Embodiments including methods, systems, and apparatuses for distributing, processing, and reacting to path information distributed via a service-agnostic packet fabric for the purpose of enabling path selection are disclosed. By configuring two ingress line cards to send path quality words to each other via the switch fabric, compare the path quality words, and determine whether to transmit traffic to an egress line card via the switch fabric based on the comparison of the path quality words, the embodiments enable a central switch fabric to be unaware of the paths that it carries, and enable both ingress and egress bandwidth of the switch fabric to be sized according to the facilities for which it is terminating. The switch fabric does not need to support working and protection paths simultaneously in some embodiments, allowing it to be scaled appropriately to termination facilities.

A maze-based switch generally having three functional blocks is disclosed. The first functional block handles communications by accepting an entered maze pattern from an external system controller and outputting the entered maze pattern (and optionally its directional complement) to the second functional block. The second functional block stores the maze pattern (and optionally its directional complement) to a permanent storage element and outputs the stored, entered maze pattern and its directional complement to a series of transistors in the third functional block. The third functional block is an electronic maze in which a correct maze pattern and its directional complement must be received by the transistors for the transistors to pass electrical power through the electronic maze to a connected element. The third functional block may alternatively be implemented with optical elements, optoelectronic elements, microelectromechanical elements, or elements formed by other microsystem technologies.

Pre-authorized communication services and/or transactions are provided via a plurality of networks in response to a request received from a user to provide at least one of a communication service, a transaction and user account information via a plurality of networks of different types. Prior to processing the request, there is verification of the users authorization to receive the at least one of the communication service, the transaction, and the user account information, and that an account associated with the user has a sufficient amount currently available for payment of the at least one of the communication service and the transaction. After verification, an authorized account associated with the user is charged in real time as the at least one of the communication service and the transaction is provided.

The present application discloses an add/drop multiplexer, including a first line board and a tributary board, where the first line board includes at least a first interface and a second interface, the first interface is disposed between the tributary board and the first line board, and the second interface is disposed on a network side of the first line board; the first line board is configured to output a first signal received from a first link through the second interface; the first line board is configured to output a second signal received from the first link to the tributary board through the first interface; and the first line board is configured to receive a third signal from the tributary board through the first interface, and input the third signal into the first link. An inter-board interface on a link is effectively eliminated, thereby improving a link bandwidth of a device.

An optical/electrical signal transmission system (100) comprises a number of processing devices (106) mounted on a motherboard (104), and a number of transceiver modules (102) comprising a number of e/o engines (304), in which the transceiver modules (102) electrically couple to the processing devices (106) without interrupting the processes of the system (100).

The present application discloses an add/drop multiplexer, including a first line board and a tributary board, where the first line board includes at least a first interface and a second interface, the first interface is disposed between the tributary board and the first line board, and the second interface is disposed on a network side of the first line board; the first line board is configured to output a first signal received from a first link through the second interface; the first line board is configured to output a second signal received from the first link to the tributary board through the first interface; and the first line board is configured to receive a third signal from the tributary board through the first interface, and input the third signal into the first link. An inter-board interface on a link is effectively eliminated, thereby improving a link bandwidth of a device.

Radio frequency subscriber drop units include a housing having an input port and an output port and a printed circuit board mounted in an interior of the housing. The printed circuit board includes a dielectric layer, a wiring layer that includes conductive wirings that comprise at least part of a communications path between the input port and the output port that is on a first face of the dielectric layer, and a ground plane layer that includes a conductive ground plane that is on a second face of the dielectric layer.

A transmission apparatus includes: a first plug-in unit including: a clock generator to generate a first clock, a first frame-pulse generator to generate a first frame-pulse-signal based on the first clock; a detector to detect a phase-difference between a first phase of the first frame-pulse-signal and a second phase of a second frame-pulse-signal transmitted from other plug-in unit, and generate phase-difference information based on the phase-difference, and a first transmitter to transmit a control-signal including the phase-difference information to the other plug-in unit; and a second plug-in unit being the other plug-in unit, including: a receiver to receive the control-signal, a controller to control a phase of a second clock of the second plug-in unit, based on the phase-difference information, a second frame-pulse generator to generate the second frame-pulse-signal based on the second clock, and a second transmitter to transmit the second frame-pulse-signal to the first plug-in unit.

A transmission apparatus includes: a first plug-in unit including: a clock generator to generate a first clock, a first frame-pulse generator to generate a first frame-pulse-signal based on the first clock; a detector to detect a phase-difference between a first phase of the first frame-pulse-signal and a second phase of a second frame-pulse-signal transmitted from other plug-in unit, and generate phase-difference information based on the phase-difference, and a first transmitter to transmit a control-signal including the phase-difference information to the other plug-in unit; and a second plug-in unit being the other plug-in unit, including: a receiver to receive the control-signal, a controller to control a phase of a second clock of the second plug-in unit, based on the phase-difference information, a second frame-pulse generator to generate the second frame-pulse-signal based on the second clock, and a second transmitter to transmit the second frame-pulse-signal to the first plug-in unit.

A line card is provided. The line card includes: a first processing module, configured to determine, according to a correspondence between a first optical serial signal flow and a logical interface, the logical interface, where bandwidth of the logical interface is configured to be first bandwidth, the logical interface is corresponding to a first optical interface, and the first optical interface is corresponding to an optical fiber, or a channel that is in an optical fiber and is used to transmit an optical signal with a wavelength. The line card also includes a second processing module, configured to determine, according to a correspondence between the logical interface and the first optical interface and the logical interface, the first optical interface. The line card also includes a scheduling module, configured to transmit the first optical serial signal flow through the first optical interface.