Patent · US Expired

Optical communications networks

US5774244A · kind A · utility

62Cited by
5References
46Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateNov 26, 1996
Grant dateJun 30, 1998
Priority date
Expiry dateNov 26, 2016

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH04Q2011/0086
  • WIPO fieldTelecommunications
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

An optical communications network includes a plurality of passive optical networks (PONs) connected in a ring in PON address order, in which communication channels between terminals are wavelength multiplexed. Each optical link between adjacent PONs includes a tunable wavelength filter, and a common wavelength allocation database is arranged dynamically to select wavelengths for a connection and to provide corresponding control signals to the appropriate filters such that the allocated wavelengths for a connection can pass over only the transmission path between the terminals. Thus the same wavelengths can be re-used for another connection whose transmission path does not overlap with any existing transmission path involving those wavelengths.

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