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US 11,487,063 B2Granted
Pair routing between three undersea fiber optic cables
AssigneeSubcom, LLC
InventorsLara Denise Garrett, Haifeng Li, Dmitriy Kovsh
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An undersea fiber optic cable routing architecture including a branching unit coupled to three trunk cables capable of switching individual fibers in each fiber pair within a cable to either of the other two cables. The branching unit comprises a plurality of optical switches and a controller for receiving remote command signals and configuring the optical switches in accordance with the remote command signals.
Claims20
An undersea fiber optic cable routing system, comprising:
- a branching unit coupled to three fiber optic cables, each fiber optic cable having a plurality of fiber pairs, the branching unit comprising:
- a plurality of switches for each fiber pair, the plurality of switches configurable to enable a fiber pair from any one of the three fiber optic cables to be switched to allow routing to either of two other fiber optic cables of the three fiber optic cables;
- and
- a controller operable to receive remote command signals and to configure the plurality of switches as indicated by the received remote command signal.
1 more element
An undersea fiber optic cable routing system, comprising:
- a first undersea fiber optic cable, a second undersea fiber optic cable, and a third fiber optic cable, wherein each of the first, second and third undersea fiber optic cables includes a plurality of fiber pairs;
- and
- a branching unit configured to couple to each of the first, second and third undersea fiber optic cables, the branching unit including:
- a first set of assignable switches configured to optically couple to the plurality of fiber pairs in the first undersea fiber optic cable, wherein each assignable switch in the first set is coupled to a respective fiber pair in the first fiber optic cable;
- a second set of assignable switches configured to optically couple to the plurality of fiber pairs in the second undersea fiber optic cable, wherein each assignable switch in the second set is coupled to a respective fiber pair in the second fiber optic cable;
- a third set of assignable switches configured to optically couple to the plurality of fiber pairs in the third undersea fiber optic cable, wherein each assignable switch in the third set is coupled to a respective fiber pair in the third fiber optic cable;
- a plurality of optical pathways coupling respective assignable switches in each of the first set of assignable switches, the second set of assignable switches and the third set of assignable switches to one another;
- and
- a controller coupled to each respective assignable switch in each of the first set of assignable switches, the second set of assignable switches and the third set of assignable switches, wherein the controller is operable to:
- assign a respective first set assignable switch from the first set to a respective second set assignable switch and to a respective third set assignable switch.
7 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.