Submarine branching unit having asymmetrical architecture
AssigneePirelli Cavi e Sistemi S.p.A.
InventorGiuseppe Bianchi
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A branching unit for use in submarine systems that includes a ground termination; first, second, and third cable terminations each coupled to a power feed line of a respective submarine cable; a re-configuration relay in series between the first cable termination and the ground termination, the re-configuration relay being unidirectional and having at least one contact positioned in series between the second and third terminations, the at least one contact being closed when the re-configuration relay is de-energized; and a bypass relay in series between the second and third cable terminations, the bypass relay having a contact positioned in parallel with the reconfiguration relay and being open when the bypass relay is de-energized.
Claims14
A branching unit for interconnecting power feed lines of three submarine cables, comprising:
- a ground termination;
- first, second, and third cable terminations each coupled to a power feed line of a respective submarine cable;
- a re-configuration relay in series between the first cable termination and the ground termination, the re-configuration relay being unidirectional and having at least one contact positioned in series between the second and third terminations, the at least one contact being closed when the re-configuration relay is de-energized;
- and
- a bypass relay in series between the second and third cable terminations, the bypass relay having a contact positioned in parallel with the reconfiguration relay and being open when the bypass relay is de-energized.
A branching unit for interconnecting power feed lines of three submarine cables, the branching unit having a quiescent state wherein a first submarine cable is initially coupled to ground as a spur cable and second and third submarine cables are initially coupled together as a main trunk, comprising:
- a first cable termination coupled to the first submarine cable;
- a second cable termination coupled to the second submarine cable;
- a third cable termination coupled to the third submarine cable;
- a re-configuration relay configured to create an electrical path between the first cable termination and one of the second and third cable terminations to form the main trunk when the re-configuration relay becomes energized, the re-configuration relay being unidirectional;
- a ground-breaking relay positioned in the electrical path and configured to isolate the electrical path from ground when the ground-breaking relay becomes energized;
- and
- a grounding relay positioned in the electrical path and configured to connect the other of the second and third cable terminations to ground as the spur cable when the grounding relay becomes energized.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.