INTRANODAL ROADM FIBER MANAGEMENT APPARATUSES, SYSTEMS, AND METHODS

• US 20150055952A1
• Filed: 08/25/2014
• Published: 02/26/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 08/26/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Coriant Operations, Inc. (Infinera Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Tellabs Operations Incorporated (Infinera Corp.)
• Inventors: Wang, Yajun, Larikova, Julia Y., Kangas, Bradley R., Younce, Richard Y.
• Granted Patent: US 9,819,436 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 398/48
• 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 14/0212 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

Abstract

An intranodal reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexer (ROADM) fiber management apparatus, and a system employing the apparatus. The apparatus comprises a plurality of ingress optical ports, a plurality of egress optical ports, and a plurality of optical interconnections interposed between ones of the plurality of ingress optical ports and ones of the plurality of egress optical ports. Each of the plurality of ingress optical ports corresponds to one of the plurality of egress optical ports. Each one of the plurality of ingress optical ports is optically coupled by way of the optical interconnections to at least one of the plurality of egress optical ports. Each one of the plurality of egress optical ports is optically coupled by way of the optical interconnections to at least one of the plurality of ingress optical ports.

Claims

1. An intranodal reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexer (ROADM) fiber management apparatus, comprising:

a plurality of ingress optical ports;

a plurality of egress optical ports, wherein each of the plurality of ingress optical ports corresponds to one of the plurality of egress optical ports; and

a plurality of optical interconnections interposed between ones of the plurality of ingress optical ports and ones of the plurality of egress optical ports,

wherein, each one of the plurality of ingress optical ports is optically coupled by way of the optical interconnections to at least one of the plurality of egress optical ports, and each one of the plurality of egress optical ports is optically coupled by way of the optical interconnections to at least one of the plurality of ingress optical ports.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein, for each one of the plurality of ingress optical ports, the one of the plurality of ingress optical ports is optically coupled by way of the optical interconnections to each one of the plurality of egress optical ports, excluding one of the plurality of egress optical ports that corresponds to the one of the plurality of ingress optical ports.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the apparatus is housed in a single rack-mountable enclosure, the enclosure including a plurality of ingress optical connectors by which respective ones of the plurality of ingress optical ports are accessible, and a plurality of egress optical connectors by which respective ones of the plurality of egress optical ports are accessible.

4. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the plurality of optical interconnections is comprised of a plurality of topology modules including at least one of a mesh topology module and a star topology module.

5. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein a contiguous group of ones of the plurality of ingress optical connectors is coupled, by way of the mesh topology module, to ones of the plurality of egress optical connectors that are adjacently arranged in the enclosure, and wherein at least one of the plurality of ingress optical connectors and a corresponding at least one of the plurality of egress optical connectors are terminated at a common termination.

6. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein a group of ones of the plurality of ingress optical connectors is coupled, by way of the star topology module, to a group of ones of the plurality of egress optical connectors, wherein at least one pair of corresponding ones of the optical ingress connectors and the optical egress connectors that is not included in the star topology module is interposed in the enclosure between the group of ones of the plurality of ingress optical connectors and the group of ones of the plurality of egress optical connectors.

7. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the enclosure includes one or more vacant slots that can accommodate one or more additional topology modules.

8. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein individual ones of the plurality of ingress optical connectors correspond to respective ones of the plurality of egress optical connectors.

9. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the plurality of optical interconnections is comprised of a plurality of topology modules including at least one of a mesh topology module or a star topology module, and wherein each of the plurality of topology modules is coupled to at least one of (1) a contiguous group of adjacent ones of the plurality of ingress optical connectors and (2) a contiguous group of adjacent ones of the plurality of egress optical connectors.

10. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of ingress optical ports includes a plurality of ingress optical fibers, and each of the plurality of egress optical ports includes a plurality of egress optical fibers.

11. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein a total number of the plurality of optical ingress ports included in the apparatus is equal to a total number of the plurality of optical egress ports included in the apparatus.

12. An intranodal reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexer (ROADM) fiber management system, comprising:

a line subsystem including a plurality of line degree modules,

an add/drop subsystem including a plurality of add/drop modules,

a plurality of local transponders, and

a fiber management apparatus,

wherein one or more of the plurality of line degree modules is communicatively coupled to one or more of the local transponders by way of the fiber management apparatus and one or more of the add/drop subsystems.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the fiber management apparatus comprises:

a plurality of ingress optical ports;

a plurality of egress optical ports, wherein each of the plurality of ingress optical ports corresponds to one of the plurality of egress optical ports; and

a plurality of optical interconnections interposed between ones of the plurality of ingress optical ports and ones of the plurality of egress optical ports,

wherein, each one of the plurality of ingress optical ports is optically coupled by way of the optical interconnections to at least one of the plurality of egress optical ports, and each one of the plurality of egress optical ports is optically coupled by way of the optical interconnections to at least one of the plurality of ingress optical ports.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein the plurality of line degree modules include at least one of (1) a broadcast-and-select line degree module that includes a splitter and a select wavelength selective switch (WSS) and (2) a route-and-select line degree module that includes a route WSS and a select WSS.

15. The system of claim 12, wherein the plurality of add/drop modules includes at least one of (1) a colorless, directionless, and contentionless (CDC) add/drop module having an erbium-doped fiber amplifier and a multicast switch and (2) a low port count (LPC) CDC add/drop module.

16. The system of claim 12, further comprising at least one expansion fiber management apparatus, wherein one or more of the plurality of line degree modules is communicatively coupled to one or more of the local transponders by way of the fiber management apparatus, the expansion fiber management apparatus, and one or more of the add/drop subsystems.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the expansion fiber management apparatus includes a plurality of expansion line degree modules, the a plurality of expansion line degree modules including at least one of (1) a broadcast-and-select expansion line degree module that includes a splitter and a select wavelength selective switch (WSS) and (2) a route-and-select expansion line degree module that includes a route WSS and a select WSS.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the fiber management apparatus is housed in a first rack-mountable enclosure, and the expansion fiber management apparatus is housed in a second rack-mountable enclosure.

19. The system of claim 12, wherein at least two of (1) one or more of the plurality of line degree modules, (2) one or more of the plurality of add/drop modules, (3) one or more of the plurality of local transponders, and (4) the fiber management apparatus are optical coupled to one another by way of one or more optical ribbon cables.

20. The system of claim 12, wherein the system is coupled to an optical network by way of at least one wavelength division multiplexed path.