Intra-Chassis Protection Systems and Methods for Passive Optical Network Optical Line Terminals
AssigneeARRIS Enterprises LLC
InventorsThomas J. Cloonan, David B. Bowler
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An optical line terminal is operable in a passive optical network. The optical line terminal includes a chassis. A plurality of optical subsystems are disposed within the chassis. Each optical subsystem is operable to generate optical signals for delivery to a port. Each optical subsystem includes one or more optical switches. When a fault condition is detected at a first optical subsystem preventing the delivery of first optical signals generated by the first optical subsystem to the port of the first optical subsystem, the optical switches switch to deliver second downstream optical signals generated by a second optical subsystem to the port of the first optical subsystem.
Claims20
An optical line terminal (OLT) operable in a passive optical network (PON), the optical line terminal comprising:
- a chassis;
- and
- a plurality of optical subsystems disposed within the chassis, each optical subsystem operable to generate optical signals for delivery to a port of the each optical subsystem and comprising one or more optical switches, wherein the plurality of optical subsystems comprises N optical subsystems arranged in a series from 1 to N;
- the one or more optical switches to, when a fault condition is detected at an Mth optical subsystem, where M is a value between 2 and N, inclusive, prevent delivery of optical signals generated by the Mth optical subsystem to the port of the first Mth optical subsystem, the one or more optical switches switchable operable to cause delivery of spare optical signals to one of the optical subsystems 1 to M-1 and cause the remaining optical subsystems in the series from 1 to M-1 to each deliver optical signals generated thereon to another optical subsystem in the series.
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An optical line terminal, comprising:
- a chassis;
- N optical subsystems and a spare optical subsystem disposed within the chassis, the N optical subsystems each assigned a value from 1 to N, and each optical subsystem of the N optical subsystems and the spare optical subsystem comprising:
- a phototransmitter to deliver optical signals to a port of the respective optical subsystem;
- and
- one or more optical switches;
- the one or more optical switches to, upon sensing a fault condition at a Mth optical subsystem of the series, where M is a value between 2 and N, inclusive, switch to:
- deliver spare optical signals from the spare optical subsystem to a first optical subsystem of the series;
- and
- cause optical subsystems 1 to M-1 to each deliver optical signals generated thereon to optical subsystem 2 to M, respectively.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.