The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jul. 02, 2002
Filed:
Mar. 05, 2001
Ming Li, Horseheads, NY (US);
Mark Soulliere, Corning, NY (US);
Richard Wagner, Painted Post, NY (US);
Corning, Inc., Corning, NY (US);
Abstract
A protection switch for use in a two-fiber optical channel shared protection ring is disclosed. It includes an electrical switching circuit coupled to an optical signal monitor. The electrical switching circuit includes modular switching fabrics that respond to fault condition alarms provided by the optical signal monitor. Each modular switching fabric is versatile in that it includes a ring switch mode responsive to the multi-wavelength channel failures, and a span switch mode responsive to the single wavelength channel failures. Because the switching fabric of the electrical switching circuit is comprised of the plurality of small modular switching fabrics, the possibility of incurring a single-point switching failure in the switching fabric is virtually eliminated. Further, each modular switching fabric can be easily replaced in the event of failure, without affecting the operation of other switch fabrics within the protection switch.