Patent ID: 11967994

Abstract:
An optical transceiver includes a built-in optical switch to switch between diverse fiber paths in switches in a datacenter or in switches between two datacenters. The built-in optical switch can be used to switch between racks in a datacenter to increase capacity for any rack that requests it. A controller, which receives a signal from a server computer in one of the racks, can be external to the optical transceiver or within the optical transceiver. In either case, the server computer can be provided with additional bandwidth when needed. For connections between datacenters, the built-in optical switch allows for optical line protection, but without the need for a splitter circuit, which incurs a significant power loss and requires a more expensive transceiver. Consequently, the built-in optical switch within an optical transceiver can be used in a variety of contexts to increase efficiency and reduce overall costs for network devices.