Fault isolation and provisioning for optical switches

US8849109B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• Alcatel Lucent · FR

Inventors

• Gerhard Meyer · Lehrberg, DE
• Wolfgang Thomas · Nuremberg, DE

Key dates

• Filing date: Mar 30, 2006
• Grant date: Sep 30, 2014
• Expiry date: Jan 20, 2030

Classification

• Technology area (CPC H): Electricity
• CPC primary: H04Q2011/0083
• WIPO field: Telecommunications
• WIPO sector: Electrical engineering

Abstract

The present invention includes method and apparatus for storing provisioned information within the optical switches and retrievable by every controller. The optical switches perform failure isolation according to their provisioning information. The optical switches monitor each channel for loss of signal. The provisioning information is shared autonomously between the optical switches allowing the switches to retrieve the provisioning information of the network topology from any other optical switch in the network. Fault isolation is done by the optical switch on the level of optical switch provisioning following the paradigm of “single alarm for single fault,” thus avoiding alarm floods and ambiguous alarms, thereby saving the operator time and money.