System and method providing control channel for wavelength-division multiplexed network
First Claim
1. A network comprising a plurality of nodes interconnected by communication links, the nodes being configured to selectively transfer information thereamong using a wavelength-division multiplexing technique using a light beam of a plurality of wavelengths, one of the wavelengths being selected as a unitary control channel for transferring control information from one of said nodes to others of said nodes, the control information identifying which of the wavelengths are to be used by the other nodes in transmitting information to each other and identifying respective optical power levels of such transmissions, each of the other nodes receiving over a corresponding one of the communication links the light beam comprising the control channel, draining off a predetermined portion of energy thereof to facilitate use of the control information thereby and coupling the remainder of the energy thereof over one of the communication links to another of said other node, each of the other nodes being operative to determine from address information in the control channel whether the control information carried by the control channel is destined for the node.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A network including a control channel source node and a plurality of control channel destination nodes is interconnected by communications media in the form of a ring. The control and control channel destination nodes transfer information over a plurality of channels using wavelength-division multiplex techniques. The control channel source node transmits control information to all of the control channel destination nodes over a unitary control channel, and each of the control channel destination nodes drains off a portion of the energy of the signal comprising the control channel to facilitate decoding and processing of the control information contained therein. Each of the aspects, the control channel destination nodes can also generate status information for transfer to the control channel source node over the control channel. The control channel source node drains off the energy of the signal comprising the control channel to facilitate decoding and processing of the status information contained therein.
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Citations
16 Claims
- 1. A network comprising a plurality of nodes interconnected by communication links, the nodes being configured to selectively transfer information thereamong using a wavelength-division multiplexing technique using a light beam of a plurality of wavelengths, one of the wavelengths being selected as a unitary control channel for transferring control information from one of said nodes to others of said nodes, the control information identifying which of the wavelengths are to be used by the other nodes in transmitting information to each other and identifying respective optical power levels of such transmissions, each of the other nodes receiving over a corresponding one of the communication links the light beam comprising the control channel, draining off a predetermined portion of energy thereof to facilitate use of the control information thereby and coupling the remainder of the energy thereof over one of the communication links to another of said other node, each of the other nodes being operative to determine from address information in the control channel whether the control information carried by the control channel is destined for the node.
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15. A network comprising a plurality of nodes interconnected by communication links, the nodes being configured to selectively transfer information thereamong using a wavelength-division multiplexing technique using a light beam of a plurality of wavelengths, one of the wavelengths being selected as a unitary control channel for transferring control information from one of said nodes to others of said nodes, the control information identifying which of the wavelengths are to be used by the other nodes in transmitting information to each other, each of the other nodes receiving over a corresponding one of the communication links the light beam comprising the control channel, draining off a predetermined portion of energy thereof to facilitate use of the control information thereby and coupling the remainder of the energy thereof over one of the communication links to another of said other nodes, each of the other nodes being operative to determine from address information in the control channel whether the control information carried by the control channel is destined for the node.
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16. A network comprising a plurality of nodes interconnected by communication links, the nodes being configured to selectively transfer information thereamong using a wavelength-division multiplexing technique using a light beam of a plurality of wavelengths, one of the wavelengths being selected as a unitary control channel for transferring control information from one of said nodes to others of said nodes, the control information identifying respective optical power levels of the optical transmissions among the other nodes, each of the other nodes receiving over a corresponding one of the communication links the light beam comprising the control channel, draining off a predetermined portion of energy thereof to facilitate use of the control information thereby and coupling the remainder of the energy thereof over one of the communication links to another of said other nodes, each of the other nodes being operative to determine from address information in the control channel whether the control information carried by the control channel is destined for the node.
Specification