Wireless wavelength division multiplexed system

• US 7,409,159 B2
• Filed: 06/29/2001
• Issued: 08/05/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 06/29/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: HRL Laboratories LLC (The Boeing Co.)
• Original Assignee: HRL Laboratories LLC (The Boeing Co.)
• Inventors: Izadpanah, Hossein
• Primary Examiner(s): Chan; Jason
• Assistant Examiner(s): Curs; Nathan
• Application Number:
  US09/897,747
• Publication Number:
  US 20030002100A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,594 Days
• Field of Search: 398/79, 398/96, 398/115, 398/116, 379 561- 563
• US Class Current: 398/96
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 10/1149 Arrangements for indoor wireless networking of information
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 10/40 Transceivers
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 14/02 Wavelength-division multiplex systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 14/0226 Fixed carrier allocation, e.g. according to service
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 14/0227 Operation, administration, maintenance or provisioning [OAMP] of WDM networks, e.g. media access, routing or wavelength allocation
• 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 14/0246 using one wavelength per ONU
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 14/025 using one wavelength per ONU, e.g. for transmissions from-ONU-to-OLT or from-ONU-to-ONU
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 14/0282 WDM tree architectures
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 14/0283 WDM ring architectures
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 14/0286 WDM hierarchical architectures
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 14/0298 with sub-carrier multiplexing [SCM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 2014/0253 Allocation of downstream wavelengths for upstream transmission

Abstract

A system and method for linking optical wavelength division multiplexed (OWDM) networks by using wireless communications. Each optical channel in a OWDM network is coupled to a wireless wavelength division multiplexing (WWDM) channel by a WWDM transceiver, which transmits and receives data between OWDM networks. The WWDM transceiver may transmit and receive data in RF bands, where the assignment of different OWDM channels to different frequencies within the RF bands may depend upon the data rate or service supported by the OWDM channel. WWDM systems may also support communications between OWDM networks and individual users, such as those in a local multipoint distribution service.

Claims

1. A method for coupling optical wavelength division multiplexed (OWDM) networks having one or more OWDM channels, the method comprising:

receiving the one or more OWDM channels from a first OWDM network, each OWDM channel having a different OWDM wavelength;

converting each one of the one or more OWDM channels to a wireless frequency division multiplexing (WFDM) channel to produce one or more radio frequency WFDM channels at a plurality of WFDM frequencies, each WFDM frequency for each WFDM channel being different from the WFDM frequency for each other WFDM channel, and each WFDM frequency corresponding to an OWDM wavelength;

radiating the one or more WFDM channels;

receiving the one or more WFDM channels;

converting each received WFDM channel from the WFDM frequency for the received WFDM channel to the corresponding OWDM wavelength for the received WFDM channel to produce one or more received OWDM channels; and

coupling the one or more received OWDM channels into a second OWDM network.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1 wherein each OWDM channel is assigned a WFDM frequency at a specified radio frequency, the assignment of the OWDM channel to the specified radio frequency determined from a standardized one-to-one mapping of OWDM wavelengths to radio frequencies, and each OWDM channel is converted to an assigned WFDM frequency and each WFDM channel is converted to an assigned OWDM wavelength.

3. The method as claimed in claim 2 wherein the standardized one-to-one mapping is determined from the data rate of the OWDM channel and the bandwidth available at the specified radio frequency.

4. The method as claimed in claim 2 wherein the standardized one-to-one mapping is determined from the service supported by the OWDM channel and the bandwidth available at the specified radio frequency.

5. The method as claimed in claim 2 wherein the specified radio frequency is in a radio frequency band selected from the group of radio frequency bands consisting of cellular communications bands, personal communication services (PCS) bands, national information infrastructure (NII) bands, industrial, scientific, and medical (ISM) bands, or local multipoint distribution system (LMDS) bands.

6. The method as claimed in claim 2, further comprising:

receiving at least one of the one or more WFDM channels at one or more radio frequency users.

7. The method as claimed in claim 6, further comprising:

transmitting one or more communication signals from one or more of the radio frequency users, each communication signal being at one of the WFDM frequencies of the plurality of WFDM frequencies;

receiving the one or more communication signals;

converting each one of the one or more communication signals at the WFDM frequencies to a received communication signal at the OWDM wavelength assigned to the WFDM frequency; and

coupling the received communication signal to the first OWDM network or to the second OWDM network.

