Patent ID: 7325976

Claim:
A connector system comprising: a set of optical plugs, each optical plug having a housing and a ferrule, said housing having a front and back orientation and having a front face defining an opening, said ferrule being disposed within said opening, said housing defining a first keying element on said front face around said opening, said first keying element for said each optical plug of said set of optical plugs being different; and a set of optical receptacles, each receptacle having an opening to receive said plug and a ferrule-receiving portion to receive said ferrule, said ferrule-receiving portion defining a second keying element to cooperate with said first keying element, said second keying element for said each receptacle of said set of said optical receptacles being different and being adapted to cooperate with one and only one of said first keying elements, wherein plugs and receptacles having keying elements that cooperate are mating pairs; wherein each plug and receptacle of a mating pair is marked with a matching visual identification different from plugs and receptacles having different first and second geometries, said visual identification being at least one of color, alphanumerical indicia, or symbol.