Facebook, Inc.

Stephen Gregory Grubb

Satyajeet Singh Ahuja

Gayathrinath Nagarajan

Andrew James Palmer-Felgate

Timothy Edward Stuch

Nitin Kumar Goel

Herve Albert Pierre Fevrier

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

A system comprises a trunk submarine cable, an offshore optical and power switching unit connected to the trunk submarine cable, and a plurality of feeder submarine cables connected to the offshore switching unit. The offshore switching unit is configured to dynamically connect data communication channels of a selected feeder submarine cable among the plurality of feeder submarine cables with data communication channels of the trunk submarine cable.

Submarine cable network architecture

A system comprises a trunk submarine cable, an offshore optical and power switching unit connected to the trunk submarine cable, and a plurality of feeder submarine cables connected to the offshore switching unit. The offshore switching unit is configured to dynamically connect data communication channels of a selected feeder submarine cable among the plurality of feeder submarine cables with data communication channels of the trunk submarine cable and to reconfigure power in the case of power faults.

Submarine optical fiber communications are described. A submarine optical fiber communications system can be configured to transmit optical signals within a first band of the electromagnetic spectrum in a first direction, and to transmit optical signals within a second band of the electromagnetic spectrum in a second direction. The bands can be C band, L band, or both bands.

Submarine optical fiber communications architectures

A fiber optic switching network includes a comb laser source that provides laser light at a plurality of wavelengths on a single optical fiber. Light from the comb laser source is directed into different optical fibers by a demultiplexer such as an arrayed waveguide grating (AWG) or cyclic AWG. Light from the demultiplexer is modulated with one or more demodulators and re-combined with a multiplexer into a single optical fiber for transmission to a destination.

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Atherton, CA, United States of America

Stephen Gregory Grubb