METHODS AND SYSTEMS RELATING TO OPTICAL NETWORKS

• US 20170019168A1
• Filed: 03/10/2015
• Published: 01/19/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 03/10/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AEPONYX inc.
• Original Assignee: AEPONYX inc.
• Inventors: BERARD, MARTIN, MENARD, FRANCOIS
• Granted Patent: US 10,454,572 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 6/29395 configurable, e.g. tunable or reconfigurable switching G02B6/35
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 6/3584 constructional details of an associated actuator having a MEMS construction, i.e. constructed using semiconductor technology such as etching MEMS per se B81B, B81C
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 10/071 using a reflected signal, e.g. using optical time domain reflectometers [OTDR]
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 10/40 Transceivers
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 14/00 Optical multiplex systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 14/021 Reconfigurable arrangements, e.g. reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexers [ROADM] or tunable optical add/drop multiplexers [TOADM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 14/0212 using optical switches or wavelength selective switches [WSS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 14/0213 Groups of channels or wave bands arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 14/0267 Optical signaling or routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 14/0275 using an optical service channel
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 14/0278 WDM optical network architectures
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 11/00 Selecting arrangements for multiplex systems multiplex systems H04J
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 11/0001 using optical switching
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 11/0005 Switch and router aspects
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 11/0066 Provisions for optical burst or packet networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2011/0009 using wavelength filters
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2011/0016 using wavelength multiplexing or demultiplexing
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2011/0018 using tunable transmitters or receivers
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2011/003 using switches based on microelectro-mechanical systems [MEMS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2011/0083 Testing; Monitoring

Abstract

Data center interconnections, which encompass WSCs as well as traditional data centers, have become both a bottleneck and a cost/power issue for cloud computing providers, cloud service providers and the users of the cloud generally. Fiber optic technologies already play critical roles in data center operations and will increasingly in the future. The goal is to move data as fast as possible with the lowest latency with the lowest cost and the smallest space consumption on the server blade and throughout the network. Accordingly, it would be beneficial for new fiber optic interconnection architectures to address the traditional hierarchal time-division multiplexed (TDM) routing and interconnection and provide reduced latency, increased flexibility, lower cost, lower power consumption, and provide interconnections exploiting N×M×D Gbps photonic interconnects wherein N channels are provided each carrying M wavelength division signals at D Gbps.

Claims

1. A device comprising:

a pluggable optic housing;

a pair of optical connectors or pigtails coupled to a receiver and a transmitter position allowing the daisy-chaining of multiple instances of the device as well as point to point connectivity between two instances of the device onto two fibers; and

a tunable optical wavelength selective circuit comprising a plurality of wavelength selective filters and a rotatable microoptoelectromechanical system (MOEMS) for selecting a wavelength selective filter of the plurality of wavelength selective filters to tune the tunable optical wavelength selective circuit.

2. The device according to claim 1, wherein at least one of:

the pluggable optic housing complies to a predetermined standard for a transceiver; and

the pair of optical connectors are combined onto a single fiber via a coupler allowing for single fiber point to point connectivity between two instances of the device.

3. The device according to claim 1 further comprising;

at least one of;

an optical filter for at least one of combining and separating optical signals within a first predetermined wavelength range the one of with and from optical signals within a second predetermined wavelength range, wherein the optical signals to the receiver and the optical signals from the transmitter are coupled to and from the device onto a single fiber via at least one of a single receptacle and a single optical pigtail; and

a filterless pass-through interface between the tunable wavelength selective circuit for a gridless overlay channel.

4. The device according to claim 1, wherein

the tunable optical wavelength selective circuit is used as at least one of a tunable reflective filter for a selected wavelength, a tunable reflective filter for a group of selected wavelengths, and as a transmissive filter for all wavelengths not filtered.

5. The device according to claim 1 wherein

the tunable optical wavelength selective circuit is coupled to an external non-sequential demultiplexer comprised of one or more networks of non-sequential transmissive optical filters selected according to a predefined wavelength plan and optionally daisy-chained through circulators and interconnected to photodiodes at each junction of a circulator and of a network of transmissive optical filters.