8. The method as claimed in claim 2, wherein converting each one of the one or more OWDM channels to a wireless frequency division multiplexing (WFDM) channel to produce one or more WFDM channels comprises:

providing a comb frequency generator producing a plurality of intermediate frequencies;

demultiplexing each one of the one or more OWDM channels into one or more separate optical signals;

converting the one or more separate optical signals into one or more baseband electrical signals;

modulating each one of the one or more baseband electrical signals on a separate intermediate frequency of the plurality of intermediate frequencies to produce one or more modulated intermediate frequency signals; and

up-converting each one of the one or more modulated intermediate frequency signals to produce the one or more WFDM channels.

9. The method as claimed in claim 2, wherein converting each received WFDM channel from the WFDM frequency for the received WFDM channel to the corresponding OWDM wavelength comprises:

providing a comb frequency generator producing a plurality of intermediate frequencies;

downconverting each one of the received WFDM channels to produce one or more downconverted signals;

demodulating each one of the downconverted signals with a separate intermediate frequency of the plurality of intermediate frequencies to produce one or more received baseband signals;

converting each one of the received baseband signals to a received optical signal, each received optical signal being at the OWDM wavelength of the OWDM channel corresponding to the WFDM channel from which each received optical signal is derived; and

multiplexing each one of the received optical signals to produce one or more received OWDM channels.

10. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the first OWDM network comprises a first end of an OWDM ring architecture network and the second OWDM network comprises a second end of the OWDM ring architecture network, and the method couples the first end to the second end.

11. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein receiving the one or more OWDM channels further comprises:

directing one or more OWDM channels to a local area network.

12. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein receiving the one or more OWDM channels further comprises:

adding one or more optical channels from a local area network to the one or more OWDM channels.

13. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein receiving the one or more OWDM channels further comprises:

directing one or more OWDM channels to a local area network; and

,

adding one or more optical channels from a local area network to the one or more OWDM channels.

14. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein one or more of the WFDM channels contain voice/data services and the method further comprises:

receiving the one or more of the WFDM channels containing voice/data services at one or more wireless users; and

,

extracting the voice/data services from the one or more WFDM channels.

15. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the method further comprises:

converting voice/data services from one or more wireless users to one or more voice/data WFDM channels at WFDM frequencies;

radiating the one or more voice/data WFDM channels from one or more wireless users;

receiving the one or more voice/data WFDM channels;

converting each received voice/data WFDM channels from the WFDM frequency for the voice/data WFDM channel to the corresponding OWDM wavelength for the WFDM frequency to produce one or more received voice/data OWDM channels; and

coupling the one or more received voice/data OWDM channels into the first or second OWDM network.

16. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein one or more of the OWDM channels are allocated for voice/data services and the method further comprises:

converting one or more of the OWDM channels allocated for network voice/data services to one or more network voice/data WFDM channels;

radiating the one or more network voice/data WFDM channels;

receiving the one or more network voice/data WFDM channels at one or more wireless users;

extracting the network voice/data services from the one or more network voice/data WFDM channels;

converting user voice/data services from one or more wireless users to one or more user voice/data WFDM channels at WFDM frequencies;

radiating the one or more user voice/data WFDM channels;

receiving the one or more user voice/data WFDM channels;

converting each user voice/data WFDM channels from the WFDM frequency for the user voice/data WFDM channel to the corresponding OWDM wavelength for the WFDM frequency to produce one or more user voice/data OWDM channels; and

coupling the one or more user voice/data OWDM channels into the first or second OWDM network.

17. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the OWDM networks comprise fiber OWDM networks.

18. A wireless frequency division multiplexing (WFDM) system for coupling optical wavelength division multiplexed (OWDM) networks comprising:

one or more WFDM transmitters receiving one or more optical wavelength division multiplexed (OWDM) channels, each OWDM channel having a different OWDM wavelength, said WFDM transmitter converting the one or more OWDM channels to one or more radio frequency WFDM channels, each WFDM channel having a different WFDM frequency;

one or more radiating apertures coupled to each WFDM transmitter, said radiating apertures radiating the WFDM channels;

one or more receiving apertures receiving WFDM channels;

one or more WFDM receivers coupled to the one or more receiving apertures, each WFDM receiver receiving one or more received WFDM channels, and each WFDM receiver converting the one or more received WFDM channels to one or more OWDM channels.

