Common use of Connection Types Clause in Contracts

Connection Types. The equipment is designed to complement SONET networks by providing increased capacity per fiber while leaving protection functions to the SONET network elements. These applications may use the Unprotected Connections illustrated in Figure 11 and Figure 13. However, the equipment is also designed to be deployed in place of a SONET transport layer where appropriate. In order to be capable of both these options, the equipment incorporates optical layer protection switching functionality as illustrated in Figure 12. These different connections options can be provisioned on the same system on a per connection basis. Figure 11 illustrates a basic unprotected ring connection with an unprotected client interface. Such a connection may be used when the client signal does not require any protection, or it is protected via some other network. Note that the same wavelength on the unused arc of the ring is available for another connection. FIGURE 11. UNPROTECTED CONNECTION WITH UNPROTECTED CLIENT INTERFACE [OBJECT OMITTED] Figure 12 illustrates a protected connection with an unprotected client interface. This connection offers survivability against fiber cuts and node failures, however, the client interface remains unprotected, perhaps because it is an intra-office connection that is not expected to fail. This mechanism uses a permanent head-end bridge performed by the OCMs in the two terminating nodes. The drop node monitors the integrity of both received optical channels and uses this information to select the better channel.