6. The device according to claim 5 wherein

at least one of:

the non-sequential demultiplexer is monolithically integrated on silicon with the tunable optical wavelength selective circuit and the photodiodes; and

the photodiodes are monolithically integrated on silicon with the tunable optical wavelength selective circuit.

7. The device according to claim 1, wherein

the tunable optical wavelength selective circuit is used to implement a transmissive selectable optical filter with the addition of a multiplexer and an inline optical amplifier without an add function of one or more optical channels.

8. The device according to claim 1, wherein

the tunable optical wavelength selective circuit at least one of:

forms part of a tunable optical transmitter; and

has at least one of a multiplexer or combiner coupled to its output for combining with other outputs of other tunable optical wavelength selective circuits.

9. The device according to claim 1, wherein

the device forms part of a ROADM node of a plurality of ROADM nodes where each ROADM node is capable of tuning to the same channel thereby enabling a wavelength or a group of wavelengths to be broadcast to the one or more ROADM nodes by configuring a tunable optical wavelength selective circuit within a node to tune to the same wavelength or group of wavelengths as another tunable optical wavelength selective circuit within a daisy chain of tunable optical wavelength selective circuits forming the plurality of ROADMs.

10. The device according to claim 9, wherein

at least one of:

each ROADM comprises a pluggable optic housing and a pair of optical connectors or pigtails coupled to a receiver and a transmitter position allowing the daisy-chaining of multiple instances of the device as well as point to point connectivity between two instances of the device onto two fibers; and

the tunable optical wavelength selective circuit within each ROADM comprises a plurality of wavelength selective filters and a rotatable microoptoelectromechanical system (MOEMS) for selecting a wavelength selective filter of the plurality of wavelength selective filters to tune the tunable optical wavelength selective circuit.

11. The device according to claim 9, wherein

the tunable optical wavelength selective circuit within each ROADM is instructed to tune to at least one of a wavelength and a group of wavelengths via an optical supervisory optical beacon operating under software defined networking orchestration by way of at least one of a software defined network protocol and another standard protocol.

12. A system comprising:

a plurality of serially connected reconfigurable optical add-drop multiplexers (ROADMs), each ROADM providing for the addition of a first predetermined number of wavelength channels to a link within an optical network to which the ROADMs are connected and the subtraction of a second predetermined number of wavelength channels from the link of the optical network to which the ROADM is connected;

wherein

each ROADM is configured upon determination of its position within the plurality of serially connected ROADMs; and

each ROADM comprises a tunable optical wavelength selective circuit comprising a plurality of wavelength selective filters and a rotatable microoptoelectromechanical system (MOEMS) for selecting a wavelength selective filter of the plurality of wavelength selective filters to tune the tunable optical wavelength selective circuit.

13. The system according to claim 12, wherein

the first predetermined number of wavelength channels and the second predetermined number of wavelength channels are within a same predetermined band of wavelengths, the band of wavelengths representing a third predetermined number of sequential wavelengths supported by the optical network.

14. The system according to claim 12, wherein

each of the wavelength channels is at least one of:

added to the link is generated by a tunable optical source of a plurality of tunable optical sources within each ROADM; and

initially separated from the link with a tunable band filter and then separated from the remainder of the second predetermined number of wavelength channels within the band.

15. The system according to claim 12, wherein

each of the wavelength channels added to the link is generated using a MEMS based tunable optical source employing a rotatable microoptoelectromechanical system (MOEMS) element selecting a predetermined optical waveguide filter of a plurality of optical waveguide filters;

and

each of the wavelength channels subtracted from the link is extracted at least in part using a MEMS based tunable filter employing a rotatable microoptoelectromechanical system (MOEMS) element selecting a predetermined optical waveguide filter of a plurality of optical waveguide filters.

16. A system comprising:

a plurality of nodes, each node of the plurality of nodes being connected to M subsequent sequential nodes via a wavelength division multiplexed link comprising at least M wavelengths, wherein

each node of the plurality of nodes is connected to the next N^th node via the N^th wavelength of the at least M wavelengths; and

employs a reconfigurable optical add-drop switch employing a plurality of tunable optical wavelength selective circuits, each tunable optical wavelength selective circuit comprising a plurality of wavelength selective filters and a rotatable microoptoelectromechanical system (MOEMS) for selecting a wavelength selective filter of the plurality of wavelength selective filters to tune the tunable optical wavelength selective circuit.

