TECHNIQUE FOR REMOTE POWER FEEDING IN ACCESS NETWORKS

• US 20130169042A1
• Filed: 12/28/2011
• Published: 07/04/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 12/30/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ECI Telecom Limited (Shaul Shani)
• Original Assignee: ECI Telecom Limited (Shaul Shani)
• Inventors: MELAMED, Amitay
• Granted Patent: US 8,963,367 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 307/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 10/806 Arrangements for feeding power
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 3/44 Arrangements for feeding power to a repeater along the transmission line
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 14/0246 using one wavelength per ONU
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 14/025 using one wavelength per ONU, e.g. for transmissions from-ONU-to-OLT or from-ONU-to-ONU
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 14/0282 WDM tree architectures
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/10 Current supply arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2856 Access arrangements, e.g. Internet access asynchronous transfer mode networks H04L12/5601; broadband local area networks H04L12/2801; optical access or distribution networks H04Q11/0067; access to open networks H04L12/5691; digital subscriber line end-user equipment and bit-level processing of data on a PSTN-based network H04M11/00; home network gateways H04L12/2834; wireless access networks H04W
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 19/08 with current supply sources at the substations generating ringing current H04M19/04

Abstract

A technique for power feeding of a common element of an access network from subscribers of the access network connected to the common element through subscriber lines being electric wires or optical fibers, the method comprises providing the subscribers with respective local power sources, and powering the common element from the one or more local power sources by selectively and/or dynamically combining power conducted there-from through the subscriber lines, thereby allowing at least partial operation of the common element.

Claims

1. A method for power feeding of a common element of an access network from a first plurality of subscribers/customers of the access network connected to the common element through subscriber lines such as electric wires or optical fibers, the method comprises:

providing the first plurality of the subscribers with respective local power sources, selecting a second plurality of subscribers from among said first plurality of subscribers and powering the common element from said local power sources of the second plurality of subscribers by selectively and/or dynamically combining power conducted there-from through their respective subscriber lines, thereby allowing at least partial operation of the common element.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the selection of the second plurality of subscribers and/or said combining of the power is performed based on a predetermined set of criteria and rules for selection the local power sources.

3. The method according to claim 1, further comprising charging of one or more specific local batteries and/or powering of one or more specific subscribers using the combined power.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the common element is a bidirectional block of optical amplifiers serving the subscribers of an optical access network via optical fibers, and wherein said subscribers are provided with respective local batteries and lasers for transmitting power to the common element:

at respective optical wavelengths;

the method comprises combining power received from the subscribers at the common element and powering the optical amplifiers using the combined power.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the common element is an access node, the subscribers are connected to the access node via subscriber lines, the method comprises providing the access node with a control unit capable of dynamically selecting the second plurality of said subscribers with their local power sources for combining power being drawn there-from to the common element, according to the preliminarily determined set of rules and criteria.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein the access network comprises two or more said subscriber lines being DSL lines, each provided with customer termination equipment at one end, and at the other end connected to the common access node;

the method comprises;

providing the customer termination equipment of one or more of said DSL lines with respective said one or more local power sources;

in case of absence of power at the access node, powering it from said one or more local power sources, to allow operation of said access node;

while

dynamically selecting one or more of said local power sources for feeding the access node there-from, and dynamically selecting DSL lines among said two or more DSL lines to be provided with traffic service from the access node in said case, according to said preliminarily determined set of rules and criteria.

7. The method according to claim 1, further comprising utilizing the combined power from the common element for charging one or more local power sources being batteries and/or for powering terminal equipment of one or more of the subscriber lines from the common element.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein the predetermined set of rules comprises one or more of the following rules:

dynamically selecting the local power sources being batteries for feeding the common element according to available power of said batteries;

dynamically changing status of services provided to subscriber lines from the common element;

dynamically selecting a charging regime of the subscriber lines from the common element, according to status of the local power sources and/or status/priority of said lines.

12. A software product comprising computer implementable instructions and/or data for carrying out the method according to claim 1, stored on an appropriate non-transitory computer readable storage medium so that the software is capable of enabling operations of the method when used in a computer system.

9. A method for power feeding of a network element in an optical access network from one or more network subscribers connected to said element through respective subscriber lines being optical fibers, the method comprises providing said one or more network subscribers with respective local power sources, and powering the network element from said one or more local power sources by power drawn there-from upstream in the network through said optical fibers, thereby allowing at least partial operation of the network element.

10. (canceled)

11. A common node for an access network comprising a first plurality of subscribers provided with local power sources, the common node being capable of selecting a second plurality of subscribers from among the first plurality of subscribers and controllably drawing power via respective subscriber lines of the second plurality of subscribers of the access network, for powering itself and at least partially maintaining its operation.