MULTIPLEXING TWO SEPARATE OPTICAL LINKS WITH THE SAME WAVELENGTH USING ASYMMETRIC COMBINING AND SPLITTING

• US 20160173223A1
• Filed: 12/08/2015
• Published: 06/16/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 12/11/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Corning Optical Communications LLC (Corning Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Corning Optical Communications Wireless Ltd. (Corning Incorporated)
• Inventors: Rosenfelder, Pinhas Yehuda, Shapira, Carmi
• Granted Patent: US 9,729,267 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 10/2507 for the reduction or elimination of distortion or dispersion
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 10/2589 Bidirectional transmission
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 14/0204 Broadcast and select arrangements, e.g. with an optical splitter at the input before adding or dropping
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 14/0205 Select and combine arrangements, e.g. with an optical combiner at the output after adding or dropping
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 14/0256 at the optical channel layer
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 14/0279 WDM point-to-point architectures
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 14/0282 WDM tree architectures

Abstract

An optical communications system includes an optical transmitter and an optical receiver optically coupled to an optical combiner/splitter, the combiner/splitter coupled to optical media; and, another optical transmitter and another optical receiver optically coupled to another optical combiner/splitter, the another combiner/splitter remotely coupled to the optical media; wherein the optical transmitter and the another optical transmitter are configured to transmit optical signals at substantially the same wavelength.

Claims

1. An optical communications system comprising:

a first optical transmitter and a first optical receiver optically coupled to a first asymmetric optical combiner/splitter, the first asymmetric combiner/splitter coupled to optical media; and

a second optical transmitter and a second optical receiver optically coupled to a second asymmetric optical combiner/splitter, the second asymmetric combiner/splitter remotely coupled to the optical media, wherein

each asymmetric combiner/splitter comprises a high transmittance ratio and a low transmittance ratio, and

the first optical transmitter and the second optical transmitter are configured to transmit optical signals at substantially the same wavelength.

2. The optical communications system of claim 1, wherein the high transmittance ratio and the low transmittance ratio comprise a combination of ratios that is one of 95/5, 90/10, 85/15, 80/20, 75/25, 70/30, and a ratio therebetween.

3. The optical communications system of claim 1, wherein the high transmittance ratio and the low transmittance ratio comprise a combination of ratios that is about 90/10.

4. The optical communications system of claim 2, wherein at least one of the first optical transmitter and the second optical transmitter is substantially insensitive to optical interference received at the operational wavelength.

5. The optical communications system of claim 4, wherein a low transmittance ratio is associated with each of the optical transmitters.

6. The optical communications system of claim 5, wherein a high transmittance ratio is associated with each of the optical receivers.

7. An optical communications system comprising:

a first optical transmitter and a first optical receiver optically coupled to a first asymmetric optical combiner/splitter, the first asymmetric combiner/splitter coupled to optical media comprising a single mode optical fiber; and

a second optical transmitter and a second optical receiver optically coupled to a second asymmetric optical combiner/splitter, the second asymmetric combiner/splitter remotely coupled to the optical media, wherein

the first optical transmitter and the second optical transmitter are configured to transmit optical signals at substantially the same wavelength, and

each asymmetric combiner/splitter comprises a high transmittance ratio associated with each of the optical receivers and a low transmittance ratio associated with each of the optical transmitters, the high transmittance ratio and the low transmittance ratio comprising a combination of ratios that is one of 95/5, 90/10, 85/15, 80/20, 75/25, 70/30, and a ratio therebetween.

8. An optical network comprising:

an optical fiber;

a first plurality of optical transmitters and receivers at a first end of the optical fiber, each first optical transmitter and receiver configured to transmit and receive an optical link;

a first asymmetric optical line terminal at a first end of the optical fiber, the first asymmetric optical line terminal configured to combine or split two optical links of the same wavelength on the same media;

a second plurality of optical transmitters and receivers at a second end of the optical fiber, each second optical transmitter and receiver configured to transmit and receive an optical link;

a second asymmetric optical line terminal at a second end of the optical fiber, the second asymmetric optical line terminal configured to combine or split two optical links of the same wavelength on the same media;

a first course wide division multiplex (CWDM) terminal, the first CWDM connected at a first end to the first plurality of optical transmitters and receivers and the first asymmetric optical line terminal and at a second end to the optical fiber, the first CWDM configured to route optical links bi-directionally between the first plurality of optical transmitters and receivers and the first asymmetric optical line terminal and the second plurality of optical transmitters and receivers; and

a second course wide division multiplex (CWDM) terminal, the second CWDM connected at a first end to the second plurality of optical transmitters and receivers and the second asymmetric optical line terminal and at a second end to the optical fiber, the second CWDM configured to route optical links bi-directionally between the second plurality of optical transmitters and receivers and the second asymmetric optical line terminal and the first plurality of optical transmitters and receivers.

9. The optical network of claim 8, wherein the first asymmetric optical line terminal and the second asymmetric optical line terminal each comprise a high transmittance ratio and a low transmittance ratio.

10. The optical network of claim 9, wherein the high transmittance ratio and the low transmittance ratio comprise a combination of ratios that is one of 95/5, 90/10, 85/15, 80/20, 75/25, 70/30, and a ratio therebetween.

11. The optical network of claim 9, wherein a combination of the high transmittance ratio and the low transmittance ratio is about 90/10.

12. The optical network of claim 8, wherein at least one of the first plurality of optical transmitters and at least one of the second plurality of optical transmitters is substantially insensitive to optical interference received at the operational wavelength, and wherein the optical fiber comprises a single-mode optical fiber.

13. The optical network of claim 8, wherein a low transmittance ratio is associated with each of the optical transmitters and a high transmittance ratio is associated with each of the optical receivers.