Optical amplifiers
US6275331A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Jun 30, 1999 |
| Grant date | Aug 14, 2001 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Jun 30, 2019 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
- CPC primaryH04J14/0209
- WIPO fieldTelecommunications
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
In a WDM optical transmission system employing optical amplifiers in its transmission path, a supervisory signal channel, used for monitoring and controlling the operation of the amplifiers and spectrally separated from the data transmission, may be multiplexed with the data. A construction of amplifier is disclosed which is capable of being upgraded with an upgrade of the transmission system to include additional data handling capacity, for instance data transmission in an additional waveband and/or in the opposite direction, without interruption of the pre-upgrade data transmission path through the amplifiers. This is accomplished by the use of channel dropping and insertion filters disposed so that the amplifying data transmission path extends via the drop/insertion channel of those filters.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.