Optical add/drop multiplexer using integrated optical components

An opto-electric transceiver comprising:

• a housing;
• an optical input port and an optical output port carried by the housing;
• a plurality of electrical inputs and a plurality of electrical outputs carried by the housing;
• a receiver opto/electric integrated circuit carried by the housing coupled between the optical input port and the plurality of electrical outputs with the receiver circuit including a plurality of integrated waveguides, a plurality of integrated photoelectric converter circuits and a plurality of integrated regeneration circuits with a member of the plurality of waveguides coupled to a respective member of the plurality of photoelectric converter circuits and to a respective member of the plurality of regeneration circuits forming a series opto/electrical path for a respective wavelength coupled to the optical input;
• and
• a transmitter electro/optical integrated circuit carried by the housing coupled between the plurality of electrical inputs and the optical output port with the transmitter circuit including a plurality of integrated optical sources, a plurality of integrated waveguides wherein the members of the plurality of waveguides are coupled to respective inputs of an integrated optical wavelength multiplexer with a composite output of the multiplexer coupled to the optical output port.

A wavelength division multiplexing communications system comprising:

• a plurality of optical fibers;
• a plurality of integrated, optical add/drop modules wherein the modules each include at least one integrated receiver module with a common substrate which carries an optical input, coupled to a respective optical fiber, and a plurality of electrical outputs, and an integrated transmitter module with another common substrate which carries a plurality of electrical input ports and an optical output coupled to a respective optical fiber where each module includes a plurality of waveguides integrally formed on a respective substrate;
• and
• a controllable electrical switching fabric for coupling some of the electrical outputs to some of the electrical input ports with signal input and output ports for inputting or outputting information carrying electrical signals.

A method of modifying a passive optical network having a plurality of interconnecting optical fibers comprising:

• removing the existing network terminating units;
• removing any optical splitters;
• completing optical paths interrupted by the removal of the splitters so as to couple optical fibers having opposite transmission directions relative to the respective removed splitter;
• and
• installing add/drop nodes at the locations from which the terminating units had been removed.