US 12,085,771 B2
Submarine cable branching units with fiber pair switching
Lara Denise Garrett, Red Bank, NJ (US); Haifeng Li, Morganville, NJ (US); Thomas Marino, Jr., Eatontown, NJ (US); Georg Heinrich Mohs, East Brunswick, NJ (US); and Massimo Manna, New York, NY (US)
Assigned to SubCom, LLC, Eatontown, NJ (US)
Filed by SUBCOM, LLC, Eatontown, NJ (US)
Filed on Jun. 11, 2021, as Appl. No. 17/345,287.
Application 17/345,287 is a continuation of application No. 16/525,757, filed on Jul. 30, 2019, granted, now 11,054,599.
Claims priority of provisional application 62/712,167, filed on Jul. 30, 2018.
Prior Publication US 2021/0302678 A1, Sep. 30, 2021
This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.
Int. Cl. G02B 6/44 (2006.01); H04J 14/02 (2006.01); H04B 3/44 (2006.01); H04B 10/80 (2013.01)
CPC G02B 6/4427 (2013.01) [H04J 14/0221 (2013.01); H04B 3/44 (2013.01); H04B 10/808 (2013.01)] 10 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. An optical routing device, comprising:
a first trunk port of a plurality of trunk ports, the first trunk port configured to receive a trunk signal from a first fiber pair of a trunk cable, the first fiber pair being associated with a first optical spectrum;
a first branch port configured to drop the trunk signal from the first fiber pair of the trunk cable to a first drop fiber of a branch cable; and
a second branch port configured to drop the trunk signal from the first fiber pair of the trunk cable to a second drop fiber of the branch cable, wherein the trunk signal is selectively routed from the first fiber pair to the first branch port or to the second branch port based on a control signal received from a controller, and wherein a total number of trunk ports of the plurality of trunk ports is greater than a total number of branch ports of the first and second branch ports.