Patent ID: 7182523

Claim:
In a family of connectors comprising a standard optical fiber plug and a standard optical fiber receptacle, a secure connector system for providing discriminating mating among secure and standard optical fiber plugs and optical fiber receptacles, said secure connector system comprising: at least a first optical fiber plug and a second optical fiber plug, said first optical fiber plug comprising a first key in a first position, said second optical fiber plug comprising a second key in a second position, said first and second positions being different, said first and said optical fiber plugs each comprising a secondary key, said secondary key being in the same relative position on said first and second optical fiber plugs, said first and second optical fiber plugs being physically the same except for the position of their respective key; wherein said first optical fiber plug is configured to mate with a first receptacle, said first optical fiber receptacle having a first slot in a first position and a secondary key, said first slot adapted to receive said first key and said secondary slot adapted to receive said secondary key to allow said first optical fiber plug to mate with said first optical fiber receptacle to form a mating pair, said first key interfering with a second optical fiber receptacle to prevent said first optical fiber plug from mating with said second optical fiber receptacle; wherein said second optical fiber plug is configured to mate with said second receptacle, said second receptacle having a second slot in a second position and a secondary key, said secondary slots of said first and second optical fiber receptacles being in the same relative position, said second slot being adapted to receive said second key and said secondary slot being adapted to receive said secondary key to allow said second optical fiber plug to mate with said second optical fiber receptacle to form a mating pair, said second key interfering with said first optical fiber receptacle to prevent said second optical fiber plug from mating with said first optical fiber receptacle; wherein said standard optical fiber plug does not have a secondary slot, and said standard optical fiber receptacle does not have a secondary key; and wherein said first and second keys of said first and second optical fiber plugs interfere with said standard optical fiber receptacle to prevent said first and second optical fiber plugs from mating with said standard optical fiber receptacle.