US 2004/0175181 A1 · Bi-directional electrical to optical converter module

Abstract

A bi-directional (BiDi) electrical to optical converter (transceiver) module is described that contains means for communicating in a full duplex fashion over one fiber. Furthermore, an automatic fail-over capability is included which allows redundancy to be build in to the transceiver. In one configuration, a BiDi transceiver module contains two lasers at different wavelengths and a means for establishing which wavelength to communicate with. An example of an application for the described invention is a storage area network application which requires redundant links and are currently bound by the number of fibers connecting to the front panels of switches.

Claims4

Dependent claims

A bi-directional optical transceiver for simultaneously transmitting n channels of n different wavelengths and receiving m channels of m different wavelengths through a single fiber optic cable comprising:

an optical block having a flat upper surface and a flat lower surface,
a reflective coating carried by said upper surface of said optical block,
a plurality of m filters carried on said flat lower surface of said optical block, said filters adapted to separately filter said m different wavelengths,
a plurality of m photodetectors wherein each of said m photodetectors is optically aligned with one of said m filters to receive one of said m channels through one of said m filters,
a plurality of n beam splitters on said flat lower surface of said optical block, and
a plurality of n transmitting lasers, each having a separate wavelength, wherein each of said n lasers is optically aligned with one of said n beam splitters.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Bi-directional electrical to optical converter module

Life of this patent

Bi-directional electrical to optical converter module

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims4