Alcatel-lucent USA Inc.

Meenakshi Sharma

Bharat Tarachand Doshi

Stefan Hunsche

Ramesh Nagarajan

Eric Jonathan Bauer

Paul Hampton Franklin

Narayan Raman

David A Gatenby

Srinivasa Prasanna

The invention includes a method and apparatus for assessing an available version of a sourced element. The method includes obtaining a description of an available version of the sourced element, identifying a plurality of evaluation items for the sourced element by evaluating the description using at least one evaluation category including a plurality of evaluation parameters, and determining an overall assessment of the available version of the sourced element using the identified evaluation items for the sourced element. The overall assessment is indicative of a value associated with the available version of the sourced element. The method may further include generating overall assessments of other available versions of a sourced element or generating overall assessments of available versions of other sourced elements, and prioritizing the available versions of the sourced elements using the overall assessments of the available versions of the sourced elements.

Method and apparatus for assessing sourced elements

A technique for improving optical cross-connections comprises placing a switch in front of a number of processing units. So configured, the units are no longer dedicated to a specific link or signal. When necessary, a unit is connected/disconnected to one or more optical links by the switch to carry out any number of processing functions, such as regeneration, Raman pumping, dispersion equalization/compensation or performance monitoring. Because the units are no longer dedicated to specific links the cost of the cross-connections and the network it is a part of can be reduced.

Methods and devices for providing optical, serviced-enabled cross-connections

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Bethlehem, PA, United States of America

Meenakshi Sharma