19. The system as claimed in claim 18 wherein each OWDM channel is assigned a WFDM frequency at a specified radio frequency, the assignment of the OWDM channel to the specified radio frequency determined from a standardized one-to-one mapping of OWDM wavelengths to radio frequencies, and each OWDM channel is converted to an assigned WFDM frequency and each WFDM channel is converted to an assigned OWDM wavelength.

20. The system as claimed in claim 19 wherein the standardized one-to-one mapping is determined from the data rate of the OWDM channel and the bandwidth available at the specified radio frequency.

21. The system as claimed in claim 19 wherein the standardized one-to-one mapping is determined from the service supported by the OWDM channel and the bandwidth available at the specified radio frequency.

22. The system as claimed in claim 19 wherein the specified radio frequency is in a radio frequency band selected from the group of radio frequency bands consisting of cellular communications bands, personal communication services (PCS) bands, national information infrastructure (NII) bands, industrial, scientific, and medical (ISM) bands, or local multipoint distribution system (LMDS) bands.

23. The system as claimed in claim 19, wherein the one or more radiating apertures radiate WFDM channels to selected receiving radio frequency users and the one or more receiving apertures receive WFDM channels from selected transmitting radio frequency users.

24. The system as claimed in claim 18, wherein at least one WFDM transmitter comprises:

an OWDM demultiplexer;

an optical-to-electrical converter coupled to the OWDM demultiplexer and producing one or more baseband electrical signals;

a comb frequency generator producing a plurality of intermediate frequency signals;

a bank of modulators, each modulator in the bank of modulators receiving a baseband electrical signal from the optical-to-electrical converter and receiving an intermediate frequency signal from the comb frequency generator and producing a modulated intermediate frequency electrical signal; and

one or more upconverters receiving the modulated intermediate frequency signals and producing the one or more WFDM channels.

25. The system as claimed in claim 18, wherein at least one WFDM receiver comprises:

one or more downconverters receiving the one or more received WFDM channels and producing one or more received downconverted signals;

a comb frequency generator producing a plurality of intermediate frequency signals;

a bank of demodulators, each demodulator in the bank of demodulators receiving one of the one or more received downconverted signals from the one or more downconverters and receiving an intermediate frequency signal from the comb frequency generator and producing a demodulated baseband electrical signal;

an electrical-to-optical converter receiving each one of the demodulated baseband electrical signals and producing an optical signal for each demodulated baseband electrical signal at an OWDM wavelength corresponding to the WFDM frequency for the WFDM channel from which the optical signal is derived; and

an OWDM multiplexer receiving each optical signal and producing the one or more OWDM channels.

26. The system as claimed in claim 18, wherein at least one WFDM transmitter and at least one WFDM receiver is combined into a WFDM transceiver, the WFDM transceiver comprising:

an OWDM demultiplexer;

an optical-to-electrical converter coupled to the OWDM demultiplexer and producing one or more baseband electrical signals;

a comb frequency generator producing a plurality of intermediate frequency signals;

a bank of modulators, each modulator in the bank of modulators receiving a baseband electrical signal from the optical-to-electrical converter and receiving an intermediate frequency signal from the comb frequency generator and producing a modulated intermediate frequency electrical signal;

one or more upconverters receiving the modulated baseband signals and producing the one or more WFDM channels;

one or more downconverters receiving the one or more received WFDM channels and producing one or received downconverted signals;

a bank of demodulators, each demodulator in the bank of demodulators receiving one of the one or more received downconverted signals from the one or more downconverters and receiving an intermediate frequency signal from the comb frequency generator and producing a demodulated baseband electrical signal;

an electrical-to-optical converter receiving each one of the demodulated baseband electrical signals and producing an optical signal for each demodulated baseband electrical signal at an OWDM wavelength corresponding to the WFDM frequency wave for the WFDM channel from which the optical signal is derived; and

an OWDM multiplexer receiving each optical signal and producing the one or more OWDM channels.

27. The system as claimed in claim 18, wherein at least one WFDM transmitter of the one or more WFDM transmitters is connected to a first end of an OWDM ring architecture network and at least one WFDM receiver of the one or more WFDM receivers is connected to a second end of the OWDM ring architecture network and the transmission of data from the at least one WFDM transmitter to the at least one WFDM receiver closes the OWDM ring architecture network.

28. The system as claimed in claim 18, wherein one or more of the OWDM channels are allocated for voice/data services, the OWDM channels for voice/data services being converted to network voice/data WFDM channels, and the system further comprising one or more wireless users receiving the network voice/data WFDM channels.

