Colorless, directionless, contentionless, spaceless, and flexible grid reconfigurable optical node
AssigneeVerizon Patent and Licensing Inc.
InventorsTiejun J. Xia, Glenn A. Wellbrock
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An optical node may include an optical switch and an optical add drop multiplexer (OADM). The optical switch may receive, via a space-division multiplexing (SDM) link that carries optical signals via multiple SDM elements, an optical signal to be switched from a first SDM element to a second SDM element. The multiple SDM elements may include multiple cores of a multi-core fiber, multiple modes of a multi-mode fiber, or multiple fibers of a fiber bundle. The optical switch may switch the optical signal from the first SDM element to the second SDM element. The OADM may add optical signals to an optical network or drop optical signals from the optical network via one or more SDM links that include the SDM link.
Claims22
An optical switch, comprising:
- a plurality of collimators, coupled to a first space-division multiplexing (SDM) link that carries optical signals via multiple SDM elements, to receive an optical signal to be switched from a first SDM element to a second SDM element,
- the multiple SDM elements including at least one of:
- multiple cores of a multi-core fiber,
- multiple modes of a multi-mode fiber, or
- multiple fibers of a fiber bundle;
- and
- one or more switching elements to:
- switch the optical signal from the first SDM element to the second SDM element,
- the one or more switching elements have a size based on:
- a quantity of the multiple SDM elements,
- a quantity of channels per SDM element of the multiple SDM elements, and
- a quantity of SDM links to which the optical switch is connected;
- and
- switch the optical signal from a first direction, corresponding to the first SDM link, to a second direction, corresponding to a second SDM link,
- the optical switch including a contentionless and spaceless optical switch.
An optical add-drop multiplexer (OADM), comprising:
- one or more components to:
- receive, via a space-division multiplexing (SDM) link, of a plurality of SDM links connected to the OADM, that carries multiple optical signals via multiple SDM elements, an optical signal,
- the multiple SDM elements including at least one of:
- multiple cores of a multi-core fiber,
- multiple modes of a multi-mode fiber, or
- multiple fibers of a fiber bundle;
- split, by a power splitter, the optical signal into a split optical signal;
- and
- provide the split optical signal to a transponder,
- a set of power splitters of the OADM, including the power splitter, corresponding to a set of the multiple SDM elements included in the SDM link, and
- a set of transponder ports of the transponder corresponding to a total set of SDM elements on the plurality of SDM links.
An optical node, comprising:
- an optical switch to:
- receive, via a space-division multiplexing (SDM) link, of a plurality of SDM links connected to an optical add-drop multiplexer (OADM), that carries optical signals via multiple SDM elements, an optical signal to be switched from a first SDM element to a second SDM element,
- the multiple SDM elements including at least one of:
- multiple cores of a multi-core fiber,
- multiple modes of a multi-mode fiber, or
- multiple fibers of a fiber bundle;
- and
- the OADM to:
- split, by a power splitter, the optical signal into a split optical signal;
- and
- provide the split optical signal to a transponder,
- a set of power splitters, including the power splitter, of the OADM corresponding to a set of the multiple SDM elements included in the SDM link, and
- a set of transponder ports, of the transponder, corresponding to a total set of SDM elements on the plurality of SDM links.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.