Systems and methods for passive optical switching using MEMS mirror switches

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10868613-B2
Application number	US-201816148706-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 1, 2018
Priority date	Oct 1, 2018
Publication date	Dec 15, 2020
Grant date	Dec 15, 2020

Abstract

A passive fiber optic switching (“PFOS”) device may provide failover in a fiber optic network by switching a working path between different fibers of a redundant set of fibers. The PFOS device may operate passively (e.g., without an active, external, and/or continuous power supply) by harvesting the power that it needs from the light that passes over any one or more fibers that are connected to the PFOS device. The PFOS device may detect issues that disrupt signaling and/or light transmission on the working path based on quality (e.g., signaling and/or light properties) of the working path, and/or diagnostic messaging received from other devices on the working path. The PFOS device may include an optical switch, such as a Micro-Electro-Mechanical System (“MEMS”) mirror switch, that can change the working path by switching light to any fiber of the redundant set of fibers.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A device comprising:
an optical switch;
a first pass-through fiber optic interface connected to the optical switch via a first path;
a second pass-through fiber optic interface connected to the optical switch via a second path;
a third pass-through fiber optic interface transferring light into the device;
an in-line diffusing lens, wherein the in-line diffusing lens scatters a portion of the light received via the first path;
an in-line optical sensor for producing power from the scattered portion of the light, wherein the optical switch is powered by at least some of the power produced by the in-line optical sensor;
a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing a set of processor-executable instructions; and
one or more processors configured to execute the set of processor-executable instructions, wherein executing the set of processor-executable instructions causes the one or more processors to:
direct the optical switch to select the first path for transmission of the light received via the third pass-through fiber optic interface;
monitor one or more measures of quality associated with the first path, wherein the monitoring is based on the scattered portion of the light;
detect, based on the monitoring, that the one or more measures of quality do not satisfy one or more threshold measures of quality; and
direct, based on the detecting that the one or more measures of quality do not satisfy the one or more threshold measures of quality, the optical switch to select the second path.

2. The device of claim 1 further comprising:
a light splitter located in the first path, the light splitter diverting the portion of light from the first path to the diffusing lens while a different portion of the light continues along the first path.

3. The device of claim 1 further comprising:
a power storage circuit that stores the power generated by the optical sensor which provides the power to the one or more processors.

4. The device of claim 1 , wherein the optical switch is a Micro-Electro-Mechanical System (“MEMS”) mirror switch.

5. The device of claim 1 , wherein the optical sensor is one of a photovoltaic or photodiode.

6. The device of claim 1 , wherein the one or more measures of quality comprise optical modulation amplitude.

7. The device of claim 1 further comprising:
a photodiode; and
a light splitter located in the first path, the light splitter diverting a portion of the light from the first path to the photodiodeg,
wherein the processor-executable instructions further include processor-executable instructions to receive the one or more measures of the quality from the photodiode.

8. The device of claim 1 , wherein the processor-executable instructions to monitor the one or more measures of quality include processor-executable instructions to determine a voltage of the power produced by the optical sensor; and
wherein the processor-executable instructions to detect that the one or more measures of quality do not satisfy the one or more threshold measures of quality include processor-executable instructions to detect that the voltage is less than a voltage threshold.

9. The device of claim 1 , wherein the processor-executable instructions further include processor-executable instructions to:
receive at least one Digital Diagnostics Monitoring (“DDM”) message from a second device that is connected to at least one of the first pass-through fiber optic interface and the second pass-through fiber optic interface;
detect, based on the DDM message, an operating parameter of the second device that does not satisfy a threshold measure of the operating parameter; and
direct, based on the detecting that the operating parameter does not satisfy the threshold measure of the operating parameter, the optical switch to select the second path.

10. The device of claim 1 further comprising:
a fourth pass-through fiber optic interface;
a fifth pass-through fiber optic interface;
a second optical switch that uses the power generated by the optical sensor to switch light associated with downstream signaling between a fourth path to the fourth pass-through fiber optic interface and a fifth path to the fifth pass-through fiber optic interface;
wherein the first and second pass-through fiber optic interfaces transfer light associated with upstream signaling to a destination; and
wherein the fourth and fifth pass-through fiber optic interfaces transfer the light associated with the downstream signaling from the destination.

11. The device of claim 10 , wherein the processor-executable instructions further include processor-executable instructions to:
direct the second optical switch to select the fourth path for transmission of the light associated with the downstream signaling;
monitor one or more measures of quality associated with the fourth path;
detect, based on the monitoring of the one or more measures of quality associated with the fourth path, that the one or more measures of quality associated with the fourth path do not satisfy one or more threshold measures of quality; and
direct, based on the detecting that the one or more measures of quality associated with the fourth path do not satisfy the one or more threshold measures of quality, the second optical switch to select the fifth path.

12. The device of claim 10 , wherein the processor-executable instructions to direct the optical switch to select the second path shifts the light, received via the third pass-through fiber optic interface, from being propagated via the first path to being propagated via the second path.

13. A non-transitory computer-readable medium, storing a set of processor-executable instructions, which, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to:
selectively cause an optical switch to transmit, via either a first path or a second path, light received by the optical switch via a third path, the causing including selecting the first path for transmission of light from a first pass-through fiber optic interface associated with the first path, wherein the optical switch is powered by power that is generated from a scattered portion of the light received via the first path, wherein the scattered portion of the light is passed through an in-line diffusing lens;
monitor one or more measures of quality associated with the first path;
detect, based on the monitoring, that the one or more measures of quality do not satisfy one or more threshold measures of quality; and
direct, based on the detecting that the one or more measures of quality do not satisfy the one or more threshold measures of quality, the optical switch to transmit light, received via the third path, via the second path between the optical switch and a second pass-through fiber optic interface associated with the second path, wherein the switch uses the power that is generated from the scattered portion of the light received via the first path.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 13 , wherein the processor-executable instructions further include processor-executable instructions to:
receive the one or more measures of the quality from an optical sensor that receives the scattered portion of the light from the first path.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 13 , wherein the processor-executable instructions further include processor-executable instructions to:
receive at least one Digital Diagnostics Monitoring (“DDM”) message from a device that is connected to at least one of the first pass-through fiber optic interface and the second pass-through fi

Assignees

• Verizon Patent & Licensing Inc

Inventors

• Polehn Donna L
• Watts Mark T

Classifications

• H04B10/032 Primary

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

• H04B10/07953

  Monitoring or measuring OSNR, BER or Q · CPC title

• H04B10/079

  using measurements of the data signal · CPC title

• H04Q11/0005

  Switch and router aspects · CPC title

• H04Q2011/0043

  Fault tolerance · CPC title