Tyco Telecommunications (us) Inc.

At&t Bell Laboratories

Tycom (us) Inc.

Patrick Ross Trischitta

Neal S Bergano

Evan Lee Goldstein

Franklin Webb Kerfoot, Iii

Peter Klaus Runge

William C Marra

Mohammed Majd

Richard W Muise

Richard F Druckenmiller

A power feed arrangement for aggregate segments of a communications system is disclosed. In embodiments of the invention, cables are used to communicatively connect a number of landmasses, where the cables also serve to carry electrical power to devices connected along lengths of the cables. A first cable is connected to first and second landmasses, while a second cable is connected to second and third landmasses. On the second landmass, the electrical power conductors of the first and second cables are electrically connected to one another, and pieces of power feed equipment located on said first and third landmasses are used to supply electrical power to devices located along lengths of the first and second cables. Alternative embodiments are also disclosed.

Power feed arrangement using aggregate segments

Packets are received at a first boundary node of a long haul optical communication network which may either interconnect originating and destination communication networks or form an integral part of a single end-to-end network. Packets are reclassified to reflect a higher priority of transmission than non-long haul bound packets, as by marking them with an indication of a modified priority level of transmission. Reclassified packets are transmitted over a long-haul optical link to a second boundary node. So that the modified priority level employed in the long-haul network may be understood by a destination network, packets arriving at the second boundary node may be re-mapped or reclassified to a value recognized as being of at least equal and, preferably, higher priority than that originally established by the originating network and/or first bounary node. Using a substantially equal priority value in the reclassification establishes at least a consistent, end-to-end quality of service for each packet that has traversed the long haul portion of a communications network. More efficient use of transmission resources is realized by associating a higher priority with packets that have traversed the long haul portion of the network, each packet increasing in value as it nears the ultimate destination. Essentially, the reclassification decreases the likelihood that a packet, having made such substantial progress as to have traversed the length of the long haul portion of the network, will be dropped prior to reaching its destination and require re-transmission.

System and method for transmitting packets over a long-haul optical network

A trunk and branch logical ring network includes a plurality of nodes that are coupled to a ring backbone by a plurality of branching units. The connections to the ring backbone are such that physically adjacent nodes are not adjacent to one another logically in the network. By providing this alternating branching arrangement the maximum length of any unregenerated span along the ring is significantly reduced. This reduces repeater spacing in the network.

Undersea trunk-and-branch logical ring networks

Currently laser diode pump redundancy for an optical fiber amplifier is obtained by selectively connecting one of two diode pumps to an optical amplifier via an optical switch. When the diode laser pump which is connected to the amplifier becomes defective, the optical switch is activated, either remotely or automatically, and the good laser diode is substituted for the defective laser diode pump. In another arrangement, two laser diodes are coupled to an optical fiber amplifier via a polarization-dependent optical coupler. In each instance, a second laser diode is required to provide pump redundancy for an optical fiber amplifier. In this invention, at least, two laser diodes are coupled via a 3 dB optical coupler to supply pump power to each of the two optical fiber amplifiers simultaneously. If one of the laser diode pumps fails, the other laser diode pump provides pump power to each of the optical fiber amplifiers. Thus, with the addition of a 3 dB coupler, pump redundancy for a pair of optical fiber amplifiers is obtained with only two laser diode pumps instead of the normally required four laser diode pumps. In practice, only one of the two pumps can be active, and the other turned on only when the first pump fails. In another embodiment, the two laser diode pumps can be active at all times where each laser diode pump is operated at either full or less than full power. In the arrangement where the laser diode pumps are operated simultaneously at less than full power, when a pump failure occurs the power output of the good laser diode pump can be increased to compensate for the loss of power from the defective pump.

Pump redundancy for optical amplifiers

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Holmdel, NJ, United States of America

Patrick Ross Trischitta