FLEXIBLE NODE ARCHITECTURE WITH FULL PROTECTION

• US 20070116469A1
• Filed: 11/16/2006
• Published: 05/24/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 11/18/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: RPX Corporation
• Original Assignee: Alcatel SA (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: FAURE, Jean-Paul, Laalaoua, Rachid
• Granted Patent: US 7,702,243 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 398/83
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 14/0204 Broadcast and select arrangements, e.g. with an optical splitter at the input before adding or dropping
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 14/0205 Select and combine arrangements, e.g. with an optical combiner at the output after adding or dropping
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 14/0206 Express channels arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 14/0212 using optical switches or wavelength selective switches [WSS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 14/0217 Multi-degree architectures, e.g. having a connection degree greater than two
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 14/0227 Operation, administration, maintenance or provisioning [OAMP] of WDM networks, e.g. media access, routing or wavelength allocation
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 14/0232 for downstream transmission
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 14/029 Dedicated protection at the optical multiplex section (1+1)
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 14/0291 Shared protection at the optical multiplex section (1:1, n:m)
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 14/0297 Optical equipment protection
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 11/0005 Switch and router aspects
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2011/0009 using wavelength filters
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2011/0015 using splitting combining
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2011/0081 Fault tolerance; Redundancy; Recovery; Reconfigurability

Abstract

Optical node (1) comprising at least one input port (PA, PC, PE) and a plurality of output ports (PB, PD, PF), at least one add unit (3B, 3D, 3F) for adding at least one signal on an output port (PB, PD, PF), a broadcasting unit (8) for broadcasting on at least two output ports (PB, PD, PF) the express traffic received on an input port (PA, PC, PE), characterised in that the broadcasting unit (8) is configured for broadcasting at least one added signal on at least two output ports (PB, PD, PF).

Claims

1. Optical node (1) comprising at least one input port (PA, PC, PE), and a plurality of output ports (PB, PD, PF), each output port of the optical node arranged downstream of an output port of a wavelength switch (5B, 5D, 5F), each said wavelength switch having a plurality of input ports and operating as a controlled multiplexer for forming an output signal by combining wavelength channels selected among the optical signals received on the input ports of the wavelength switch, said optical node comprising a broadcasting unit (8) for broadcasting on at least two wavelength switches (5B, 5D, 5F) corresponding to at least two output ports of the optical node (PB, PD, PF) an express traffic received on said at least one input port (PA, PC, PE), characterised in that said optical node comprises at least one add unit (3B, 3D, 3F) for adding at least one signal on an output port (PB, PD, PF) and in that the broadcasting unit (8) is configured for broadcasting at least one added signal from said at least one add unit on at least two wavelength switches (5B, 5D, 5F) arranged upstream of at least two output ports (PB, PD, PF) of the optical node.

2. Optical node according to claim 1 characterised in that it comprises at least one drop unit (2A, 2C, 2E) for dropping an incoming signal and a corresponding wavelength blocker (4A, 4C, 4E) for blocking the signal to be dropped and to let go through the express traffic.

3. Optical node according to claim 1, characterised in that the broadcasting unit (8) is configured for combining said express traffic with a corresponding added traffic and for broadcasting the combined traffic to each said wavelength switch (5B, 5D, 5F).

4. Optical node according to claim 1, characterised in that the broadcasting unit (8) is configured for broadcasting said express traffic to each said wavelength switch (5B, 5D, 5F) and for broadcasting said at least one added signal to each said wavelength switch (5B, 5D, 5F).

5. Optical node according to claim 3, characterised in that it comprises optical couplers (9).

6. Optical node according to claim 1, characterised in that the broadcasting unit (8) is comprised of a plurality of optical couplers (9).

7. Optical node according to claim 1, characterised in that the broadcasting unit (8) is located between said output ports of the wavelength switches (5B, 5D, 5F) and the output ports (PB, PD, PF) of the optical node and is configured for connecting the output port of at least one of the wavelength switches (5B, 5D, 5F) to input ports of at least two other wavelength switches (5B, 5D, 5F).

8. Optical node according to claim 1, characterised in that it comprises 2×

N wavelength switches (12A, 12B, 12C), each 2×

N wavelength switch for receiving an incoming traffic from one input port (PA, PC, PE) and the corresponding added traffic from add unit (3B, 3D, 3F) and for supplying the express traffic and the added traffic to each output port (5B, 5D, 5F).