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:
Dec. 09, 2008
Filed:
May. 17, 2007
Hossein Eslambolchi, Los Altos Hills, CA (US);
John Huffman, Conyers, GA (US);
John K. Boland, Dover, DE (US);
Claywell D. Turley, Covington, GA (US);
Hossein Eslambolchi, Los Altos Hills, CA (US);
John Huffman, Conyers, GA (US);
John K. Boland, Dover, DE (US);
Claywell D. Turley, Covington, GA (US);
AT&T Corp., New York, NY (US);
Abstract
A system for selectively grounding each of a plurality of short-haul buried utility conveyances coupled to a common long-haul buried utility conveyance to enable a conveyance locating signal transmitted through the long-haul conveyance to travel from the long-haul utility conveyance to a selected short-haul utility conveyance. The system includes a first optical switch for selecting each of the plurality of short-haul utility conveyances to be grounded, where the first optical switch is adapted to receive an optical signal and selectively output the optical signal on one of a plurality of optical fibers; and a second optical switch coupled to each of the plurality of optical fibers for grounding each short-haul utility conveyance in response to the optical signal on a corresponding optical fiber.