Patent · US Expired

Rapidly reconfigurable wavelength multiplexing device

US5245681A · kind A · utility

23Cited by
7References
6Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateMar 25, 1992
Grant dateSep 14, 1993
Priority date
Expiry dateMar 25, 2012

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH04J14/0282
  • WIPO fieldTelecommunications
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A wavelength multiplexing device comprising a switching matrix (18) of the N to 1 type, which has several successive stages (18a,18b) of controllable optical couplers (20) interconnected to form a tree structure and modulating means (24) connected to the output of the switching matrix (18). The device further has N sources (10,12,14,16) each emitting a continuous light beam having a particular wavelength to an input of the matrix, and a control circuit (22) connected to the couplers and controlling the latter so as to select P wavelengths from among the N available wavelengths. The device allows efficient transmission of data through an optical network.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.