Electrical/optical communication conversion aggregator system

An electrical/optical communication conversion aggregator system, comprising:

• a chassis;
• an aggregated networked device connector subsystem that is configured to couple to a plurality of networked devices via respective electrical connections;
• a plurality of networking device connectors that are configured to couple to a plurality of networking device via respective optical connections;
• a plurality of optical transmitter subsystems that are housed in the chassis, that are each configured to couple to a respective one of the plurality of networked devices via the aggregated networked device connector subsystem and to each of the plurality of networking devices via the plurality of networking device connectors, and that are each configured to convert electrical communications received from that networked device via the aggregated networked device connector subsystem to optical communications and transmit those optical communications to any of the plurality of networking devices via the plurality of networking device connectors;
• and
• a plurality of optical receiver subsystems that are housed in the chassis, that are each configured to couple to each of the plurality of networking devices via the plurality of networking device connectors and to a respective one of the plurality of networked devices via the aggregated networked device connector subsystem, and that are each configured to convert optical communications received from any of the plurality of networking devices via the plurality of networking device connectors to electrical communications and transmit those electrical communications to that networked device via the aggregated networked device connector subsystem.

A method for aggregating the conversion between electrical communications and optical communications, comprising:

• coupling, by each of a plurality of optical transmitter subsystems included in a chassis of an electrical/optical communication conversion aggregator system, to a respective one of a plurality of networked devices via a respective electrical connection and to each of a plurality of networking devices via a respective optical connection;
• coupling, by each of a plurality of optical receiver subsystems included in the chassis of the electrical/optical communication conversion aggregator system, to each the plurality of networking devices via a respective optical connection and to a respective one of the plurality of networked devices via a respective electrical connection;
• converting, by each of the plurality of optical transmitter subsystems via the respective electrical connection between that optical transmitter subsystem and the respective one of the plurality of networked devices, electrical communications received from that networked device to optical communications and transmitting those optical communications to any of the plurality of networking devices via the respective optical connection between that optical transmitter subsystem and that networking device;
• and
• converting, by each of the plurality of optical receiver subsystems via the respective optical connection between that optical receiver subsystem and any of the plurality of networking devices, optical communications received from that networking device to electrical communications and transmitting those electrical communications to the respective one of the plurality of networked devices via the respective electrical connection between that optical receiver subsystem and that networked device.