Patent · US Expired

Auxiliary-signal transmission system

US5625481A · kind A · utility

13Cited by
5References
11Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateFeb 14, 1995
Grant dateApr 29, 1997
Priority date
Expiry dateFeb 14, 2015

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH04B2210/078
  • WIPO fieldTelecommunications
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

Spontaneous emission occurring in association with direct optical amplification using an erbium-doped optical fiber is modulated with an auxiliary signal, such as a supervisory signal, for transmission of the auxiliary signal. In a first aspect of the invention, the output of an optical amplifier is passed through a variable optical band-pass filter whose transmission characteristic is varied in accordance with the auxiliary signal, to modulate the spontaneous emission component contained in the optical amplifier output. In a second aspect of the invention, the output of the optical amplifier is separated by an optical branching device into a main optical signal and part of the spontaneous emission. The separated spontaneous emission component is modulated by being passed through a variable optical band-pass filter whose transmission characteristic is varied in accordance with the auxiliary signal, and then, the modulated spontaneous emission component is wavelength-division multiplexed with the main optical signal.

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