Architectural arrangement for bandwidth management in large central offices
First Claim
1. An arrangement of communications network elements at a central office (CO), comprising:
- an optical layer of at least one network element, the element providing optical interfaces and optical space-switching, and the optical layer providing higher-rate optical switching between other elements in the CO;
an electrical layer of network elements, each element providing electrical interfaces and electrical space-switching, and the electrical layer connecting electrical links into the CO and providing electrical switching between elements in the CO; and
an opto-electrical layer of network elements, each element providing optical interfaces and electrical space-switching, and the opto-electrical layer connecting optical links into the CO, and being able to aggregate signals going to the optical layer into a lower number of higher-rate optical signals and to disaggregate signals coming from the optical layer into a higher number of lower-rate signals, connected to each other such that all signals flowing between the optical and electrical layers flow through the opto-electrical layer, wherein the network elements in the opto-electrical layer are divided into at least one group, and the network elements comprising each group are all connected to a common node within that group such that the common node is the only node that is directly connected to the optical layer, and signals flowing from one node in that group to another node in that same group can be switched within the common node without going through either the optical or electrical layers.
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Abstract
A new architectural arrangement for network elements deployed in a central office (CO) is disclosed. The architectural arrangement involves dividing the network elements into an optical layer comprised of elements that have optical signal interfaces and switch optical signals, an opto-electrical layer comprised of elements that have optical signal interfaces and switch electrical signals, and an electrical layer comprised of elements that have electrical signal interfaces and switch electrical signals. The opto-electrical layer connects the optical and the electrical layer, and also connects lower-rate optical links into the CO. This layered architectural arrangement allows for more efficient use to be made of the small number of high-rate ports supported in the optical layer, and for the off loading of switching responsibility from both the optical and the electrical layers. This, in turn, improves the overall performance and capacity of the CO. The opto-electrical layer can be implemented using known transport nodes that are only slightly modified for deployment within the CO environment.
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Citations
15 Claims
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1. An arrangement of communications network elements at a central office (CO), comprising:
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an optical layer of at least one network element, the element providing optical interfaces and optical space-switching, and the optical layer providing higher-rate optical switching between other elements in the CO;
an electrical layer of network elements, each element providing electrical interfaces and electrical space-switching, and the electrical layer connecting electrical links into the CO and providing electrical switching between elements in the CO; and
an opto-electrical layer of network elements, each element providing optical interfaces and electrical space-switching, and the opto-electrical layer connecting optical links into the CO, and being able to aggregate signals going to the optical layer into a lower number of higher-rate optical signals and to disaggregate signals coming from the optical layer into a higher number of lower-rate signals, connected to each other such that all signals flowing between the optical and electrical layers flow through the opto-electrical layer, wherein the network elements in the opto-electrical layer are divided into at least one group, and the network elements comprising each group are all connected to a common node within that group such that the common node is the only node that is directly connected to the optical layer, and signals flowing from one node in that group to another node in that same group can be switched within the common node without going through either the optical or electrical layers. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
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- 14. An arrangement of communications network elements for interconnecting a large number of input and output links that converge at a central office (CO) comprising at least one set of transport nodes that connects optical links into the CO, said set being connected to both a digital signal cross-connect (DCS) switch that links electrical links into the CO, and an optical signal cross-connect (OXC) switch that provides high-rate connections between any sets of transport nodes in the CO, and wherein each set is comprised of a plurality of Synchronous Optical Network (SONET) transport nodes interconnected such that there is within each set a common node that is connected to all the other nodes within the set and to the OXC switch, and such that none of the other nodes within the set are connected to the OXC switch.
Specification