Protection switching architecture and method of use

The present invention relates to protection switching architecture. More particularly, the present invention relates to protection switching architecture in an optical telecommunications network.

Protection switching is a general term used to describe a technique for maintaining communication services in the event of a failure in certain equipment, for example, within a given telecommunications network. Protection switching is commonly used in electronic, optical or electronic/optical telecommunications networks. A failure may occur in either the electronic or optical equipment or in both. The failure also may occur in the physical medium used to transmit the optical signal, such as through a break in a fiber optic cable. This break may be caused by external aggressions such as through the misuse of a backhoe, a ship's anchor, a shark bite or an operator pulling out the wrong connection or turning off the wrong switch.

Referring to FIGS. 1–4 , existing telecommunications systems use various protection switching techniques. The telecommunications system typically includes a physical medium or line 10 with electronic and optical equipment 12 located at regular intervals along the medium 10 and terminal equipment 14 , 15 at each end of the medium 10 . Transmitting terminal equipment 14 is used to prepare signals for transmitting information over the medium 10 , and receiving terminal equipment 15 is used to recover the information at the receiving end of the medium. The electronic and optical equipment 12 is used in connection with the physical medium 10 to enable transmission, for example, by amplifying or regenerating the signals. Although only one direction of transmission is shown with transmitting terminal equipment at one end and receiving terminal equipment at the other end, the telecommunications system includes both receiving and transmitting terminal equipment at each end to provide transmission in both directions.

As shown in FIG. 1 , many telecommunications systems protect the main physical medium 10 by providing a separate physical medium 10 a installed on a physically separate route, where simultaneous damage to both media is very unlikely. Various protection-switching architectures exist to transfer communications traffic from one medium to the next in the event of a failure in the former. Spontaneous failures may also occur in the complex electronic and optical equipment 12 . Where electrical and optical equipment 12 is located at regular intervals, such equipment is frequently protected in conjunction with the medium 10 by moving the traffic to the separate medium 10 a, which is equipped with its own separate electronic and optical equipment 12 a . In the existing system, the transmitting terminal equipment 14 can be coupled to the lines or physical media 10 , 10 a with a splitter 11 to provide duplicate signals over the lines 10 , 10 a . The receiving terminal equipment 15 can be coupled to the lines or physical media 10 , 10 a with a selector 13 (e.g., a 2:1 switch) to select the signal from either of the lines 10 , 10 a . This protection switching technique is often referred to as 1+1 line protection.

Failures also may occur in the terminal equipment 14 , 15 at the ends of the medium 10 . Several methods currently exist to protect terminal equipment against failure. One known method provides separate terminal equipment 14 a , 15 a , as shown in FIG. 2 , for the separate, physically diverse transmission medium 10 a . In this existing system, the splitter 11 is outside the transmitting terminal equipment 14 , 14 a to provide the same data stream to both the transmitting terminal equipment 14 and the spare transmitting terminal equipment 14 a . The selector 13 is located outside of the receiving terminal equipment 15 , 15 a to select the data stream from either the receiving terminal equipment 15 or the spare receiving terminal equipment 15 a . This protection switching technique is sometimes called 1+1 combined terminal and line protection.

This 1+1 combined terminal and line protection method requires full duplication of the terminal equipment. Because the terminal equipment can represent a large fraction of the total cost of a transmission system, this duplication of equipment adds considerable cost to the overall system. Another disadvantage to this method is the amount of physical space needed to house the extra sets of terminal equipment. Effectively, each terminal facility is likely to be double in size.

In one type of telecommunications system, shown in FIG. 3 , separate wavelength processing devices 16 , 18 are provided for separate information channels provided over the same physical medium 10 , for example, through wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) of multiple channels over a single optical fiber. In a WDM system, a wavelength combining device 20 (e.g., a multiplexer) combines the separate wavelengths (λ 1 , λ 2 , . . . λ N ) from the respective wavelength processing device transmitters 16 and a wavelength separating device 22 (e.g., demultiplexer) separates the wavelengths (λ 1 , λ 2 , . . . λ N ) to be received by the respective wavelength processing device receivers 18 . Where protection against a failure of the transmission medium is desired in such cases, a separate cable 10 a with a similar number of constituent fibers is provided. Each fiber in one cable can carry multiple wavelengths, acting to protect its counterpart in the other cable. To provide 1+1 combined terminal and line protection in this case, full duplication of the terminal equipment requires duplicative wavelength processing devices 16 a , 18 a for each and every wavelength, again representing a considerable expense and increased floor space in the terminal facility.

