Patent ID: 8009959

Claim:
A method of configuring first and second optical interconnection assemblies for connecting, in a polarity-preserving manner, first or second multi-fiber active assemblies to a fiber optic cable in a high-speed data-rate optical transport system, the method comprising: a) defining active-assembly-wise and cable-wise connector ports for the first and second assemblies, wherein the first and second cable-wise ports correspond via the fiber optic cable; b) determining or establishing a pairing method between the active-assembly-wise ports of the first and second assemblies based on preserving polarity between corresponding transmit ports { 0 T, 01 T, . . . 23 T} and receive ports { 0 R, 01 R, . . . 23 R} of the first and second assemblies, wherein the pairing method comprises: determining a group of two or more transmit ports and a group of two or more receive ports for the active-assembly-wise ports, determining a group of two or more transmit ports and a group of two or more receive ports for the cable-wise-connector ports, and determining whether a group of active assembly-wise ports is directly facing a group of cable-wise ports; c) optically connecting in the first assembly one of the groups of active-assembly-wise ports to one of the groups of the cable-wise ports as a first set of connected ports, wherein the fibers in the first set are flipped if the group of active-assembly-wise ports in the first set are not directly facing the group of cable-wise-connector ports in the first set, and wherein the fibers in the first set are not flipped if the group of active-assembly-wise ports in the first set are directly facing the group of cable-wise-connector ports in the first set; d) optically connecting in the second assembly one of the groups of cable-wise-connector ports to one of the groups of active-assembly-wise ports as a second set of connected ports, wherein the group of cable-wise-connector ports in the first set correspond to the group of assembly-wise ports in the second set, and wherein the fibers in the second set are flipped if the group of active-assembly-wise ports in the second set are not directly facing the group of cable-wise-connector ports in the second set, and wherein the fibers in the second set are not flipped if the group of active-assembly-wise ports in the second set are directly facing the group of cable-wise-connector ports in the second set; e) performing acts c) and d) in the opposite direction from the second assembly to the first assembly; and f) repeating acts c) through e) for the remaining unconnected assembly ports.