29. The system as claimed in claim 18, the system further comprising one or more wireless users transmitting voice/data services on one or more WFDM channels, wherein the one or more WFDM channels containing voice/data services are received by the one or more WFDM receivers and converted to OWDM channels.

30. The system as claimed in claim 18, wherein one or more of the OWDM channels are allocated for voice/data services, the OWDM channels for voice/data services being converted to network voice/data WFDM channels, and the system further comprising one or more wireless users receiving the network voice/data WFDM channels and sending voice/data services on one or more WFDM channels, and wherein the one or more WFDM channels containing voice/data services are received by the one or more WFDM receivers and converted to the OWDM channels allocated for voice/data services.

31. The system as claimed in claim 18, the system further comprising an add-drop multiplexer.

32. The system as claimed in claim 31, wherein the add-drop multiplexer directs one or more OWDM channels to a local area network.

33. The system as claimed in claim 31, wherein the add-drop multiplexer adds one or more optical channels from a local area network to the one or more OWDM channels.

34. The system as claimed in claim 18, wherein the OWDM networks comprise fiber OWDM networks.

35. A method for distributing voice or data services to one or more users at one or more radio frequency bands, the method comprising:

receiving the voice or data services in one or more OWDM channels from a network operations center, each OWDM channel having a different OWDM wavelength;

converting each one of the one or more OWDM channels to a transmitted wireless frequency division multiplexing (WFDM) channel to produce one or more transmitted WFDM channels at a plurality of WFDM frequencies, the WFDM frequencies being at radio frequencies, each WFDM frequency for each transmitted WFDM channel being different from the WFDM frequency for each other transmitted WFDM channel, and each WFDM frequency corresponding to an OWDM wavelength;

radiating the one or more transmitted WFDM channels;

receiving the transmitted WFDM channels; and

converting each received WFDM channel from the WFDM frequency for the received WFDM channel to the corresponding OWDM wavelength.

36. The method as claimed in claim 35 wherein each OWDM channel is assigned a WFDM frequency at a specified radio frequency, the assignment of the OWDM channel to the specified radio frequency determined from a standardized one-to-one mapping of OWDM wavelengths to radio frequencies, and each OWDM channel is converted to an assigned WFDM frequency and each WFDM channel is converted to an assigned OWDM wavelength.

37. The method as claimed in claim 35, further comprising:

transmitting the voice or data services from one or more users in a user transmitted WFDM channel at a selected WFDM frequency;

receiving the user transmitted WFDM channel;

converting the user transmitted WFDM channel to an OWDM channel at the OWDM wavelength corresponding to the selected WFDM frequency; and

coupling the OWDM channel to the network operations center.

38. A wireless frequency division multiplexing (WFDM) system for distributing voice and data services to one or more users in one or more radio frequency band comprising:

a network operations center coupling voice or data services into OWDM channels, each OWDM channel having a different OWDM wavelength;

one or more WFDM transmitters receiving one or more optical wavelength division multiplexed (OWDM) channels from the network operations center, said one or more WFDM transmitters converting the one or more OWDM channels to one or more transmitted radio frequency WFDM channels at a plurality of WFDM frequencies, each WFDM channel having a different WFDM frequency and each WFDM frequency corresponding to an OWDM wavelength;

one or more radiating apertures coupled to each WFDM transmitter of the one or more WFDM transmitters, said radiating apertures radiating the transmitted WFDM channels;

receiving the transmitted WFDM channels; and

converting each received WFDM channel from the WFDM frequency for the received WFDM channel to the corresponding OWDM wavelength.

39. The system as claimed in claim 38 wherein each OWDM channel is assigned a WFDM frequency at a specified radio frequency, the assignment of the OWDM channel to the specified radio frequency determined from a standardized one-to-one mapping of OWDM wavelengths to radio frequencies, and each OWDM channel is converted to an assigned WFDM frequency and each WFDM channel is converted to an assigned OWDM wavelength.

40. The system as claimed in claim 38, further comprising:

one or more users transmitting the voice or data services in one or more user transmitted WFDM channels, each user transmitted WFDM channel at a selected WFDM frequency;

one or more receiving apertures receiving the one or more user transmitted WFDM channels;

one or more WFDM receivers coupled to the one or more receiving apertures, each WFDM receiver receiving the one or more user transmitted WFDM channels, and each WFDM receiver converting the one or more user transmitted WFDM channels to one or more OWDM channels, the one or more OWDM channels being coupled to the network operations center.

