An optical networking module is formed with an integrated module including optical, optical-electrical and protocol processing components, and complementary software. In one embodiment, the integral protocol processing component is a single ASIC and supports multiple protocols. The module is further equipped with support control electronics in support of control functions to manage the optical, optical-electrical as well as the multi-protocol processing component. The integrated module together with the complementary control software present to an optical networking equipment designer/developer a singular component that handles optical to electrical and electrical to optical conversion, as well as data link and physical sub-layer processing for a selected one of a plurality of datacom and telecom protocols, spanning local, regional as well as wide area networks. The integrated module and complementary control software further presents to the optical networking designer/developer a unified software interface for managing the various components and functions.
An API is provided to an optical networking apparatus to facilitate uniform access, control and interaction with its multi-protocol optical networking modules (MPONM) by its applications. Each of the MPONM has a number of function blocks having corresponding drivers. In response to an application's request to initialize a MPONM, the initialization function of the API cooperates with the function block drivers to create a data structure for the MPONM, and returns a handle of the data structure to the application. Thereafter, in response to a need to have an operation performed in the packet filtering function block of a MPONM, the application makes the request to the API, including with the request the handle of the data structure of the MPONM. In response, the API allocates a packet filtering resource to perform the operation, and returns a handle corresponding to the allocated resource to the application for use in further requests. When the application is finished with the resource, the resource is de-allocated by the API.
An API is provided to an optical networking apparatus to facilitate uniform access, control or interaction with its multi-protocol optical networking modules (MPONM) by its applications. Each of the MPONM has a number of function blocks having corresponding service routines. In response to an application's request to initialize a MPONM, the initialization function of the API cooperates with the function block service routines to create a data structure for the MPONM, and returns a handle of the data structure to the application. Thereafter, in response to a need to have an operation performed in a function block of a MPONM, the application makes the request with an externalized function the API associated with the function block, including with the request the handle of the data structure of the MPONM.
Techniques for aligning the data path inside a receiver to the word and frame boundaries of an input data stream using reconfigurable programmable circuit elements are provided. The input data stream can be organized according to a data transmission protocol such as SONET or SDH. A first programmable circuit elements are initially configured as a frame detection block. The frame detection block detects the boundaries between words in the input data. A portion of the frame detection block is then reconfigured as a word align block. Another portion of the frame detection block is reconfigured as a block that monitors bits in each frame to ensure that the frame boundaries remain in the same bit positions. If the frame boundaries change, the programmable circuit elements are reconfigured to implement the frame detection block again.
An apparatus and method for automatically detecting the port type of a remote device are disclosed. One embodiment of the apparatus includes a data rate detection unit to sample a data rate from an incoming data signal. A first frequency configuration unit is operatively coupled with the data rate detection unit to receive a detected data rate from the data rate detection unit. The apparatus also includes an oscillator to generate a plurality of reference clock frequencies. A frequency selector unit is coupled with the oscillator to select one of the reference clock frequencies. A phase lock unit to phase lock the incoming data signal is coupled with the first frequency configuration unit. A data rate select output is coupled with the first frequency configuration unit to operatively link the first frequency configuration unit with a second frequency configuration unit of a remote device.
