COMPACT WIDE-ANGLE PIXELLATED ACTIVE OPTICAL LINK

• US 20100135668A1
• Filed: 11/20/2009
• Published: 06/03/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 11/20/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cubic Corporation
• Original Assignee: Cubic Corporation
• Inventors: Robinson, David, Ripingill, Allen, Chen, Irene, Amadeo, Paul
• Granted Patent: US 8,837,949 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 398/115
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 10/1125 using a single common optical path

Abstract

A system, method, and optical communication device are disclosed. The system can include a plurality of optically coupled nodes forming an optical communication network. Each node may include an array of pixel elements, each pixel element having an optical detector and an active optical source. The pixel array may be disposed in a backplane of a lens that is configured to map incoming optical signals to pixel locations in the backplane according to their respective angles of incidence and to minimize a deviation at each pixel location between incoming optical signals arriving at the optical detector and emissions from the optical source. The node may include a processor and memory. The processor can register senders in the optical network at locations in the pixel array and can generate routing information by which to route communications from the registered senders to other pixel elements for transmission to their respective destinations.

Claims

1. An optical communication apparatus, comprising:

a housing having an aperture for receiving optical communication signals;

a lens disposed within the aperture and configured to direct the optical communication signals to locations in a backplane according to their respective angles of incidence;

a pixel array situated in the backplane and optically coupled to the lens, each pixel in the pixel array comprising an optical detector and an active optical source;

a memory configured to store registration information comprising associations between pixels in the array of pixels and one or more senders in an optical network;

a processor coupled to the memory and configured to demodulate an inbound communication signal incident upon a first pixel in the array of pixels and to determine whether an identifier of the inbound communication signal matches a sender associated with the first pixel based on the registration information,

the processor being further configured to modulate the optical source of a second pixel in the array of pixels with an outbound communication signal in response to determining that the identifier of the inbound communication signal matches the registration information.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to generate an alert signal in response to determining that the identifier of the first communication signal does not match the registration information and to modulate the optical source of a third pixel in the array of pixels with the alert signal.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to perform a discovery process comprising:

modulating the optical source of each pixel in the array of pixels with a discovery message;

authenticating responses to the discovery message; and

updating the registration information to include an association between a sender of an authenticated response and a pixel in the array of pixels.

4. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the memory stores one or more routing tables, and the processor is configured to retrieve routing information from the routing tables based on a destination address of the inbound communication signal and to generate the outbound communication signal such that the outbound communication signal includes the routing information and a payload of the inbound signal.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

an antenna; and

an RF communications device coupled to the antenna and the processor,

wherein the processor controls operation of the RF communications device in response to detecting a predetermined message content or destination address of the inbound communication signal absent modulating the optical source of the second pixel.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processor comprises a cryptographic module configured to decrypt an information element of the inbound communication signal and to encrypt an information element of the outbound communication signal.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to remove a sender from the registration information in response to determining that the sender does not respond to a communication of the apparatus.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

a sensor configured to gather information relating to an environment of the apparatus, and wherein the processor is configured to modulate the optical source of at least one pixel in the array of pixels based on the sensor data.

9. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the lens comprises an optical arrangement configured to limit a deviation between inbound and outbound signals at each pixel in the array of pixels.

10. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to modulate the optical source of a third pixel concurrently with demodulating the inbound communication signal.

11. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the pixel array comprises an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) and each pixel is disposed on a same substrate.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein each of the active optical sources of the pixel array comprise vertical cavity surface emitting lasers.

13. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the pixel array comprises at least three planar array elements arranged so as to cover at least 2π

steradians.

14. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the processor is configured to modulate the optical source of the second pixel concurrently with modulating the optical source of a third pixel.

15. A method of sending and receiving data in an optical network with a network node having an array of pixels, each pixel comprising an optical detector and an active optical source, the method comprising:

generating registration information comprising a plurality of associations between pixels in the array of pixels and senders in the optical network;

detecting an inbound communication signal at an optical detector of a first pixel in the array of pixels;

obtaining an identifier of the inbound communication signal;

determining whether the identifier of the inbound communication signal matches a sender associated with the first pixel based on the registration information; and

modulating the optical source of a second pixel in the array of pixels with an outbound communication signal in response to determining that the identifier of the inbound communication signal matches the registration information.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

generating an alert signal in response to determining that the identifier of the first communication signal does not match the registration information; and

modulating the optical source of a third pixel in the array of pixels with the alert signal.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein generating the registration information comprises:

modulating the optical source of each pixel in the array of pixels with a discovery message;

detecting an acknowledgement of the discovery message at one or more of the pixels in the array of pixels;

authenticating senders at each of the one or more pixels where the acknowledgment message is detected; and

updating the registration information to include an association between an authenticated sender and a pixel in the array of pixels.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein the inbound communication signal comprises a destination address and a payload, the method further comprising:

retrieving routing information from a memory of the network node based on the destination address;

determining a location of the second pixel in the array of pixels based on the routing information; and

generating the outbound communication signal using the routing information and the payload.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising activating an RF communications device in response to detecting a predetermined message content or destination address absent modulating the optical source of the second pixel.

20. The method of claim 15, further comprising removing a sender from the registration information in response to determining that the sender does not respond to a communication of the network node.

21. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

retrieving data from a sensor coupled to the network node;

modulating the optical source of a predetermined pixel in the array of pixels with the sensor data.