Lambda Opticalsystems Corporation

Lucent Technologies Inc.

Mario F Alvarez

Anastasios Tzathas

Abdella Battou

David M Brooks

Daniel Yousef Al-Salameh

David S Levy

David Harris Walters

Moon W Kim

Jithamithra Sarathy

I Michael Mandelberg

Chin J Chen

A hierarchical and distributed control architecture for managing an optical communications network. The architecture includes a line card manager level for managing individual line cards in an optical switch, a node manager level for managing multiple line cards in an optical switch/node, and a network management system level for managing multiple optical switches/nodes in a network. An event manager at the node manager level enables software components that are running at the node manager to register for and receive events, and to post events. The events may be triggered, e.g., by a change in a status of the switch, or an alarm condition. Control architecture functionalities include signaling, routing, protection switching and network management. Furthermore, the network management function includes a topology manager, a performance manager, a connection manager, a fault detection manager, and a configuration manager.

Multi-tiered control architecture for adaptive optical networks, and methods and apparatus therefor

A facility is provided to allow a supervisory message to quickly propagate through a transmission network without delay. Specifically, a supervisory message is quickly routed from one node to a next node by (a) splitting the control channel signal carrying the supervisory message at a receiving node, (b) sending one of the split control channel signals to an output via switchable apparatus for immediate transmission the next node and (c) sending the other split signal to a controller for analysis. If the controller invokes a predetermined procedure as a result of the content of the message, e.g., invokes protection switching, then the controller forms a supervisory message identifying the invoked procedure, operates the switchable apparatus so that the message identifying the invoked procedure may be routed to the output in place of the split channel signal message.

Control channel processor and switching mechanism

An optical switch architecture in an optical communications network. The imminent removal of a line card from a slot at the optical switch is detected to inform an associated software process/manager that manages the line card that it is going to be removed. The movement of a locking mechanism that locks the line card in its slot triggers a message to a Node Manager that the line card is about to be removed. The software process knows that it will not be able to communicate with the line card, such as to request data or transmit commands. Moreover, the software process knows to not set an alarm for a malfunctioning line card since it will not receive any responses from the removed line card. The software process also maintains information related to the line card during its removal for use when the line card is subsequently re-installed.

Detection of module insertion/removal in a modular optical network, and methods and apparatus therefor

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Beachwood, NJ, United States of America

Mario F Alvarez