Optical switched distributor

Details Optical switched distributor Optical switched distributor

1996-12-31

1998-09-29

Palmer, Phan T. H.

Optical waveguides

With optical coupler

Switch

385 16, 385 24, 372 69, 359341, G02B 626

Patent

active

058156135

ABSTRACT:
A gain-switched optical distributor, i.e., commutator, is realized by employing an optical rare earth-doped fiber optical amplifier as the switching element per se. Each of the optical rare earth-doped fiber optical amplifiers acts as an ON/OFF switch. Also, the gain-switched optical distributor of this invention is a natural fit into today's optically amplified optical communication systems. In one embodiment, this is realized by employing a pump select circuit in conjunction with a plurality of pumps and a plurality of corresponding rare earth-doped fiber optical amplifiers. The particular pump and corresponding amplifier is selected by use of a monitor arrangement to determine which signal is to be selected and routed to an output. In another embodiment, a so-called tuned pump arrangement is employed in conjunction with a plurality of filters and a corresponding plurality of rare earth-doped fiber optical amplifiers. A pump tuning arrangement is employed to control the tunable pump in order to select the appropriate one of a plurality of optical input signals at any of a plurality of given wavelengths.

REFERENCES:
patent: 5181134 (1993-01-01), Mohammad et al.
patent: 5491581 (1996-02-01), Roba
patent: 5633961 (1997-05-01), Kirkby et al.
Pending Patent Application 08/579529, filed on Dec. 27, 1995, allowed on Nov. 4, 1997, Batch No. T79, by Mohammad T. Fatehi and Fred Ludwig Heismann, titled "Maintenance of Optical Networks". Now U.S. patent #5,745,274.

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