Patent · US Expired

Method and apparatus for an optical bi-directional line switched ring data communications system

US6163527A · kind A · utility

50Cited by
4References
37Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateApr 14, 1998
Grant dateDec 19, 2000
Priority date
Expiry dateApr 14, 2018

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH04Q2011/0092
  • WIPO fieldTelecommunications
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

An optical bi-directional line switched ring for performing adding and dropping of traffic into the traffic path and for performing ring and/or span protection switching. The optical bi-directional line switched ring include a plurality of nodes, each node having multiple input demultiplexer/output multiplexer sections, a command and control channel having multiple fibers, and up to N-1 slave circuits. Each multiple input demultiplexer/output multiplexer sections has an input demultiplexer to receive and demultiplex signals from a fiber and an output multiplexer to receive the demultiplexed wavelengths from internally and multiplex them into an outgoing signal. The command and control channel can be a standard bi-directional line switch that has one channel coupled to each fiber of the system. Each slave circuit comprising a plurality optical switching circuits coupled to the multiple input demultiplexer/output multiplexer sections such that the optical switching circuits are operable to carry up to N wavelengths of traffic. The command and control channel in conjunction with a SONET bi-directional line switched ring monitors the plurality of lines in the bi-directional line switch…

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.