Patent · US Expired

Optical wavelength division multiplexer for high speed, protocol-independent serial data sources

US5487120A · kind A · utility

36Cited by
15References
12Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateFeb 9, 1994
Grant dateJan 23, 1996
Priority date
Expiry dateFeb 9, 2014

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH04J14/0307
  • WIPO fieldTelecommunications
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A wavelength division multiplexer (WDM) unit (12) includes a plurality of Input/Output cards (IOCs 14). Each IOC is bidirectionally coupled to I/O specific media (fiber or copper) and to two coaxial cables. Also bidirectionally coupled to the coaxial cables are a plurality of Laser/Receiver Cards (LRC 20). The interface between the IOCs and the LRCs is an Emitter Coupled Logic (ECL) electrical interface that is conveyed over the coaxial cables. Each LRC is bidirectionally coupled by two single mode fibers to an optical multiplexer and demultiplexer, embodied within a grating (24). An input/output port of the grating is coupled to a fiber link (28) that enables bidirectional, full duplex data communications with a second WDM. Each WDM also includes a Diagnostic Processor Card (DPC 28) that receives status signals from the IOCs and LRCs, that forwards the status signals on to an external processor, and which generates control information for the IOCs and LRCs.

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