41. A method for transmitting one or more optical wavelength division multiplexed (OWDM) channels of an OWDM network, the method comprising:

receiving the one or more OWDM channels from an OWDM network, each OWDM channel having a different OWDM wavelength;

converting each one of the one or more OWDM channels to a wireless frequency division multiplexing (WFDM) channel to produce one or more radio frequency WFDM channels at a plurality of WFDM frequencies, each WFDM frequency for each WFDM channel being different from the WFDM frequency for each other WFDM channel, and each WFDM frequency corresponding to an OWDM wavelength;

radiating the one or more WFDM channels;

receiving the transmitted WFDM channels, wherein each received WFDM channel is converted from the WFDM frequency for the received WFDM channel to the corresponding OWDM wavelength.

42. The method as claimed in claim 41 wherein each OWDM channel is assigned a WFDM frequency at a specified radio frequency, the assignment of the OWDM channel to the specified radio frequency determined from a standardized one-to-one mapping of OWDM wavelengths to radio frequencies, and each OWDM channel is converted to the assigned WFDM frequency.

43. The method as claimed in claim 42 wherein the standardized one-to-one mapping is determined from the data rate of the OWDM channel and the bandwidth available at the specified radio frequency.

44. The method as claimed in claim 42 wherein the standardized one-to-one mapping is determined from the service supported by the OWDM channel and the bandwidth available at the specified radio frequency.

45. The method as claimed in claim 42 wherein the specified radio frequency is in a radio frequency band selected from the group of radio frequency bands consisting of cellular communications bands, personal communication services (PCS) bands, national information infrastructure (NII) bands, industrial, scientific, and medical (ISM) bands, or local multipoint distribution system (LMDS) bands.

46. The method as claimed in claim 42, wherein converting each one of the one or more OWDM channels to a WFDM channel to produce one or more WFDM channels comprises:

providing a comb frequency generator producing a plurality of intermediate frequencies;

demultiplexing each one of the one or more OWDM channels into one or more separate optical signals;

converting the one or more separate optical signals into one or more baseband electrical signals;

modulating each one of the one or more baseband electrical signals on a separate intermediate frequency of the plurality of intermediate frequencies to produce one or more modulated intermediate frequency signals; and

up-converting each one of the one or more intermediate frequency signals to produce the one or more WFDM channels.

47. The method as claimed in claim 41, wherein one or more of the OWDM channels are allocated for voice/data services and the method further comprises:

converting one or more of the OWDM channels allocated for network voice/data services to one or more network voice/data WFDM channels; and

radiating the one or more network voice/data WFDM channels.

48. The method as claimed in claim 41, wherein the OWDM network comprises a fiber OWDM network.

49. A wireless frequency division multiplexing transmitter transmitting one or more optical wavelength division multiplexed (OWDM) channels at wireless frequencies, said transmitter comprising:

an optical-to-electrical converter receiving said OWDM channels and producing one or more baseband electrical signals;

a comb frequency generator producing a plurality of intermediate frequency signals;

a bank of modulators, each modulator in the bank of modulators receiving a baseband electrical signal from the optical-to-electrical converter and receiving an intermediate frequency signal from the comb frequency generator and producing a modulated intermediate frequency electrical signal; and

one or more upconverters receiving the modulated baseband signals and producing one or more wireless frequency division multiplexed channels at radio frequencies.

50. The transmitter as claimed in claim 49 wherein each OWDM channel is assigned a WFDM frequency at a specified radio frequency, the assignment of the OWDM channel to the specified radio frequency determined from a standardized one-to-one mapping of OWDM wavelengths to radio frequencies, and each OWDM channel is converted to the assigned WFDM frequency.

51. The transmitter as claimed in claim 50 wherein the standardized one-to-one mapping is determined from the data rate of the OWDM channel and the bandwidth available at the specified radio frequency.

52. The transmitter as claimed in claim 50 wherein the standardized one-to-one mapping is determined from the service supported by the OWDM channel and the bandwidth available at the specified radio frequency.

53. The transmitter as claimed in claim 50 wherein the specified radio frequency is in a radio frequency band selected from the group of radio frequency bands consisting of cellular communications bands, personal communication services (PCS) bands, national information infrastructure (NII) bands, industrial, scientific, and medical (ISM) bands, or local multipoint distribution system (LMDS) bands.

