Patent · US Expired

Optical channel monitor with continuous gas cell calibration

US6619864B2 · kind B2 · utility

10Cited by
38References
21Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateMar 15, 2001
Grant dateSep 16, 2003
Priority date
Expiry dateOct 9, 2021

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH04B10/07955
  • WIPO fieldTelecommunications
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

The invention includes a method and apparatus for monitoring wavelength of an optical channel. A tunable optical bandpass filter is used to correlate a signal from an optical transmission line with a signal from a reference light source. The signal from the reference light source passes through a reference gas cell. The absorption lines of the reference gas provide a known calibration standard against which measured values may be compared. The invention finds applications in optical transmission systems, including wavelength division multiplexed and dense wavelength division multiplexed (WDM and DWDM) optical communication systems.

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