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:
Sep. 23, 2003
Filed:
Apr. 26, 2001
Mark Rumer, Santa Barbara, CA (US);
Occam Networks, Santa Barbara, CA (US);
Abstract
A telecommunications network having a ring topology overlaid with an Ethernet. An add/drop multiplexer (ADM) employing wave division multiplexing (WDM) hardware is implemented at each node of a multi-node fiber-based network. The ADM contains a robust protection scheme for reliability. The WDM allows the data traffic of the incumbent network, for example, a SONET network, to be carried over one or more frequencies while the data traffic of one or more packet-based networks may be carried over one or more other frequencies. Each ADM has protection switches, for example, micro-electromechanical switches. The protection switches provide a no-load bypass capability. A failed node can be shunted from the ring, allowing the Ethernet data to bypass the node uninterrupted. The switches also provide a self-test capability. The ADM interfaces can be checked by coupling the receiving path and the transmission path. This allows the ADM transceivers to communicate with each other.