Optical-electrical interface devices and systems with optical communication pathway redundancy

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10148348-B2
Application number	US-201615206846-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 11, 2016
Priority date	Jul 17, 2015
Publication date	Dec 4, 2018
Grant date	Dec 4, 2018

Abstract

Electrical-optical interface devices and methods for use in optical communications systems are disclosed. The electrical-optical interface devices are configured to convert electrical signals to optical signals and optical signals to electrical signals, and are configured to connect to external devices. The electrical-optical interface device is configured to monitor the data transmission between external devices over a primary communication pathway. The electrical-optical interface device is designed to reconfigure itself when it receives information about a communication error so that it automatically utilizes secondary optical communication pathways as redundant optical communication pathways to maintain data communication between the external devices.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of performing data communication between first and second external devices that process electrical signals provided thereto, comprising:
a) optically connecting the first and second external devices to respective first and second electrical-optical (E-O) interface devices, which are optical connected by primary optical communication pathway and a secondary optical communication pathway that are substantially co-routed;
b) communicating between the first and second external devices by sending optical signals between the first and second E-O interface devices in both directions over the primary optical communication pathway only;
c) performing an initial communication of the optical signals as test signals and comparing the communication of the test signals to at least one reference value to determine whether or not a communication error occurs, and when the communication error occurs, detecting the communication error at one of the first and second E-O interface devices and generating in response a communication error signal; and
d) based on the communication error signal, at least one of the first and second E-O interface devices automatically reconfiguring itself so that the some or all of the electrical signal provided to at least one of the first and second external devices are derived from the optical signals transmitted or received over one or more secondary optical communication pathways.

2. The method according to claim 1 , including forming the optical signals first as test signals and then forming the optical signals as data signals.

3. The method according to claim 1 , including detecting the communication error at one of the first and second E-O interface devices and transmitting the communication error signal to the other of the first and second E-O interface devices.

4. The method according to claim 3 , wherein the communication error signal is communicated over either at least one: the primary optical communication pathway, the secondary optical communication pathway, and an electrical communication pathway that is substantially co-routed with the primary and secondary optical communication pathways.

5. The method according to claim 4 , wherein the communication error signal is communicated using out-of-band optical signaling.

6. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the primary optical communication pathway includes one or more primary optical fibers and wherein the secondary optical communication pathway includes one or more secondary optical fibers.

7. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the at least one of the first and second E-O interface devices automatically reconfiguring itself includes:
a controller receiving the communication error signal and in response causing an electrical switch electrically connected thereto to divert an electrical signal that originally travels to a primary light source to instead travel to a secondary light source.

8. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising:
if the communication error has not yet occurred, performing a communication between the first and second E-O interfaces devices to allow the transmission of the optical signals as data signals over the primary optical communication pathway according to act b) until the communication error occurs, and including deriving the optical data signals from electrical data signals from one of the first and second external devices.

9. The method according to claim 8 , wherein the act of performing the communication to allow the transmission of the optical signals as data signals is carried out over at least one of: i) the primary optical communication pathway, ii) the secondary optical communication pathway and ii) an electrical communication pathway that is that is substantially co-routed with the primary and secondary optical communication pathways.

10. A method of performing data communication between first and second external devices respectively connected to first and second electrical-optical (E-O) interface devices, comprising:
a) activating a primary light source on the first E-O interface device to transmit first optical signals over a primary transmit optical fiber that optically connects the primary light source to a primary photodetector at the second E-O interface device;
b) activating at least one secondary light source on the first E-O interface device to transmit second optical signals over a secondary transmit optical fiber that optically connects the secondary light source to a secondary photodetector at the second E-O interface device, wherein the first and second optical signals are substantially identical and carry substantially identical information;
c) converting the first optical signals into corresponding first electrical signals at the second E-O interface device, and providing first electrical signals to the second external device;
d) performing an initial communication of the first optical signals as test signals and comparing the communication of the test signals to at least one reference value to determine whether or not a communication error occurs; and
e) when the communication error occurs, the second E-O interface device automatically reconfiguring itself to convert the second optical signals into corresponding second electrical signals that are substantially identical to the first electrical signals and providing the second electrical signals to the second external device.

11. The method according to claim 10 , wherein the first and second optical signals are data signals.

12. The method according to claim 10 , wherein the first and second optical signals are test signals designed to establish optical communication over either the primary transmit optical fiber or over both the primary and secondary transmit optical fibers prior to transmitting the first and second optical signals as data signals.

13. An electrical-optical (E-O) interface device for transmitting data between a first external device and second external device over transmit optical fibers, comprising:
a primary light source optically coupled to a primary one of the transmit optical fibers and configured to generate, from an electrical signal from the first external device, primary optical signals for transmission over the primary transmit optical fiber;
a secondary light source optically coupled a secondary one of the transmit optical fibers and configured to generate from the electrical signal secondary optical signals for transmission over the secondary transmit optical fiber;
an electrical switch electrically connected to the primary and secondary light sources;
a controller electrically connected to the electrical switch; and
wherein the controller is configured to receive information about a transmission error of the primary output signals from another E-O interface device through an electrical link electrically connecting the E-O interface device and the another E-O interface device and set the electrical switch to activate the secondary light source to transmit the secondary optical signals based upon the information about the transmission error of the primary optical signals.

14. The E-O interface device according to claim 13 , wherein the primary and secondary light sources are respectively electrically connected to primary and secondary light-source drivers, and wherein the electrical switch can direct an electrical signal to either the primary light-source driver or the secondary light source driver.

15. The E-O interface device according to claim 13 , wherein the primary and secondary optical signals are either data signals or test signals.

Assignees

• Corning Optical Communications LLC

Inventors

• Yadlowsky Michael John

Classifications

• H04Q11/0062 Primary

  Network aspects · CPC title

• H04B10/032

  using working and protection systems {(H04J14/0287 takes precedence)} · CPC title

• H04Q2011/0083

  Testing; Monitoring · CPC title

• H04B10/2504

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04B10/03 Primary

  Arrangements for fault recovery · CPC title