Tellabs Operations, Inc.

Dion Kwun Kit Leung

David W Jenkins

Ramasubramanian Anand

Kenneth M Fisher

Hector Ayala

Example embodiments of a method and corresponding apparatus for sharing protection resources in a reconfigurable optical add-drop multiplexer (ROADM) based mesh network are presented. The use of dedicated 1+1 methodologies for protection in a mesh network is reliable, but requires a large amount of equipment redundancy, as well as a large associated cost. According to the embodiments of the present method and apparatus, the total number of protection transponders needed to support single failures in a mesh network is reduced by implementing a preconfigured protection cycle (p-cycle) in the mesh network and configuring nodes along the p-cycle to share protection transponders. Accordingly, the embodiments of the present method and apparatus allow for reliable protection against single failures while lessening the amount of equipment redundancy and reducing the associated cost.

Shared protection method and apparatus for reconfigurable optical add-drop multiplexer (roadm) based mesh networks

Due to demand for more network bandwidth, a need for multi-user optical network topologies has, and will continue to, increase. A method or corresponding apparatus in embodiments of the present invention provide for an availability determination tool for determining and displaying wavelength and subrate availabilities within a network. Benefits of embodiments of a tool include allowing a user to identify the availability and capacity of any wavelength on any network, via an interactive graphical user interface, such as by using three-dimensional representations. In one embodiment, the disclosed availability determination tool allows users to locate and view any combination of available wavelengths between nodes in an optical network topology, and generate graphical and tabular reports of the availability in order to maintain an efficient and organized method or apparatus for determining and controlling wavelengths in a network. Consequently, service providers using the tool can keep performance rates high and costs low.

Method and apparatus for displaying a three dimensional representation of available wavelength paths across a network

Optical regenerators and amplifiers are expensive to implement and maintain. A method or corresponding apparatus in an example embodiment of the present invention relates to an optical planning tool that plans an optical network configuration by determining a plurality of costs for maintaining signal strength in corresponding network configurations including (i) a configuration of regenerators, (ii) a configuration of pre-or post-amplifiers, and (iii) a configuration of pre- and post-amplifiers in candidate locations and regenerator modules. The candidate locations for placing pre-or post-amplifiers are determined based on loss in each span, expected traffic patterns, and proposed regeneration locations along paths of expected traffic. The regeneration modules are located in locations determined based on the candidate locations. The example embodiment selects a configuration from among the network configurations as a function of the plurality of costs, helping reduce the cost of network deployment.

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Aurora, IL, United States of America

Dion Kwun Kit Leung