Patent ID: 8718465

Claim:
An optical communications system, comprising: a central office having a MSAP (multi-service access and aggregation platform) comprising a main chassis; an optical compartment at the MSAP and separate from the main chassis and supporting N optical transceivers; N electronic modules supported by the main chassis, and wherein each of said optical transceivers are operative with a respective electronic module in one-to-one relation such that a respective one electronic module controls a respective one optical transceiver; P redundant electronic modules supported by the main chassis; an electronic switch matrix connected between said optical transceivers and said N and P electronic modules and configured to provide cross-connect capability between the P redundant electronic modules and N electronic modules to the N optical transceivers; and a system controller connected to said N and P electronic modules and electronic switch matrix and configured to poll each of the N electronic modules for status of operation and determine when an active N electronic module has failed, wherein the system controller configures the electronic switch matrix to switch a P redundant electronic module into the optical transceiver to which the failed N electronic module was connected, and further comprising a system switch module connected to the system controller and configured to redirect traffic and routing information under the direction of the system controller from a failed module to a newly activated redundant module so that the redundant module assumes the functionality of the failed module.