Patent ID: 6895189

Claim:
A system for providing optical synchronization signals to a telecommunications network comprising: a central synchronization management unit for distributing optical synchronization signals, and at least one synchronization distribution unit adapted to receive said optical synchronization signals and to distribute the signals to at least one network element, each of said at least one synchronization distribution units including: a passive optical input port adapted to receive said optical synchronization signals and to split each received optical synchronization signal into a first optical synchronization signal, which is communicated to an optical output of said synchronization distribution unit, and a second optical synchronization signal to be communicated to an active optical input port of the synchronization distribution unit; and said active optical input port configured to receive optical synchronization signals from said passive optical input port and from the output t of a passive optical input port of a previous synchronization distribution unit, if any, and to select one of said received optical synchronization signals to communicate to an included clock recovery system configured to perform clock recovery on said selected optical synchronization signal.