Facebook, Inc.

Nitin Kumar Goel

Satyajeet Singh Ahuja

Gayathrinath Nagarajan

Stephen Gregory Grubb

Alexander Ilo Nikolaidis

Josue Israel Kuri Obregon

Yury Smirnov

Sung Woo Choe

Disclosed are fiber amplifiers with multiple pumping sources including multiple optical sources or an optical comb source with multiple spectral lines. A comb source may include generating a plurality of evenly spaced or nearly evenly spaced spectral lines. The optical comb source may pump a fiber by propagating optical energy at the multiple spectral lines through the fiber. The comb source may cause gain in the fiber at in a band of wavelengths different from the spectral lines of the comb source. A weak signal injected into the fiber that propagates in the fiber will experience optical gain in the fiber producing an amplified signal at the wavelength within a band of wavelengths different from the comb source wavelengths. When the bandwidth of the multiple bands of gain is wide, the amplifier may be referred to as an ultra-wideband amplifier.

Ultra-wideband Raman amplifier with comb source

The disclosure is directed to a network planning tool for planning a topology of a computer network, e.g., for provisioning network capacity. The network planning tool evaluates various factors, e.g., demand projections between a pair of nodes, existing network topology, existing circuits, failure scenarios, and other constraints, and generates a set of circuits that satisfies various demand projections. The set of circuits is robust under failure scenarios and minimizes latency, costs and/or power consumption involved in satisfying the demand projections. The tool assigns each of the circuits to a spectral resource of a physical communication link, e.g., a wavelength of a fiber optic cable, using which it can propagate data traffic between the pair of nodes.

Computer network planning

A direction-switchable transponder of a high speed communications network, e.g., an fiber optic data communications network, is capable of dynamically reversing the data traffic flow of its various communications channels in response to a signal. The signal can specify a number of channels, a channel map, or a required bandwidth. The direction-switchable transponder can receive a signal relating to network bandwidth requirements; select, based on the received signal, one or more fiber optic channels for reversing direction of flow of network traffic; and dynamically and automatically reconfigure the selected fiber optic signal to reverse direction of flow of network traffic. By responding to asymmetric bandwidth requirements, the direction-switchable transponder uses high speed communications network lines more efficiently.

Direction-switchable transponders

Aspects of an optical communications network are described that include two or more optical fibers arranged to allow communication in the same or in opposite directions. The optical network includes a first optical amplifier coupled to the first optical fiber, a second optical amplifier coupled to the second optical fiber, and an optical coupler that allows excess optical power from the first optical fiber to be provided for amplification of signals traversing the second optical fiber. The disclosed systems and devices thus enable excess power from one channel to be utilized to enable amplification of signals traveling on a different channel.

Raman amplifier pumped with residual power in an optical communication system

Aspects of an optical communications network are described that include two or more optical fibers arranged to allow communication in the same direction. The optical network includes a first optical amplifier coupled to the first optical fiber, a second optical amplifier coupled to the second optical fiber, a first optical pump to provide optical power to the first optical fiber, and a second pump to provide optical power to both the first and the second optical fibers. By sharing the second pump between the first and the second optical fibers, a need to deploy additional pumps is alleviated. Scaling of the optical network to include additional optical fibers provides further cost savings by allowing more pumps to be shared among the multiple optical fibers.

Shared optical pumps among multiple fiber channels

The disclosed systems for multiple data center building optical communication may include (1) a first optical switching node of a first main point of entry (MPOE) of a first data center building that communicatively couples a first fiber pair of a first long-haul path to a computing system of the first building, (2) a second optical switching node of the first MPOE of the first building that communicatively couples a first fiber pair of a second long-haul path to the computing system of the first building, and (3) a third optical switching node of the first MPOE of the first building that communicatively couples the first and second optical switching nodes of the first MPOE of the first building to a second MPOE of the first building and a first MPOE of a second data center building. Various other systems and methods are also disclosed.

Growing community of inventors

Mountain View, CA, United States of America

Nitin Kumar Goel