System and method for increasing upstream communication efficiency in an optical network

• US 7,039,329 B2
• Filed: 06/23/2003
• Issued: 05/02/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 07/05/2001
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: ARRIS Solutions, Inc. (CommScope Holding Company, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Wave7 Optics, Inc. (Enablence Technologies Incorporated)
• Inventors: Kenny, John J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Bello, Agustin
• Application Number:
  US10/601,745
• Publication Number:
  US 20040086277A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,044 Days
• Field of Search: 398202-214
• US Class Current: 398/202
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 14/0226 Fixed carrier allocation, e.g. according to service
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 14/0232 for downstream transmission
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 14/0238 Wavelength allocation for communications one-to-many, e.g. multicasting wavelengths
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 14/0247 Sharing one wavelength for at least a group of ONUs
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 14/0252 Sharing one wavelength for at least a group of ONUs, e.g. for transmissions from-ONU-to-OLT or from-ONU-to-ONU
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 14/028 WDM bus architectures
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 14/0282 WDM tree architectures
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 14/0286 WDM hierarchical architectures
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17309 Transmission or handling of upstream communications
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/22 Adaptations for optical transmission
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 11/0067 Provisions for optical access or distribution networks, e.g. Gigabit Ethernet Passive Optical Network (GE-PON), ATM-based Passive Optical Network (A-PON), PON-Ring
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 11/0071 Provisions for the electrical-optical layer interface

Abstract

An optical transmitter of a subscriber optical interface and an optical receiver of a laser transceiver node can be designed to a frequency of data that is formatted according to a predetermined network protocol, that is encoded with a predetermined coding scheme, and that is transmitted according to a predetermined data transmit timing scheme. The frequency of data is an occupied frequency of a protocol when the data comprises a maximum number of like bits permitted by the protocol. An optical transmitter and optical receiver can be designed to a lowest occupied frequency of data that is encoded with 8B/10B encoding, and that is propagated upstream according to time division multiple access (TDMA). In this way, upstream optical communications can be maximized for speed.

Claims

1. A method for increasing upstream communication in an optical network comprising the steps of:

receiving an optical signal that is formatted according to a network protocol and predetermined timing scheme and having a predetermined encoding scheme that provides transitions per code group of data to facilitate clock recovery;

increasing a speed in which a detecting circuit can receive and convert optical signals to electrical signals by adjusting a time constant of the detecting circuit according to a predetermined frequency of the data that is dependent upon the network protocol and encoding scheme;

increasing a speed in which an automatic gain control circuit coupled to the detecting circuit can adjust gain between different optical signals received by the detecting circuit by adjusting a time constant according to the predetermined frequency, the automatic gain control circuit comprising a first amplifier for comparing voltages;

receiving electrical signals from the detecting circuit with a limiting circuit; and

increasing a speed in which the limiting circuit can convert the electrical signals to digital data signals by adjusting a time constant according to the predetermined frequency, the limiting circuit comprising a second amplifier.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of receiving optical signals comprises receiving optical signals formatted according to a Gigabit Ethernet standard.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of receiving optical signals comprises receiving optical signals encoded according to 8B/10B encoding.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of receiving optical signals comprises receiving optical signals formatted according to a time division multiple access protocol.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of increasing a speed in which a detecting circuit can receive optical signals comprises decreasing a time constant by decreasing capacitance of a photodetector circuit to correspond with a predetermined frequency of the data.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of increasing a speed in which the detecting circuit can adjust between different optical signals comprises decreasing a time constant by decreasing capacitance of a gain control circuit to correspond with a predetermined frequency of the data.

7. The method of claim 1, increasing a speed in which a limiting circuit can convert optical signals to electrical signals comprises decreasing a time constant by decreasing capacitance of the limiting circuit to correspond with a predetermined frequency of the data.