Nortel Networks Corporation

Other

Rockstar Consortium US LP

Northern Telecom Limited

Rockstar Bidco, LP

Ecole De Technologie Superieure

Rpx Clearinghouse LLC

Vantrix Corporation

Seamatica Aerospace Ltd.

Uortel Networks Limited

Beshai, Maged E.

Maged E Beshai

Bilel N Jamoussi

Richard Vickers

Ernst A Munter

Alan Frank Graves

Stéphane Coulombe

Stacy W Nichols

Paul F Daspit

Didier Joset

Francois J Blouin

François J Blouin

Todd D Morris

Dinesh Mohan

Frederick Caldwell Livermore

Siu Donald O'Young

Yake Li

Harold G Edwards

David Alan Brown

Richard Prescott Skillen

Dominic Goodwill

Mohamed Samy Hosny

James J Yan

Ramy Helmy Gohary

Silvana D Romagnino

Fran&ccedil;ois J Blouin

L Anne Garrett

Ian R Stewart

James Yan

Lindsay McGuinness

Numerous Clos Star Networks (CSNs), each constructed as a set of connectors providing single-hop paths for each pair of access nodes of a respective access group, are fused to form a large-scale global network providing at least one single-hop path for each pair of access nodes of the formed global network. The access groups are arranged into access bands of multiple access groups each. Connectors of CSNs are paired to form distributors so that each access node has multiple parallel single-hop paths to each other access node of the same access band and one single-hop path to each access node of each other access band. The distributors are clustered into a set of geographically-spread constellations and each access node of the global network has a direct multichannel link to each of a respective subset of constellations thus entirely eliminating use of cross connectors and significantly simplifying the network structure.

Deep fusing of clos star networks to form a global contiguous web

A detect-and-avoid system for an ownship aircraft is disclosed. The system has a control station in communication with an ownship aircraft, and a Passive Secondary Surveillance Radar (PSSR) system at the ownship aircraft. The PSSR is equipped to receive a reply from a target object, in response to an interrogation signal of staggered Pand Ppulses sent by a narrow-beam antenna of a Secondary Surveillance Radar (SSR) to the target object, and also to receive Ppulses transmitted by a wide-beam antenna of the SSR. A pulse repetition frequency (PRF) pattern for the staggered interrogation signal is determined, followed by estimating a transmit time of the interrogation signal, and determining a position of the target object. A corresponding detect-and-avoid method is also disclosed.

Aviation detect and avoid method and system

A method and apparatus for enhancing aviation safety, ensuring that unmanned aircraft remain well clear of other flying objects, are disclosed. A control station acquires a direction of a path of a flying object and periodically transmits requests to a transponder of the flying object to acquire specific data. Upon receiving a response to a request, a range of the flying object from the control station is determined. Using data acquired from each three consecutive responses, the displacement magnitude, the speed, and angular displacements of the flying object are determined. The method assesses potential crossing of a protection zone surrounding a protected aircraft based on most recent acquired data.

Method and apparatus for ensuring aviation safety in the presence of ownship aircraft

A passive signal transport medium, constructed as an array of spectral-temporal connectors, connects a large number of access nodes to a number of distributors to form a single-hop network of wide coverage and high throughput yet simplified control. Parameterized spectral-temporal connectors define network expansion over networks using conventional signal transport media. A network accommodating 32000 access nodes with a throughput of an Exabits/second is realizable. The distributors may be geographically distributed (the access nodes are naturally geographically distributed). The entire network structure is parameterized. Selecting the number of distributors to equal the number of access nodes, and pairing each access node with a respective distributor to form an integrated node, an expanded fully-meshed network is realized with each pair of integrated nodes having a direct path and numerous single-hop paths. Several routing schemes within the fully-meshed network are considered to enable both global control and distributed control.

Expanded single-hop clos star network for a datacenter of universal coverage and exabits-per-second throughput

Access nodes of a large-scale network are arranged into a number of groups. The groups are arranged into a number of bands. Each distributor of a pool of distributors interconnects each access node of a selected group to at least one channel from each group of a selected band. A discipline of allocating the selected group and the selected band to a distributor ensures that each access node has: a number, approximately equal to half the number of groups, of parallel single-hop paths to each other access node of a same group; a number, approximately equal to half the number of bands, of parallel single-hop paths to each access node of a different group within a same band; and one single-hop path to each other access node of a different access band. To eliminate the need for cross connectors, geographically-spread distributors are arranged into geographically-spread constellations of collocated distributors.

A method of time aligning signals transmitted from a plurality of access nodes to a distributor is disclosed. The signals are formed according to a cyclic structure of a predetermined number of segments, including content segments and control segments, each segment having two markers. A controller of the distributor allocates observation time slots for each access node corresponding to control segments. The controller detects, from a portion of a signal received from an access node during a respective observation time slot, a position of a particular marker and a segment index then determines a temporal displacement of the signal accordingly. If the temporal displacement exceeds a predefined value, a distributing mechanism of the distributor halts signal transfer from the access node to all other access nodes and instructs the access node to adjust transmission time according to the temporal displacement.

Time alignment of access nodes to optical distributors of a global network

Constellations of distributors interconnect access nodes to form a vast contiguous network. The access nodes are generally geographically spread and the constellations are generally geographically spread, however the distributors within each constellation are collocated. The access nodes are arranged into access groups. The access nodes of each access group interconnect through selected constellations, with each access node having a wavelength-division-multiplexed (WDM) link to each of the selected constellations, to form a three-stage network. The three-stage networks corresponding to the access groups are mutually fused so that an access node of any three-stage network has multiple paths, each traversing one distributor, to each other access node of the same three-stage network and a path to each other access node of the entire network traversing one distributor. The distributors are preferable configured as fast optical switches. The network is structured to provide global coverage without the need for conventional cross-connectors.