54. The transmitter as claimed in claim 49, wherein one or more of the OWDM channels are allocated for voice/data services, the OWDM channels for voice/data services being converted to network voice/data WFDM channels.

55. A method for coupling one or more received wireless frequency division multiplexed (WFDM) channels into an optical wavelength division multiplexed (OWDM) network, said method comprising:

receiving one or more radio frequency WFDM channels, each WFDM channel having a different WFDM frequency, each WFDM frequency being converted from a corresponding OWDM wavelength;

converting each one of the received WFDM channels from the WFDM frequency for that WFDM channel to the corresponding OWDM wavelength for that WFDM channel to produce one or more received OWDM channels; and

coupling the one or more received OWDM channels into an OWDM network.

56. The method as claimed in claim 55 wherein each WFDM channel is at a specified radio frequency, and each WFDM channel is assigned an OWDM wavelength at a specified optical wavelength, the assignment of the WFDM channel to the specified optical wavelength determined from a standardized one-to-one mapping of WFDM frequencies to optical wavelengths, and each WFDM channel is converted to the assigned OWDM wavelength.

57. The method as claimed in claim 56 wherein the standardized one-to-one mapping is determined from the data rate of each OWDM channel and the bandwidth available at the specified radio frequency.

58. The method as claimed in claim 56 wherein the standardized one-to-one mapping is determined from the service supported by each OWDM channel and the bandwidth available at the specified radio frequency.

59. The method as claimed in claim 56 wherein the specified radio frequency is in a radio frequency band selected from the group of radio frequency bands consisting of cellular communications bands, personal communication services (PCS) bands, national information infrastructure (NII) bands, industrial, scientific, and medical (ISM) bands, or local multipoint distribution system (LMDS) bands.

60. The method as claimed in claim 55, wherein converting each one of the received WFDM channels from the WFDM frequency for that WFDM channel comprises:

providing a comb frequency generator producing a plurality of intermediate frequencies;

downconverting each one of the received WFDM channels to produce one or more downconverted signals;

demodulating each one of the downconverted signals with a separate intermediate frequency of the plurality of intermediate frequencies to produce one or more received baseband signals;

converting each one of the received baseband signals to a received optical signal, each received optical signal being at the corresponding OWDM wavelength; and

multiplexing each one of the received optical signals to produce one or more received OWDM channels.

61. The method as claimed in claim 55, wherein the OWDM network comprises a fiber OWDM network.

62. A wireless frequency division multiplexed (WFDM) receiver converting WFDM channels at different WFDM frequencies to corresponding optical wavelength division multiplexed (OWDM) channels, said receiver comprising:

one or more downconverters receiving the one or received WFDM channels and producing one or received baseband signals;

a comb frequency generator producing a plurality of intermediate frequency signals;

a bank of demodulators, each demodulator in the bank of demodulators receiving one of the one or more received baseband signals from the one or more downconverters and receiving an intermediate frequency signal from the comb frequency generator and producing a demodulated baseband electrical signal;

an electrical-to-optical converter receiving each one of the demodulated baseband electrical signals and producing an optical signal for each demodulated baseband electrical signal at an OWDM wavelength corresponding to the WFDM frequency for the WFDM channel from which the optical signal is derived; and

an OWDM multiplexer receiving each optical signal and producing the one or more OWDM channels.

63. The receiver as claimed in claim 62 wherein each WFDM channel is at a specified radio frequency, and each WFDM channel is assigned an OWDM wavelength at a specified optical wavelength, the assignment of the WFDM channel to the specified optical wavelength determined from a standardized one-to-one mapping of WFDM frequencies to optical wavelengths, and each WFDM channel is converted to the assigned OWDM wavelength.

64. The receiver as claimed in claim 63 wherein the standardized one-to-one mapping is determined from the data rate of the WFDM channel and the bandwidth available at the specified radio frequency.

65. The receiver as claimed in claim 63 wherein the standardized one-to-one mapping is determined from the service supported by the WFDM channel and the bandwidth available at the specified radio frequency.

66. The receiver as claimed in claim 63 wherein the specified radio frequency is in a radio frequency band selected from the group of radio frequency bands consisting of cellular communications bands, personal communication services (PCS) bands, national information infrastructure (NII) bands, industrial, scientific, and medical (ISM) bands, or local multipoint distribution system (LMDS) bands.

67. The transmitter as claimed in claim 62, wherein one or more of the WFDM channels are allocated for voice/data services, the WFDM channels for voice/data services being converted to network voice/data OWDM channels.