17. The system according to claim 16, wherein

the plurality of nodes are arranged in at least one of:

a ring network; and

in a ring network comprising either N or N+1 nodes and the wavelength dependent interconnections are such that the network acts as concurrently implemented set of chordal networks having chord lengths 1 to N.

18. A system comprising:

a MEMS based latching 1×

N optical switch employing a rotatable microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) element;

M optical sources, each optical source operating within a predetermined wavelength range;

at least one optical time domain reflectometry (OTDR) signal;

M optical couplers, each optical coupler to overlay an OTDR signal to the M optical sources to a predetermined output of the N outputs of the 1×

N optical switch; and

a controller for determining whether to change the state of the MEMS based latching 1×

N optical switch in dependence upon at least the OTDR signals from the M optical sources.

19. The system according to claim 18, further comprising;

a remote node comprising;

a 1×

N optical switch;

N optical couplers, each optical coupler for extracting an optical supervisory signal from optical link of N optical links;

N optical detectors, each optical detector coupled to a predetermined optical coupler of the N optical couplers; and

a controller for determining whether to change the state of the 1×

N optical switch in dependence upon at least the signals from the N optical detectors.

20. A device comprising:

a transceiver body, the body having an external physical geometry compliant to a predetermined optical transceiver standard;

a reconfigurable optical add-drop switch employing a plurality of tunable optical wavelength selective circuits, each tunable optical wavelength selective circuit comprising a plurality of wavelength selective filters and a rotatable microoptoelectromechanical system (MOEMS) for selecting a wavelength selective filter of the plurality of wavelength selective filters to tune the tunable optical wavelength selective circuit; and

an optical amplifier;

wherein

the reconfigurable optical add-drop switch and optical amplifier are packaged within the transceiver body.

21. The device according to claim 20, wherein

the optical amplifier is selected from the group comprising a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA), a quantum well SOA, a quantum dot SOA, and a quantum dash SOA.

22. A device comprising:

a polarization independent amplifier comprising;

a polarization splitter to split an incoming optical signal into TE and TM polarization components;

a polarization rotator to rotate the TM polarization to TE;

a pair of semiconductor optical amplifiers to amplify the pair of TE optical signals; and

a combiner to combine the pair of outputs from the pair of semiconductor optical amplifiers; and

a reconfigurable optical add-drop module for dropping and adding a predetermined band of wavelengths from a plurality of bands of optical wavelengths employing a plurality of tunable optical wavelength selective circuits, each tunable optical wavelength selective circuit comprising a plurality of wavelength selective filters and a rotatable microoptoelectromechanical system (MOEMS) for selecting a wavelength selective filter of the plurality of wavelength selective filters to tune the tunable optical wavelength selective circuit.

23. The device according to claim 22, wherein

at least one of:

the polarization independent amplifier amplifies the bands of optical signals passed through the reconfigurable optical add-drop module; and

the polarization independent amplifier is disposed at least one of to amplify the bands of optical signals passed through the reconfigurable optical add-drop module, amplify an output of the reconfigurable optical add-drop module, and amplify an input to the reconfigurable optical add-drop module.

24. A device comprising:

a transceiver body, the body having an external physical geometry compliant to a predetermined optical transceiver standard

a MEMS based latching 1×

N optical switch employing a rotatable microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) element;

a micro-controller integrated in the transceiver body for controlling the 1×

N optical switch;

wherein

the input of the 1×

N optical switch is for coupling to a first optical transceiver via at least one of a connectorised interface on the device and a fiber pigtail;

the N outputs of the 1×

N optical switch are for coupling to N second optical transceivers via at least one of connectorised interfaces on the device and fiber pigtails.

25. The device according to claim 24, wherein

the device has a single common multiple fiber connectorised interface for the input and output connectorised interfaces.

26. The device according to claim 24, wherein

the device includes and optical time domain reflectometer comprising at least an optical source operating out of band to the optical transceivers coupled to the device, a pulse generator for generating the control pulses to the optical source, and an analyser for establishing the reflected optical signal characteristics, wherein

based upon the reflected optical signal characteristics the micro-controller establishes the switching state of the 1×

N optical switch.