Patent ID: 6195367
Filing Date: 2001-02-27
Classification: H04J,H04Q,Y10S

Abstract:
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; andan 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.