High-density submarine roadm unit with remote wss redundancy

Abstract

Aspects of the present disclosure describe systems, methods and structures including high-density submarine/undersea reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexers (ROADM) having remote wavelength selective switch (WSS) redundancy.

1 . An improved submarine/undersea communications system configuration for communicating in a submarine/undersea transmission network comprising:
 a submarine/undersea branching unit (BU);   a submarine/undersea reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexer (ROADM) configured as a high-density ROADM (HDRU), said HDRU including a plurality of ROADM sub-units (RSUs), each individual one of said plurality of RSU having a plurality of wavelength selective switches (WSS) in optical communication with said BU;   the improved submarine/undersea communication system configuration CHARACTERIZED BY:   remote redundancy of the plurality of RSU WSS.   
     
     
         2 . The improved system configuration of  claim 1  FURTHER CHARACTERIZED BY:
 the remote redundancy of the plurality of RSU WSS is achieved by configuring a redundant WSS for each individual one of the plurality of WSS included in in the submarine/undersea RSU, each redundant WSS being located in a non-submarine/undersea location. 
 
     
     
         3 . The improved system configuration of  claim 2  FURTHER CHARACTERIZED BY:
 each configured redundant WSS is configured to provide dummy signaling to its paired WSS contained in the submarine/undersea RSU during normal operation. 
 
     
     
         4 . The improved system configuration of  claim 2  FURTHER CHARACTERIZED BY:
 each configured redundant WSS is configured to disable providing dummy signaling to its paired WSS contained in the submarine/undersea RSU during a failure of the paired WSS. 
 
     
     
         5 . The improved system configuration of  claim 2  FURTHER CHARACTERIZED BY:
 each configured redundant WSS is configured to add/drop channels instead of its paired WSS contained in the submarine/undersea RSU during a failure of the paired WSS.