Global contiguous web of fused three-stage networks

Sensor nodes each equipped with a directional antenna configured to form a set of beams of predefined directions, with respect to a global reference direction, during beam cycles timed according to a global time reference form a sensor network. An electronic compass determines the global reference direction and a Global-Positioning-System (GPS) receiver provides the global time reference. The directional antenna is implemented as a phased-array antenna. During each beam period within a beam cycle, a phased-array controller determines a phase vector as a function of the geometrical arrangement of antenna elements and angular displacement of a reference direction of a node from the global reference direction. The phase vector is supplied to phase shifters coupled to the antenna elements to form a beam of a specified direction. During each beam period, all sensor nodes form beams of a same direction thus guaranteeing inter-nodal communication among neighboring nodes.

Methods and systems for forming a wireless sensor network

A vast contiguous network comprises a large number of three-stage networks, each constituent three-stage network interconnecting a group of access nodes to a group of distributors. The three-stage networks are mutually fused where each pair of three-stage networks shares a respective distributor so that each distributor of the entire network is common in exactly two three-stage networks. Consequently, each access node has multiple parallel paths, each traversing one distributor, to each access node of a same access group and a path traversing one distributor, in addition to numerous compound paths, to each access node of a different access group. Each access node of the contiguous network has a cyclic time-limited dedicated dual control path to each distributor of a respective distributor group as well as a dedicated end-to-end control path, configured as a reserved time-limited path or a contention-free path, to each other access node of the contiguous network.

Fused three-stage networks forming a global contiguous network

A method and apparatus for optimal signal encoding based on reference data relating encoded-signal characteristics to encoding parameters are disclosed. Reference vectors of encoding parameters and corresponding measurements of encoded-signal characteristics are used to establish a functional relationship between each characteristic and the encoding parameters. Candidate vectors of encoding parameters are identified based on user-defined boundaries of both the encoding parameters and acceptable encoded-signal characteristics. A figure of merit is determined for each candidate vector and the candidate vector of highest figure of merit is presented to an encoder.

Optimal signal encoding based on experimental data

A large-scale contiguous network comprises access nodes arranged into access groups and distributors arranged into constellations of collocated distributors. The distributors may comprise switches, rotators, or a mixture of switches and rotators. Each access group connects to each distributor of a respective set of distributors selected so that each pair of access groups connects once to a respective distributor. At least one access group comprises a global controller. Each access node has a dual multichannel link to each constellation of a respective set of constellations, the link carrying a set of dual channels connecting through a spectral demultiplexer and a spectral multiplexer to a subset of distributors. Each access node is equipped with a respective access controller having a memory device storing identifiers of dual paths to all other access nodes and the global controller, each path traversing only one distributor.

Contiguous network

A network comprises ingress nodes, egress nodes, primary switches, and secondary switches where any pair of an ingress node and an egress node connects to orthogonal sets of primary switches and each secondary switch connects a respective set of primary switches to an orthogonal set of primary switches. Thus, each ingress node has a primary path and numerous compound paths to each egress node. The primary path traverses a respective primary switch, and each compound path traverses a first primary switch, a secondary switch, and a second primary switch. The disclosed connectivity pattern enables network scalability to accommodate hundreds of thousands of ingress-egress node pairs while permitting a significant proportion of incoming data to be routed through the primary switches avoiding the secondary switches.

Contiguous network for cloud communications

A large-scale switching system deployed as a global network or a large-scale data center includes a large number of access nodes (edge nodes) interconnected through optical or electronic rotators. The rotators are logically arranged in a matrix and each access node has a channel to each rotator in a respective row and a channel from each rotator of a respective column of the matrix. A dual timing circuit coupled to a diagonal rotator pair exchanges timing data with edge nodes connecting to the diagonal rotator pair to facilitate temporal alignment of data received at input ports of each rotator. Each access node has a path to each other access node traversing only one of the rotators. The rotators may be arranged into constellations of collocated rotators to facilitate connectivity of access nodes to rotators using wavelength-division-multiplexed links.

Distributed control of a modular switching system

A large-scale data center is based on orthogonal connectivity of a distributed single-stage connector, having a large number of disjoint primary switches, to a large number of access nodes and a large number of secondary switches. The secondary switches are coupled to a large number of servers forming a server farm. The orthogonal-connectivity scheme yields a contiguous network providing single-hop paths from each access node to each other access node, from each secondary switch to each other secondary switch, from each access node to each secondary switch, and from each secondary switch to each access node.

Large-scale data center based on a contiguous network

A method and a system for distributed computation of a routing table for a vast communication network are disclosed. The network nodes are arranged into multiple groups with each group associated with a respective network controller. A network controller of a group acquires characterizing information of links emanating from local nodes of the group, communicates the information to each other network controller, reciprocally receives characterizing information from other network controllers, and determines a generic route set from each local node to each other node of the network. The network controllers collectively determine an inverse routing table identifying all routes traversing each individual link in the entire network and exchange node or link state-transition information for updating individual route sets affected by any state transition. Thus, the processing effort of routes generation and tracking network-elements states is distributed among multiple coordinated network controllers.

Growing community of inventors

Stittsville, Canada

Maged E Beshai