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US 10,097,274 B2Granted
Fiber optic switching network using a wideband comb laser
AssigneeFacebook, Inc.
InventorsStephen Gregory Grubb, Satyajeet Singh Ahuja
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Abstract
A fiber optic switching network includes a comb laser source that provides laser light at a plurality of wavelengths on a single optical fiber. Light from the comb laser source is directed into different optical fibers by a demultiplexer such as an arrayed waveguide grating (AWG) or cyclic AWG. Light from the demultiplexer is modulated with one or more demodulators and re-combined with a multiplexer into a single optical fiber for transmission to a destination.
Claims20
A fiber optic switching network, comprising:
- a comb laser source configured to produce laser light at a plurality of wavelengths on a single optical fiber;
- an optical demultiplexer coupled to the comb laser source and configured to receive light having a first set of the plurality of wavelengths and direct different wavelengths from the first set of plurality of the wavelengths into different output optical fibers;
- two or more optical modulators configured to modulate the light received from the optical demultiplexer, each modulator coupled to one of the different output optical fibers to receive light of a particular wavelength and to modulate the light of the particular wavelength in accordance with a corresponding data signal;
- and
- an optical multiplexer coupled to the two or more optical modulators and configured to combine modulated light from the two or more optical modulators into a single optical fiber for routing to an intended destination.
2 more elements
A method of optical communication, comprising:
- providing an optical signal from a comb laser source including a plurality of approximately equally spaced wavelength bands;
- splitting the optical signal into two or more sets of wavelength bands;
- using an optical demultiplexer to route light corresponding to each wavelength band within a first set of the wavelength bands to a corresponding output of the optical demultiplexer;
- using an optical modulator to modulate the light corresponding to each wavelength band that is output by the optical demultiplexer by a corresponding data signal to encode data onto the individual wavelength bands;
- combining the modulated wavelength bands to form a modulated optical signal for transmission on a single optical fiber;
- and
- transmitting the modulated optical signal to an intended destination via the single optical fiber.
4 more elements
A system for optical communication, comprising:
- a comb laser source configured to produce laser light having a plurality of approximately equally spaced wavelength bands on a single optical fiber;
- an arrayed waveguide grating configured to receive the plurality of wavelength bands from the single optical fiber and direct different sets of wavelength bands into different output channels of the arrayed waveguide grating, wherein each set of wavelength bands includes two or more of the wavelength bands;
- a plurality of optical demultiplexers coupled to the output channels of the arrayed waveguide grating, wherein each optical demultiplexer is configured to receive one set of the wavelength bands and to direct each individual wavelength band within the received set of wavelength bands onto an output port of the optical demultiplexer;
- a plurality of optical modulators coupled to the plurality of optical demultiplexers, wherein each optical modulator is configured to modulate the individual wavelength band received from one output port of the plurality of optical demultiplexers in accordance with a data signal;
- and
- a plurality of optical multiplexers coupled to the plurality of optical modulators, wherein each optical multiplexer is configured to combine the modulated wavelength bands to form one of the different sets of wavelength bands with modulated data carried therein for transmission to an intended destination.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.