Patent ID: 8989197
Filing Date: 2015-03-24
Classification: H04L,H04Q

Abstract:
1. A method for optical communication with a submarine optical network, comprising: receiving an input signal from a terminal at a reconfigurable branching unit (BU), wherein the BU enables bidirectional transmission between any two terminals; demultiplexing the input signal into at least one individual waveband using at least one demultiplexer; passing each demultiplexed waveband through two or more 2×2 optical switches, with two or more corresponding 2×2 optical switches for the same demultiplexed waveband provided for transmission in the reverse direction, wherein the optical switches are interlinked, operate concurrently, and have the same switching state; performing independent per-waveband switching using a demultiplexer-switch-multiplexer (DSM) architecture; and multiplexing each demultiplexed waveband at each output port using at least one multiplexer to combine signals from different sources, and transmitting combined signals to a destination terminal; signal switching and dummy light reuse with an interconnected bidirectional architecture and a dual fiber pair between the BU and the branch terminal that allows spectrum reuse between two trunk terminal to branch terminal paths, wherein the dummy light enables amplifier power balancing; and switching waveband to reduce hardware and enables flexible grid network operation with a uniform loss that offers automatic optical power equalization.