Patent · US Expired

Programmable wavelength router

US5978116A · kind A · utility

51Cited by
4References
17Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateJan 29, 1999
Grant dateNov 2, 1999
Priority date
Expiry dateJan 29, 2019

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH04Q2011/0035
  • WIPO fieldTelecommunications
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A programmable wavelength router having a plurality of cascaded stages where each stage receives one or more optical signals comprising a plurality of wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) channels. Each stage divides the received optical signals into divided optical signals comprising a subset of the channels and spatially positions the divided optical signals in response to a control signal applied to each stage. Preferably each stage divides a received WDM signal into two subsets that are either single channel or WDM signals. A final stage outputs optical signals at desired locations. In this manner, 2.sup.N optical signals in a WDM signal can be spatially separated and permuted using N control signals.

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