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. 19, 2006
Filed:
Mar. 19, 2002
Roger Jonathan Helkey, Montecito, CA (US);
John Edward Bowers, Santa Barbara, CA (US);
Adrian Keating, Santa Barbara, CA (US);
Roger Jonathan Helkey, Montecito, CA (US);
John Edward Bowers, Santa Barbara, CA (US);
Adrian Keating, Santa Barbara, CA (US);
Calient Networks, Inc., San Jose, CA (US);
Abstract
A method and apparatus are described to provide optical path protection for an optical switching system. An apparatus includes a first optical core switch, a second optical core switch, and an optical protection switch. The optical protection switch has at least two inputs and at least two outputs that allow the optical protection switch to direct input optical data traffic to one of the first optical core switch and the second optical core switch, and to direct a test signal to the other of the first optical core switch and the second optical core switch. For one embodiment, the optical protection switch is a 2×2 non-blocking optical switch having only two-path loss optimization. Alternatively, the optical protection switch may be a blocking 3×2 optical switch implemented to function as a 2×2 non-blocking optical switch. For one embodiment, the blocking 3×2 optical switch is a translational switch.