COLORLESS, DIRECTIONLESS, CONTENTIONLESS, SPACELESS, AND FLEXIBLE GRID RECONFIGURABLE OPTICAL NODE

• US 20180063607A1
• Filed: 08/24/2016
• Published: 03/01/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 08/24/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: XIA, Tiejun J., WELLBROCK, Glenn A.
• Granted Patent: US 10,382,843 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 10/2581 Multimode transmission
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 14/0212 using optical switches or wavelength selective switches [WSS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 14/02122 Colourless, directionless or contentionless [CDC] arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 14/04 Mode multiplex systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 14/052 using multicore fibre mode multiplex systems H04J14/04
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 11/0001 using optical switching
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 11/0005 Switch and router aspects
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2011/0015 using splitting combining
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2011/0016 using wavelength multiplexing or demultiplexing
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2011/0024 using space switching
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2011/0039 Electrical control
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2011/0041 Optical control
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2011/0049 Crosstalk reduction; Noise; Power budget
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2011/0064 Arbitration, scheduling or medium access control aspects

Abstract

An optical node may include an optical switch and an optical add drop multiplexer (OADM). The optical switch may receive, via a space-division multiplexing (SDM) link that carries optical signals via multiple SDM elements, an optical signal to be switched from a first SDM element to a second SDM element. The multiple SDM elements may include multiple cores of a multi-core fiber, multiple modes of a multi-mode fiber, or multiple fibers of a fiber bundle. The optical switch may switch the optical signal from the first SDM element to the second SDM element. The OADM may add optical signals to an optical network or drop optical signals from the optical network via one or more SDM links that include the SDM link.

Claims

1. An optical switch, comprising:

one or more components to;

receive, via a space-division multiplexing (SDM) link that carries optical signals via multiple SDM elements, an optical signal to be switched from a first SDM element to a second SDM element,

the multiple SDM elements including at least one of;

multiple cores of a multi-core fiber,

multiple modes of a multi-mode fiber, or

multiple fibers of a fiber bundle; and

switch the optical signal from the first SDM element to the second SDM element.

2. The optical switch of claim 1, where the one or more components includes a plurality of collimators connected to the SDM link.

3. The optical switch of claim 2, where a quantity of the plurality of collimators connected to the SDM link corresponds to a quantity of the multiple SDM elements included in the SDM link.

4. The optical switch of claim 1, where the one or more components includes one or more switching elements to switch the optical signal from the first SDM element to the second SDM element.

5. The optical switch of claim 4, where the one or more switching elements have a size based on at least one of:

a quantity of the multiple SDM elements,

a quantity of channels per SDM element of the multiple SDM elements, or

a quantity of SDM links to which the optical switch is connected.

6. The optical switch of claim 5, where the one or more switching elements have a size based on the quantity of the multiple SDM elements, the quantity of channels per SDM element of the multiple SDM elements, and the quantity of SDM links to which the optical switch is connected.

7. The optical switch of claim 1, where the optical switch include includes a colorless, directionless, and contentionless (CDC) optical switch.

8. An optical add-drop multiplexer (OADM), comprising:

one or more components to;

receive, via a space-division multiplexing (SDM) link that carries multiple optical signals via multiple SDM elements, an optical signal to be provided to a transponder,

the multiple SDM elements including at least one of;

multiple cores of a multi-core fiber,

multiple modes of a multi-mode fiber, or

multiple fibers of a fiber bundle; and

provide the optical signal to the transponder.

9. The OADM of claim 8, where the one or more components include a selector switch to:

receive the multiple optical signals via the multiple SDM elements;

select the optical signal from the multiple optical signals; and

provide the optical signal to the transponder based on selecting the optical signal.

10. The OADM of claim 9, where the selector switch is further to:

block one or more other optical signals of the multiple optical signals.

11. The OADM of claim 8, where the one or more components include a plurality of power splitters;

and

where a quantity of the plurality of power splitters corresponds to a quantity of the multiple SDM elements.

12. The OADM of claim 8, where the one or more components include a power splitter to:

provide the optical signal to a plurality of transponder ports, including a transponder port of the transponder.

13. The OADM of claim 8, where a quantity of transponder ports of the transponder corresponds to a total quantity of SDM elements on all SDM links connected to the OADM.

14. The OADM of claim 8, where the OADM include includes a colorless, directionless, and contentionless (CDC) OADM.

15. An optical node, comprising:

an optical switch to;

receive, via a space-division multiplexing (SDM) link that carries optical signals via multiple SDM elements, an optical signal to be switched from a first SDM element to a second SDM element,

the multiple SDM elements including at least one of;

multiple cores of a multi-core fiber,

multiple modes of a multi-mode fiber, or

multiple fibers of a fiber bundle; and

switch the optical signal from the first SDM element to the second SDM element; and

an optical add-drop multiplexer (OADM) to;

add optical signals to an optical network or drop optical signals from the optical network via one or more SDM links that include the SDM link.

16. The optical node of claim 15, where the optical switch includes a plurality of collimators connected to the SDM link;

and

where a quantity of the plurality of collimators connected to the SDM link corresponds to a quantity of the multiple SDM elements included in the SDM link.

17. The optical node of claim 15, where the optical switch includes a switching element with a plurality of switching components;

and

where a quantity of the plurality of switching components corresponds to at least one of;

a quantity of the multiple SDM elements,

a quantity of channels per SDM element of the multiple SDM elements, or

a quantity of SDM links to which the optical switch is connected.

18. The optical node of claim 17, where the quantity of switching components is based on the quantity of the multiple SDM elements, the quantity of channels per SDM element of the multiple SDM elements, and the quantity of SDM links to which the optical switch is connected.

19. The optical node of claim 15, where the OADM includes a plurality of power splitters connected to the SDM link;

and

where a quantity of the plurality of power splitters connected to the SDM link corresponds to a quantity of the multiple SDM elements included in the SDM link.

20. The optical node of claim 15, where the OADM includes a plurality of transponder ports connected to a transponder of the OADM;

and

where a quantity of the plurality of transponder ports connected to the transponder corresponds to a total quantity of SDM elements on all SDM links connected to the OADM.

21. The optical node of claim 15, where the OADM includes a selector switch to selectively provide or block optical signals from different SDM elements of the SDM link.

22. The optical node of claim 15, where the optical node include includes a colorless, directionless, and contentionless (CDC) optical node.