Dynamic optical switching in a telecommunications network

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11509979-B2
Application number	US-202117496862-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 8, 2021
Priority date	Feb 22, 2019
Publication date	Nov 22, 2022
Grant date	Nov 22, 2022

Abstract

Implementations described and claimed herein provide systems and methods for a configurable optical peering fabric to dynamically create a connection between participant sites without any physical site limitations or necessity of specialized client and network provider equipment being located within such a facility. Client sites to a network may connect to a configurable switching element to be interconnected to other client sites in response to a request to connect the first client site with a second site, also connected to network, via the switching element. A request may trigger verification of the requested and, upon validation, transmission of an instruction to the switching element to enable the cross connect within the switching element. The first site and the second site may thus be interconnected via the switching element in response to the request, without the need to co-locate equipment or to manually install a jumper between client equipment.

First claim

We claim:

1. A system for managing a network, the system comprising:
a computing device associated with a first participant network site connected to a network, wherein the first participant network site is connected to a first interface of an optical switching element via a first dark fiber cable;
a master orchestrator receiving, from the computing device, a request for a connection of the first participant network site with a second participant network site, wherein the second participant network site is connected to a second interface of the optical switching element via a second dark fiber cable, the master orchestrator to:
authenticate one or more portions of the request for the connection;
transmit, to a computing device associated with the second participant network site and based on the authenticated one or more portions of the request, an authorization request; and
receive, from the computing device associated with the second participant network site, an authorization for executing the request for the connection; and

a domain orchestrator
verifying a first dark fiber connection, via the first dark fiber cable, of the first participant network site to the first interface and a second dark fiber connection, via the second dark fiber cable, of the second participant network site to the second interface, and
receiving, from the master orchestrator, an activation instruction in response to the authorization, the domain orchestrator configuring the optical switching element to optically connect the first interface of the optical switching element connected to the first participant network site to the second interface of the optical switching element connected to the second participant network site.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the request for the connection is received via a portal.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the request for the connection is received via an application programming interface.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the domain orchestrator further:
receives, from the optical switching element, a notification of the connection of the first interface to the second interface; and
transmits the notification to the master orchestrator for further notification of the connection to the first participant network site and the second participant network site.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein a length of the first dark fiber cable and the second dark fiber cable is less than a maximum distance length of an optical fiber based on an acceptable transmission line loss of the optical fiber.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein the optical switching element is a reconfigurable optical add-drop multiplexer network device.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein the request for the connection comprises an identification of the first participant network site, an identification of the second participant network site, and an identification of an optical switching element for the connection and wherein the master orchestrator further authenticates at least one of the identification of the first participant network site, the identification of the second participant network site, or the identification of the optical switching element.

8. The system of claim 7 wherein the master orchestrator further authenticates the first interface of the optical switching element as connected to the first participant network site and the second interface of the optical switching element as connected to the second participant network site.

9. The system of claim 7 the system further comprising:
a database storing identifiers of requesting devices and associated permission levels for each stored identifier of requesting devices.

10. The system of claim 9 wherein the request for the connection further comprises an identifier of a requesting device, the master orchestrator communicating with the database to obtain, in response to the request for the connection, the permission level associated with the identifier of the requesting device.

11. A method for managing a network, the method comprising:
receiving, from a computing device associated with a first participant network site connected to a network, a request for a connection of the first participant network site with a second participant network site, wherein the first participant network site is connected to a first interface of an optical switching element via a first dark fiber cable and the second participant network site is connected to a second interface of the optical switching element via a second dark fiber cable;
authenticating one or more portions of the request for the connection;
transmitting, to a computing device associated with the second participant network site and based on the authenticated one or more portions of the request, an authorization request;
verifying a first dark fiber connection, via the first dark fiber cable, of the first participant network site to the first interface and a second dark fiber connection, via the second dark fiber cable, of the second participant network site to the second interface;
receiving, from the computing device associated with the second participant network site, an authorization for executing the request for the connection; and
transmitting, to a domain orchestrator and in response to the authorization, an activation instruction, the domain orchestrator configuring the optical switching element to optically connect the first interface of the optical switching element connected to the first participant network site to the second interface of the optical switching element connected to the second participant network site.

12. The method of claim 11 further comprising:
receiving, from the domain orchestrator, a notification of the connection of the first interface to the second interface.

13. The method of claim 11 wherein a length of the first dark fiber cable and the second dark fiber cable is less than a maximum distance length of an optical fiber based on an acceptable transmission line loss of the optical fiber.

14. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, storing a computer program, wherein the computer program, when executed by a processor, causes the processor to perform a method comprising:
receiving, from a computing device associated with a first participant network site connected to a network, a request for a connection of the first participant network site with a second participant network site, wherein the first participant network site is connected to a first interface of an optical switching element via a first dark fiber cable and the second participant network site is connected to a second interface of the optical switching element via a second dark fiber cable;
authenticating one or more portions of the request for the connection;
transmitting, to a computing device associated with the second participant network site and based on the authenticated one or more portions of the request, an authorization request;
verifying a first dark fiber connection, via the first dark fiber cable, of the first participant network site to the first interface and a second dark fiber connection, via the second dark fiber cable, of the second participant network site to the second interface;
receiving, from the computing device associated with the second participant network site, an authorization for executing the request for the connection; and
transmitting, to a domain orchestrator and in response to the authorization, an activation instruction, the domain orchestrator configuring the optical switching element to optically connect the first interface of the optical switching element connected to the first participant n

Assignees

• Level 3 Communications Llc

Inventors

• Clark Laurel
• Cooper Iii Clyde David
• Dugan Andrew

Classifications

• H04J14/0271

  Impairment aware routing · CPC title

• H04Q11/0062 Primary

  Network aspects · CPC title

• H04L63/105

  Multiple levels of security · CPC title

• H04J14/0201

  Add-and-drop multiplexing · CPC title

• H04Q2011/0086

  Network resource allocation, dimensioning or optimisation · CPC title