
An optical network comprising:
- first, second, and third bidirectional communications equipment, each of the first, second, and third bidirectional communications equipment comprising a transmitter and receiver of a bidirectional interface card;
- a first optical fiber link connecting the transmitter of the first bidirectional communications equipment and the receiver of the second bidirectional communications equipment;
- a second optical fiber link connecting the receiver of the first bidirectional communications equipment and the transmitter of the third bidirectional communications equipment;
- and
- a third optical fiber link connecting the transmitter of the second bidirectional communications equipment and the receiver of the third bidirectional communications equipment;
- wherein the optical network is configured with a first unidirectional communication link along the first optical fiber link, a second unidirectional communication link along the second optical fiber link, and a third unidirectional communication link along the third optical fiber link;
- and
- wherein the second unidirectional communication link differs from at least one of the first unidirectional communication link and the third unidirectional communication link in at least one of:
- wavelength, bandwidth, modulation scheme, forward error correction, and distance.
6 more elements
A method of configuring an optical network, the optical network comprising bidirectional communications equipment configured to provide one or more bidirectional communication links over one or more optical fiber pairs, the method comprising:
- configuring optical fiber connections of the optical network between the bidirectional communications equipment;
- and
- provisioning unidirectional communication links between the bidirectional communications equipment over the optical fiber connections of the optical network using the bidirectional communications equipment;
- wherein configuring the optical fiber connections comprises providing (i) a first optical fiber connecting a transmitter of a first selected bidirectional communications equipment and a receiver of a second selected bidirectional communications equipment and (ii) a second optical fiber connecting a receiver of the first selected bidirectional communications equipment and a transmitter of a third selected bidirectional communications equipment;
- and
- wherein provisioning the unidirectional communication links comprises provisioning a first unidirectional communication link along the first optical fiber and a second unidirectional communication link along the second optical fiber.
3 more elements
A non-transient computer readable medium comprising instructions that, when executed on a first bidirectional communications equipment, are configured to cause the first bidirectional communications equipment to:
- provision unidirectional communication links over an optical network comprising optical fiber connections that include (i) a first optical fiber connecting a transmitter of the first bidirectional communications equipment and a receiver of a second bidirectional communications equipment and (ii) a second optical fiber connecting a receiver of the first bidirectional communications equipment and a transmitter of a third bidirectional communications equipment;
- wherein the instructions that, when executed, cause the first bidirectional communications equipment to provision the unidirectional communication links comprise:
- instructions that, when executed, cause the first bidirectional communications equipment to provision a first unidirectional communication link along the first optical fiber and a second unidirectional communication link along the second optical fiber.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.