Patent ID: 9602897
Date: 2017-03-21
CPC Classifications: G02B,H04B,H04Q

Claim:
1. A cable assembly comprising: at least a first optical fiber extending from a first end to a second end; an active optical module (AOM) attached to the first end of the first optical fiber using a non-connector based connection, the active optical module including an electrical connector, the active optical module configured to convert between electrical signals to/from the electrical connector and optical signals to/from the first end of the first optical fiber, the active optical module including a first storage device that is electrically connected to the electrical connector; a second connector for the second end of the first optical fiber; and a second storage device associated with the second end of the first optical fiber; wherein the first storage device includes a cable identifier stored therein identifying the cable assembly and an AOM identifier stored therein identifying the AOM, wherein the AOM identifier is for authenticating the AOM to the host device and the cable identifier is for physical layer management, wherein the cable identifier is stored in memory locations of the first storage device that are not used for AOM information; wherein the second storage device includes the cable identifier stored therein; whereby an aggregation point can associate a first port to which the electrical connector of the active optical module is inserted with a second port to which the second connector is inserted by determining that the first port has an electrical connector of an active optical module inserted therein that is associated with the cable identifier, and by determining that the second port has a connector inserted therein that is associated with the cable identifier.