Patent · US Expired

Optical spectral multiplexer for inserting and extracting

US6262821A · kind A · utility

7Cited by
3References
6Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateJun 9, 1998
Grant dateJul 17, 2001
Priority date
Expiry dateJun 9, 2018

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH04Q2011/0024
  • WIPO fieldTelecommunications
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

An extract-and-insert optical wavelength division multiplexer includes a broadcaster (D1) for applying an incoming multiplex signal to N outputs, a combiner-diffuser (D2) for broadcasting the multiplex to be inserted (MI) on N outputs, a first set of N tunable filters (FIT, . . . , FNT) for selecting the carriers of the signals which are to be used for modulating the carriers of the outgoing multiplex (MS), a second set of N tunable filters (F1E, . . . , FNE) for selecting the carriers which are to constitute the extracted multiplex (MT), N wavelength converter devices (CL1, . . . , CLN) suitable for supplying N carriers of the outgoing multiplex (MS), and N two-input, two-output optical switches (SW1, . . . , SWN) enabling each output of the broadcasters (D1, D2) to be selectively connected to the input of a filter of the first set and/or to the input of a filter of the second set, and/or to transmit the carriers of the multiplex to be inserted (MI) to a filter of the first set and/or a filter of the second set. The multiplexer is particularly applicable to optical transmission networks implementing a synchronous digital hierarchy.

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