Submarine cable branching units with fiber pair switching
AssigneeSubcom, LLC
InventorsLara Denise Garrett, Haifeng Li, Thomas Marino, Jr., Georg Heinrich Mohs, Massimo Manna
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Submarine cable branching units with fiber pair switching configured to allow any number of trunk cable fiber pairs to access the optical spectrum any number of branch cable fiber pairs. Access to a particular branch terminal is not limited to predefined subset of the trunk fiber pairs. This approach allows fewer branch cable fiber pairs to be equipped in each branching unit, reducing system cost, simplifies system planning and provides flexible routing of overall trunk cable capacity.
Claims20
An optical communication system comprising:
- a fiber switching branching unit coupled to a trunk cable and a branch cable, the branching unit comprising:
- an optical routing device comprising:
- at least a first trunk port configured to receive trunk signals from a first fiber pair of the trunk cable, the first fiber pair being associated with a first optical spectrum,
- a first branch port configured to drop the received trunk signals from the first fiber pair of the trunk cable to a first drop fiber of the branch cable, and
- a second branch port configured to drop the received trunk signals from the first fiber pair of the trunk cable to a second drop fiber of the branch cable, and
- wherein the optical routing device is configured to receive a control signal and selectively route the received trunk signals from the first fiber pair to the first branch port or the second branch port based on the control signal such that first optical spectrum associated with the first fiber pair of the trunk cable is dropped entirely to the first drop fiber or the second drop fiber.
An optical routing device comprising:
- at least a first trunk port configured to receive trunk signals from a first fiber pair of the trunk cable, the first fiber pair being associated with a first optical spectrum;
- a first branch port configured to drop the received trunk signals from the first fiber pair of the trunk cable to a first drop fiber of a branch cable;
- and
- a second branch port configured to drop the received trunk signals from the first fiber pair of the trunk cable to a second drop fiber of the branch cable, and
- wherein the optical routing device is configured to receive a control signal and selectively route the received trunk signals from the first fiber pair to the first branch port or the second branch port based on the control signal such that first optical spectrum associated with the first fiber pair of the trunk cable is dropped entirely to the first drop fiber or the second drop fiber.
A method comprising:
- receiving, via a first trunk port, trunk signals from a first fiber pair of a trunk cable;
- receiving a control signal;
- and
- routing, selectively, the received trunk signals to a first branch port or a second branch port based on the received control signal, and
- wherein the first fiber pair of the trunk cable is associated with a first optical spectrum,
- wherein the first branch port is configured to drop the trunk signals from the first fiber pair of the trunk cable to a first drop fiber of a branch cable,
- wherein the second branch port is configured to drop the trunk signals from the first fiber pair to a second drop fiber of the branch cable, and
- wherein the first optical spectrum associated with the first fiber pair of the trunk cable is dropped entirely to the first drop fiber or the second drop fiber.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.