RECONFIGURATION AND PROTOCOL ADAPTATION OF OPTOELECTRONIC MODULES AND NETWORK COMPONENTS

• US 20090016685A1
• Filed: 07/11/2007
• Published: 01/15/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 07/11/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Emcore Corporation
• Original Assignee: Emcore Corporation
• Inventors: McGlynn, Daniel, Hudgins, Clay E.
• Granted Patent: US 7,918,611 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 385/92
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 6/4246 Bidirectionally operating package structures
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 10/40 Transceivers

Abstract

An optoelectronic module for converting and coupling an information-containing electrical signal with an optical fiber including a housing having an electrical input for coupling with an external cable or information system device and for transmitting and receiving information-containing electrical signals over such input, and a fiber optic connector adapted for coupling with an external optical fiber for transmitting and receiving an optical signal; an electro-optic subassembly coupled to the information containing electrical signal and converting it to and/or from a modulated optical signal corresponding to the electrical signal; means disposed in the housing for determining the electrical and/or optical protocols or packet formats in use; and a processor for adapting the module to utilize the electrical and optical protocol or packet format.

Claims

1. An optoelectronic module for coupling an information system device with an optical fiber comprising:

a housing including an electrical connector for coupling with an external electrical cable or information system device and for transmitting information-containing electrical signals over said connector, and a fiber optical connector adapted for coupling with an external optic fiber for transmitting and/or receiving an optical signal;

an electro-optic subassembly disposed in said housing coupled to the information system device for converting the electrical signal to or from a modulated optical signal corresponding to the electrical signals at a predetermined wavelength;

a circuit for determining the optical communications protocol used by said optical signal; and

a communication adaptation circuit disposed in said housing for adapting said subassembly to use said optical communications protocol for subsequent communications.

2. The module of claim 1, wherein said optical communications protocol is selected from the group consisting of SONET, Gigabit Ethernet, 10 Gigabit Ethernet, Fibre Channel and SDH.

3. The module of claim 1, wherein the electrical connector utilizes an electrical interface selected from the group consisting of Infiniband, XAUI and XIF.

4. The module of claim 1, wherein the housing utilizes a form factor selected from the group consisting of XENPAK, X2, SFF, SFP, XFP, or QSFP factors.

5. The module of claim 1, wherein the circuit for determining the optical communications protocol includes a microprocessor.

6. The module of claim 1, further comprising a communication interface to provide a unique MAC layer identification address of the module.

7. The module of claim 1, wherein said optical communications protocol includes a packet structure.

8. An optoelectronic module for coupling an information system device with an optical fiber comprising:

a housing including an electrical connector for coupling with an external electrical cable or information system device and for transmitting information-containing electrical signals over said connector, and a fiber optical connector adapted for coupling with an external optic fiber for transmitting and/or receiving an optical signal;

an electro-optic subassembly disposed in said housing coupled to the information system device for converting the electrical signal to or from a modulated optical signal corresponding to the electrical signals at a predetermined wavelength;

a circuit for determining the electrical communications protocol used by said electrical signals; and

a communication adaptator disposed in said housing for adapting said subassembly to use said electrical communications protocol for subsequent communications.

9. The module of claim 8, wherein the electrical communications protocol is selected from the group consisting of Infiniband, XAUI, XIF, USB, and Firewire.

10. An reconfigurable optoelectronic module for coupling an information system device with an optical fiber comprising:

a housing including an electrical connector for coupling with an external electrical cable or information system device and for transmitting information-containing electrical signals over said connector, and a fiber optical connector adapted for coupling with an external optic fiber for transmitting an optical signal;

an electro-optic subassembly disposed in said housing coupled to the information system device for converting the electrical signal to a modulated optical signal corresponding to the electrical signals at a predetermined wavelength; and

a controller disposed in said housing for providing an electrical control signal to said electro-optical subassembly for adjusting the communications transmission characteristics of the modulated optical signal.

11. The module of claim 10, wherein the communications transmission characteristic is the output power of the laser.

12. The module of claim 10, wherein the communications transmission characteristic is the wavelength of the optical beam emitted by the laser.

13. The module of claim 10, wherein the communications transmission characteristic is the jitter or chirp associated with the optical beam emitted by the laser.

14. The module of claim 10, wherein the communications transmission characteristic is the communications protocol.

15. The module of claim 10, wherein the communications transmission characteristic is the data in the control field of the packet being transmitted.

16. The module of claim 10, wherein the communications transmission characteristic is the data rate.

17. The module of claim 10, wherein the communications transmission characteristic is the packet size of the packet being transmitted.

18. The module of claim 10, wherein the communications transmission characteristic is the error correction methodology.

19. The module of claim 18, wherein the error correction methodology is forward error correction.

20. The module of claim 10, wherein the communications transmission characteristic is the optical modulation technique.

21. A data communication network comprising a plurality of network units and a plurality of pluggable optoelectronic modules coupled to one or more of such network units, the modules functioning to couple the associated network unit to an optical fiber for transmitting and/or receiving optical signals over such fiber, each module having an adaptive protocol processor that is selectable from a set of protocols, and a communications interface to communicate with an external device using a selected or predetermined electrical or optical protocol.