Patent ID: 8442401

Claim:
An unbundling optical line terminal, OLT, positioned between at least two service providers, SPs, and an optical distribution network, ODN, the unbundling OLT comprising: a first line card, a backplane; and a first uplink card, wherein the first uplink card is coupled by the backplane to the first line card; wherein the first line card includes a multi-channel transmitter-receiver array and a plurality of layer 1 , L 1 , switches, wherein the multi-channel transmitter-receiver array has a first side coupled to a first set of one or more ODN fibers associated with the ODN and a second side coupled to the plurality of L 1 switches, wherein each L 1 switch has one port on a first side connected to a port associated with one of the channels on the multi-channel transmitter-receiver array, and wherein each L 1 switch has multiple ports on a second side coupled to the backplane; and wherein the first uplink card is dedicated to a first SP and is connected by a first uplink port and a first link to the first SP, wherein the first uplink card includes a layer 2 , L 2 , switch and an optical interface module, OIM, wherein the OIM has a first side connected to the first uplink port which is coupled via the first link to the first SP, wherein the OIM has a second side connected to a first side of the L 2 switch, wherein the L 2 switch has multiple ports on a second side connected to the backplane such that one of the ports on the L 2 switch is coupled via the backplane to one of the multiple ports on the second side of one of the plurality of L 1 switches in the first line card, and wherein the first uplink port is shared among all of the channels on the multi-channel transmitter-receiver array which are supported by the first set of one or more ODN fibers.