Patent ID: 8270830
Filing Date: 2012-09-18
Classification: H04Q

Abstract:
1. A system comprising: a set of r leaf switches comprising one of n and 2n physical connection channels per leaf switch; a set of full duplex optical leaf ports, wherein each optical leaf port of the set of optical leaf ports is connected to a leaf switch and comprises a plurality of physical connection channels; a set of m spine switches comprising p physical connection channels per spine switch such that m=r*n/p, wherein the leaf switches in the set of r leaf switches are identical to each other and to each spine switch in the set of m spine switches; a set of full duplex optical spine ports, wherein each spine port of the set of optical spine ports is connected to a spine switch and comprises a plurality of physical connection channels; each leaf switch comprising at least one parallel multi-channel electro-optical transceiver optically connected to the optical leaf ports and electrically connected to an electronic switching device; each spine switch comprising at least one parallel multi-channel electro-optical transceiver optically connected to the optical spine ports and electrically connected to an electronic switching device; and an optical cluster fabric (OCF) comprising a plurality of multi-fiber connectors and a plurality of fiber ribbon cables that connect each of the plurality of leaf switches to at least two of the spine switches according to a Clos network structure, each fiber ribbon cable comprising at least p/r parallel fiber optic lines.