Where a system includes a plurality of channels and associated wavelength processing devices 16 , another approach in protecting terminal equipment is to provide a single spare wavelength processing device 16 a , as shown in FIG. 4 . Through switching circuits (e.g., splitters 11 , selector 24 , splitter 25 and selectors 26 ), the spare wavelength processing device 16 a can be substituted for any one of the wavelength processing devices 16 at one end of the transmission path. In this system, the wavelength combining device 20 combines the N wavelengths from the wavelength processing devices 16 and the spare wavelength processing device 16 a when it is substituted. This protection switching technique is commonly known as 1×N or 1:N equipment protection.

According to a variation of this method, as shown in FIG. 5 , the physical transmission medium 10 includes an additional transmission path, such as an additional fiber in a cable or an additional wavelength on the same fiber in a WDM system. The additional fiber (or wavelength) is used to interconnect the spare wavelength processing devices 16 a , 18 a at the two ends of the system. A N+1 wavelength combining device 28 combines the wavelengths from the wavelength processing devices 16 in addition to the additional wavelength from the spare wavelength processing device 16 b. The spare wavelength processing devices 16 a , 18 a at each end are used to protect against a failure of any one of the wavelength processing devices 16 and 18 , using switching arrangements at the two ends of the transmission system. This protection switching technique is sometimes referred to as the 1×N end-to-end path protection. However, this method may not protect against damage to the physical transmission medium 10 , such as a cable, unless N separate diverse routes are provided, which is practically uneconomical.

In many cases, the terminal equipment at the ends of the system is used to identify failures in the transmission medium and to initiate a protection switch. This is especially true as the length of the transmission path increases. In some systems, the presence or absence of a signal is one way of detecting a failure on the medium without the use of terminal equipment. In very long systems, however, the presence or absence of a signal does not indicate the “health” of the transmitted signal and is not necessarily an indication that the medium is capable of transmitting the signal with sufficient integrity.

Use of terminal equipment to monitor performance allows actual monitoring of bit error rate (BER) performance in a digital system. The BER verifies the measure of performance typically of importance to customers. Where the transmission method is WDM, detection of media failures with the terminal or wavelength processing device associated with each individual wavelength is desired. In general, it is desirable to monitor both diversely routed cables—to identify failures in the channel carrying traffic and to assure that the redundant channel is ready to carry service in the event the other cable fails. To provide this type of monitoring in existing systems requires separate terminal or wavelength processing devices on every wavelength of each of the two (or more) diversely routed cables. This again leads to inordinate costs and floor space.

In view of the disadvantages of the protection switching techniques mentioned above, there is a need for a protection switching system and method in telecommunications systems, especially WDM systems, which reduces the number of spare wavelength processing devices and assures proper operation of all physical media using the capabilities of the terminal equipment.

To address the needs discussed above, a protection switching architecture is provided with the reliability of 1+1 line protection while minimizing the duplication of wavelength processing devices. In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, a protection switching system is provided for use in a wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) optical telecommunications system. The WDM optical telecommunications system comprises a plurality of service wavelength processing device transmitters for transmitting optical signals at respective wavelengths, a plurality of service wavelength processing device receivers for receiving the optical signals at the respective wavelengths, and at least one service transmission line coupled between the service wavelength processing device transmitters and the service wavelength processing device receivers for carrying the optical signals. The protection switching system comprises at least one spare wavelength processing device transmitter for transmitting an optical signal having a wavelength and at least one spare wavelength processing device receiver for receiving an optical signal and for monitoring optical signals having any one of the wavelengths. The spare wavelength processing device transmitter is configured to replace one of the service wavelength processing device transmitters, and the spare wavelength processing device receiver is configured to replace one of the service wavelength processing device receivers. At least one spare transmission line is coupled between the wavelength processing device transmitters and the wavelength processing device receivers for carrying the optical signals. Wavelength selection equipment selectively routes the optical signals on either the service transmission line or the spare transmission line to either the service wavelength processing device receivers or the spare wavelength processing device receiver and selects one of the wavelengths to be sent to the spare wavelength processing device receiver.

According to another aspect of the present invention, a WDM telecommunications system comprises at least one service transmission line for carrying multiplexed optical signals, at least one spare transmission line for carrying the multiplexed optical signals, and terminal equipment with protection switching at each end of the service transmission line and the spare transmission line. The terminal equipment at each end comprises a plurality of service wavelength processing devices for transmitting and receiving optical signals at a plurality of respective wavelengths and at least one spare wavelength processing device for transmitting and receiving an optical signal at a wavelength and for monitoring the optical signals at any one of the wavelengths. The spare wavelength processing device is configured to replace any one of the service wavelength processing devices. At least one wavelength combining device receives transmitted optical signals from the service wavelength processing devices and the spare wavelength processing device and combines the transmitted optical signals into an outgoing multiplexed optical signal. At least a first wavelength separating device separates an incoming multiplexed optical signal into received optical signals at the respective wavelengths. Wavelength selection equipment selectively routes the received optical signals on either the service transmission line or the spare transmission line to either the service wavelength processing devices or the spare wavelength processing device and selects one of the wavelengths to be sent to the spare wavelength processing device.

According to a further aspect of the present invention, a method is provided for protection switching in a WDM optical telecommunications system. The method comprises transmitting and receiving multiplexed optical signals over the service transmission line and the spare transmission line. Each wavelength of the multiplexed optical signal received on the spare transmission line is monitored using the spare wavelength processing device receiver. The spare transmission line is switched to the service wavelength processing device receivers when the service transmission line fails. A failed one of the service wavelength processing device transmitters is replaced with the spare wavelength processing device transmitter when the failed one of the service wavelength processing device transmitters fails.

Additional features and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description that follows. It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and are intended to provide further explanation of the invention as claimed.

These and other features and advantages of the present invention will be better understood by reading the following detailed description, taken together with the drawings wherein:

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of one transmission direction of a conventional protection switching technique with 1+1 line protection;

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of one transmission direction of a conventional protection switching technique with 1+1 combined terminal and line protection;

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of one transmission direction of a conventional protection switching technique in a WDM system with combined terminal and line protection;

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of one transmission direction of a conventional protection switching technique with 1×N or 1:N equipment protection;

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of one transmission direction of a conventional protection switching technique with 1×N end-to-end path protection;

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of one transmission direction of a telecommunications system including a protection switching system, according to one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of an alternative embodiment of the transmitting terminal equipment; and

FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram of one transmission direction of a telecommunications system including a protection switching system, according to another embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 6 , a telecommunications system 30 with protection switching is described in greater detail. The exemplary telecommunications system 30 is a wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) system, although the protection switching concepts of the present invention can be used in other types of telecommunications systems. FIG. 6 shows only one transmission direction of the telecommunications system 30 including only transmitting terminal equipment 32 at one end and only receiving terminal equipment 34 at the other end connected by a one-directional transmission medium 36 . To provide transmission in two directions, transmitting terminal equipment and receiving terminal equipment is integrated at each end of the telecommunications system 30 and connected by transmission media for each direction.

In one exemplary embodiment of a WDM system, the transmitting terminal equipment 32 includes service wavelength processing device transmitters 40 and a spare wavelength processing device transmitter 40 a , similar to a 1×N end-to-end path protected system. The service wavelength processing device transmitters 40 transmit optical signals at N wavelengths (λ 1 , λ 2 , . . . λ N ), respectively. According to one embodiment, the spare wavelength processing device transmitter 40 a transmits an optical signal at a unique spare wavelength (λ S ) for a total of N+1 wavelengths allocated on the transmission medium 36 . Alternatively, the spare wavelength processing device transmitter 40 a can include a tunable laser capable of transmitting an optical signal at substantially any one of the N wavelengths to replace any one of the N wavelengths directly.

At the transmitting end, splitters 44 on the incoming customer data streams split each of the N incoming data streams 46 into duplicate incoming data streams 46 a , 46 b (i.e., service data streams and spare data streams). In one embodiment, the splitters 44 are 3 dB splitters but other values are possible. One of each of the pairs of the duplicate incoming data streams 46 a are passed to the respective service wavelength processing device transmitters 40 . A selector 48 receives the other half of the duplicate incoming data streams 46 b (i.e., the spare data streams) and selects one of these as the input to the spare wavelength processing device transmitter 40 a . Thus, the N customer data streams are processed by the wavelength processing device transmitters 40 at the N wavelengths and a duplicate of any one of those N customer data streams is processed by the spare wavelength processing device transmitter 40 a at the N+1 wavelength, or at any one of the N service wavelengths when a tunable laser is used in the spare wavelength processing device transmitter.

A wavelength combining device 50 (e.g., a multiplexer) having N+1 ports combines the N+1 wavelengths (or N wavelengths in the case of the tunable laser) transmitted by the service wavelength processing device transmitters 40 and the spare wavelength processing device transmitter 40 a to produce an outgoing multiplexed optical signal. In the wavelength combining device 50 , the port for the spare wavelength processing device transmitter 40 a can also have a tunable noise filter to strip off broadband noise caused by a noise source in the spare wavelength processing device transmitter 40 a , for example, when the spare wavelength processing device transmitter 40 a includes a tunable laser.

The wavelength combining device 50 is connected to a splitter 52 (e.g., a 3 dB splitter), which sends duplicate copies of the outgoing multiplexed optical signal to both a service (or working) transmission line 54 and to a spare (or protection) transmission line 54 a . In the exemplary embodiment, the transmission lines include optical fibers, although any type of physical transmission medium capable of carrying optical signals can be used. The spare transmission line 54 a can be routed on a physically diverse route. A terminal line amplifier (not shown) can be provided before or after the splitter 52 depending on power levels and amplifier spacing strategy.

In an alternative embodiment of the transmitting end shown in FIG. 7 , two wavelength combining devices 56 , 56 a can be coupled to the service transmission line 54 and spare transmission line 54 a , respectively, with N+1 two-way splitters 57 coupled to the N+1 wavelength processing device transmitters 40 , 40 a , respectively. In this embodiment, the optical signals are split before being multiplexed and thus a failure in the service wavelength combining device 56 is protected.

At the receiving end of the embodiment shown in FIG. 6 , the receiving terminal equipment 34 includes a wavelength separating device 62 (e.g., demultiplexer), service wavelength processing device receivers 64 , and a spare wavelength processing device receiver 64 a . A transfer switch 60 routes the incoming multiplexed optical signal on either the service transmission line 54 or the spare transmission line 54 a to the wavelength separating device 62 . The wavelength separating device 62 has N ports and separates the incoming multiplexed optical signal into N wavelengths. The service wavelength processing device receivers 64 receive the respective N wavelengths and the spare wavelength processing device receiver 64 a receives any one of the N wavelengths or the N+1 wavelength. The wavelength processing device receivers 64 , 64 a are also configured to monitor the optical signals using techniques known to those of ordinary skill in the art, for example, by monitoring the bit error rate (BER).

A tunable filter 66 is coupled to the transfer switch 60 and receives the incoming multiplexed optical signal that is not routed to the wavelength separating device 62 . The tunable filter 66 can be tuned to select any one of the N+1 wavelengths and feed the selected wavelength to the spare wavelength processing device receiver 64 a for processing and/or monitoring. In the exemplary embodiment, the transfer switch 60 and the tunable filter 66 together act as wavelength selection equipment that selectively provides an optical signal at one of the wavelengths from either the service transmission line 54 or the spare transmission line 54 a to the spare wavelength processing device receiver 64 a.

A splitter 70 receives the output of the spare wavelength processing device receiver 64 a . Two way selectors 72 on each outgoing customer data stream allow the substitution of the output of the spare wavelength processing device receiver 64 a for any one of the service wavelength processing device receivers 64 .

In one embodiment, the wavelength processing devices 40 , 40 a , 64 , 64 a are integrated as optical transponders that interface with OC-192 services. One example is the high performance optical equipment (HPOE) available from Tyco Telecommunications (US) Inc. Other types of optical transponders or devices for receiving, conditioning and transmitting optical signals can also be used for the wavelength processing device transmitters 40 , 40 a and receivers 64 , 64 a . One example of the wavelength combining device 50 and the wavelength separating device 62 is the wavelength terminating equipment (WTE) available from Tyco Telecommunications (US) Inc. Other types of known optical equipment for multiplexing and demultiplexing can also be used.

In normal operation (i.e., no failures of either a transmission line or a wavelength processing device), the multiplexed optical signal is transmitted over both the service and spare transmission lines 54 , 54 a , the service transmission line 54 is routed to the wavelength separating device 62 , and the spare transmission line 54 a is routed to the tunable filter 60 . Each of the service wavelength processing device receivers 64 monitors its respective wavelength transmitted on the service transmission line 54 and delivers the respective processed data stream to the customer. The spare wavelength processing device receiver 64 a sequentially monitors the wavelengths transmitted over the spare transmission line 54 a , one wavelength at a time, by successively tuning the tunable filter 66 to each wavelength containing traffic. The wavelength processing device receivers 64 , 64 a monitor the optical signals to detect failures in the terminal equipment transmitting the optical signals or in the transmission lines carrying the optical signals.

If a failure occurs on the service transmission line 54 , the failure can be detected by the wavelength processing device receivers 64 of all wavelengths carried over that line. If one or more of the service wavelength processing device receivers 64 show degraded performance or a communication error, such as an Out of Frame (OOF) indication, the spare wavelength processing device receiver 64 a can then sequentially monitor those channels or wavelengths over the spare transmission line 54 a to determine if a line switch is appropriate. If all of the service wavelength processing device receivers 64 show an error and the spare wavelength processing device receiver 64 a shows that any one of the wavelengths is without error, the failure has likely occurred in the service transmission line 54 and a line switch can be performed without monitoring the other wavelengths.

When a failure in the service line 54 is detected, the transfer switch 60 coupled to the service line 54 and the spare line 54 a is reversed such that the spare line 54 a is connected to the wavelength separating device 62 , restoring traffic connectivity. At the same time, the service line 54 is connected to the tunable filter 60 , which is successively tuned to each wavelength containing traffic. This allows the spare wavelength processing device receiver 64 a to monitor the health of the incoming service transmission line 54 , one wavelength at a time, to determine when it is repaired and ready to carry traffic again.

If a failure occurs in the terminal equipment (e.g., in one of the service wavelength processing device transmitters 40 ), the failure can be detected by the corresponding service wavelength processing device receiver 64 at the wavelength of the failed service wavelength processing device transmitter 40 . If both a service wavelength processing device receiver 64 and the spare wavelength processing device receiver 64 a detect errors on a single wavelength or channel, for example, the error has likely occurred in the wavelength processing device transmitter 40 transmitting the optical signal at that wavelength.

When a failure occurs in the terminal equipment, the failed service wavelength processing device can be replaced with the spare wavelength processing device. If a failure occurs in any one of the service wavelength processing device transmitters 40 , for example, the spare wavelength processing device transmitter 40 a is substituted by using the selector 48 to select the spare data stream 46 b associated to the failed transmitter 40 . The spare wavelength processing device transmitter 40 a then processes and transmits this data stream 46 b. According to one method, the spare wavelength processing device transmitter 40 a transmits the selected data stream 46 b at a unique spare wavelength λ S . In this case, the tunable filter 60 at the receiving end is tuned so that the spare wavelength λ S associated with the spare wavelength processing device transmitter 40 a is fed to the spare wavelength processing device receiver 64 a . The selector 72 corresponding to the channel of the failed transmitter 40 selects the signal from the spare wavelength processing device receiver 64 a and substitutes it for the signal from the channel of the failed transmitter.

According to another method, the spare wavelength processing device transmitter 40 a transmits the selected data stream 46 b at substantially the same wavelength as the failed transmitter 40 (e.g., using a tunable laser in the spare wavelength processing device transmitter 40 a ). In this case, the service wavelength processing device receiver 64 corresponding to that wavelength can be used to receive and process that wavelength. In this method, only N wavelengths need to be transmitted on the line and the spare wavelength processing device receiver 64 a can continue to be used to monitor either the service transmission line 54 or the spare transmission line 54 a.

Referring to FIG. 8 , another embodiment of the receiving end of a telecommunications system with protection switching is shown with like or similar elements shown with the same reference numerals. This embodiment of the receiving end can be used with either of the transmitting ends shown in FIG. 6 or FIG. 7 . First and second wavelength separating devices 80 , 80 a (e.g., demultiplexers) are coupled to the service transmission line 54 and the spare transmission line 54 a , respectively. The wavelength separating devices 80 , 80 a each have N+1 ports (or N ports when the transmitter uses a tunable laser) for separating the N wavelengths of the service wavelength processing device transmitters 40 and the N+1 wavelength of the spare wavelength processing device transmitter 40 a in the case where a N+1 wavelength is used. Separate transfer switches 82 are used for each of the N wavelengths to send the respective wavelengths either to the service wavelength processing device receivers 64 or to a selector 84 for selecting one of the wavelengths to send to the spare wavelength processing device receiver 64 a . When N+1 wavelengths are used, another transfer switch 82 a is used to send the N+1 wavelength from either the service transmission line 54 or the spare transmission line 54 a to the selector 84 .

The method of monitoring and protection switching in the embodiment of FIG. 8 is essentially the same as described above in connection with FIG. 6 . In this embodiment, however, the transfer switches 82 , 82 a and selector 84 are used as wavelength selection equipment to select one of the wavelengths from either the service line 54 or the spare line 54 a for monitoring and/or processing by the spare wavelength processing device receiver 64 a.

Accordingly, the protection switching system and method of the present invention uses the spare wavelength processing device to monitor the performance of a transmission line or fiber. This system and method allows the significant economy associated with 1×N terminal equipment protection and the reliability of a 1+1 protection system utilizing protected fiber paths, while maintaining the ability to monitor the health of the protection fiber on a wavelength basis using the superior fault detection capabilities of terminal equipment monitoring.

Modifications and substitutions by one of ordinary skill in the art are considered to be within the scope of the present invention, which is not to be limited except by the following claims.