US 6,959,003 B1Granted

Serial transmission path switching system

AssigneeKabushiki Kaisha Toshiba

InventorsNobutaka Shinohara, Tomoaki Sugiyama, Takashi Cho, Kazuhiko Ide, Yoshio Inagaki, Sadao Tanikoshi

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Abstract

A serial transmission path switching system includes a matrix switch section for switching N×M lines at a fixed rate. An optical receiving section is connected to receive an optical signal from an optical transmission path, photoelectrically convert it, and supply it to the matrix switch section. An optical transmitting section is connected to convert an output from the matrix switch section into an optical signal and send it to an optical transmission path. An input buffer is connected to the terminal of the optical transmission path connected to the optical receiving section to equalize the input signal from an input-side communication device, convert the signal into an optical signal, and send it to the optical transmission path. An output buffer is connected to the terminal of the optical transmission path connected to the optical transmitting section to convert an optical signal from the optical transmitting section into an electrical signal, equalize it, and output it to an output-side communication device.

Claims21

Dependent claims

A serial transmission path switching system comprising:

a switch section having a plurality of input lines and a plurality of output lines to perform line-switching between the input lines and output lines;
a plurality of first serial transmission paths connected to the input lines, respectively;
input buffers connected to input-side communication devices and terminals of the first serial transmission paths, respectively, to equalize transmission signals from said input-side communication devices and send the signals to the first serial transmission paths;
a plurality of second serial transmission paths connected to the output lines, respectively;
output buffers connected to output-side communication devices and terminals of the second serial transmission paths, respectively, to equalize transmission signals from the second serial transmission paths and send the signals to said output-side communication devices;
a receiving section inserted between the first serial transmission paths and the input lines to receive the transmission signals from the first serial transmission paths and supply the signals to the input lines;
and
a transmitting section inserted between the output lines and the second serial transmission paths to receive the transmission signals from the output lines and supply the signals to the second serial transmission paths, wherein
said receiving section and said transmitting section comprise an optical receiving section and an optical transmitting section, respectively, and transmission paths of the first and second serial transmission paths, connected to said optical receiving section and said optical transmitting section, comprise optical fiber cables.

6 more elements

A serial transmission path switching system comprising:

a switch section having a plurality of input lines and a plurality of output lines to perform line-switching between the input lines and output lines;
a plurality of first serial transmission paths connected to the input lines, respectively;
input buffers connected to input-side communication devices and terminals of the first serial transmission paths, respectively, to equalize transmission signals from said input-side communication devices and send the signals to the first serial transmission paths;
a plurality of second serial transmission paths connected to the output lines, respectively;
and
output buffers connected to output-side communication devices and terminals of the second serial transmission paths, respectively, to equalize transmission signals from the second serial transmission paths and send the signals to said output-side communication devices,
wherein said switch section comprises:
a switch having a plurality of input portions and a plurality of output portions to perform line-switching between said input portions and output portions,
frequency band expanding members connected to said output portions, respectively, to increase a gain of high-frequency-side frequency characteristics of each of transmission signal from said output portions, and
buffer amplifiers connected to said frequency band expanding members to buffer the transmission signals from said frequency band expanding members and send the signals to the output lines, respectively.

7 more elements

A serial transmission path switching system comprising:

a switch section having a plurality of input lines and a plurality of output lines to perform line-switching between the input lines and output lines;
a plurality of first serial transmission paths connected to the input lines, respectively;
input buffers connected to input-side communication devices and terminals of the first serial transmission paths, respectively, to equalize transmission signals from said input-side communication devices and send the signals to the first serial transmission paths;
a plurality of second serial transmission paths connected to the output lines, respectively;
and
output buffers connected to output-side communication devices and terminals of the second serial transmission paths, respectively, to equalize transmission signals from the second serial transmission paths and send the signals to said output-side communication devices,
wherein said switch section comprises:
a switch having a plurality of input portions and a plurality of output portions to perform line-switching between said input portions and output portions,
conversion members connected to said output portions to convert transmission signals from said output portions into pairs of positive and negative differential signals, respectively,
pairs of frequency band expanding members connected to said conversion members, respectively, to increase a gain of high-frequency-side frequency characteristics of each of the positive and negative differential signals from said conversion members, and
buffer amplifiers connected to said pairs of frequency band expanding members to combine the transmission signals from the pairs of frequency band expanding members into single signals, buffer the single signals and send the signals to the output lines, respectively.

8 more elements

A serial transmission path switching system comprising:

a switch section having a plurality of input lines and a plurality of output lines to perform line-switching between the input lines and output lines;
a plurality of first serial transmission paths connected to the input lines, respectively;
input buffers connected to input-side communication devices and terminals of the first serial transmission paths, respectively, to equalize transmission signals from said input-side communication devices and send the signals to the first serial transmission paths;
a plurality of second serial transmission paths connected to the output lines, respectively;
output buffers connected to output-side communication devices and terminals of the second serial transmission paths, respectively, to equalize transmission signals from the second serial transmission paths and send the signals to said output-side communication devices;
a receiving section inserted between the first serial transmission paths and the input lines to receive the transmission signals from the first serial transmission paths and supply the signals to the input lines;
and
a transmitting section inserted between the output lines and the second serial transmission paths to receive the transmission signals from the output lines and supply the signals to the second serial transmission paths, wherein
(a) said receiving section has Li (Li is a natural number) distributors for distributing digital signals of Li channels to a first group and a second group in units of a channel,
(b) said switch section comprises:
an input stage formed by parallelly arranging a plurality of switches and having a total of at least 2Li (Li is a natural number) inputs, each switch having a maximum number N (N is a natural number) of inputs and a maximum number M (M is a natural number) of outputs,
an output stage formed by parallelly arranging a plurality of switches and having a total of at least 2Lo (Lo is a natural number) outputs, each switch having the maximum number N of inputs and the maximum number M of outputs, and
a middle stage inserted between said input stage and said output stage and formed by parallelly arranging (P+Q) where P (P is a natural number) is the number of inputs of one switch of said input stage for one of said groups, and Q (Q is a natural number) is the number of outputs of one switch of said output stage for one of said groups switches having inputs equal in number to the total number of outputs of said switches of said input stage and outputs equal in number to the total number of inputs of said switches of said output stage,
wherein the digital signals of said first and second groups of each of the Li channels, which are distributed by said receiving section, are input to switches of said input stage different from each other between said groups, passed through said plurality of switches of said middle stage, and output from switches of said output stage different form each other between said groups, and
(c) said transmitting section has Lo selectors such that the digital signals of said first and second groups, which are output from switches of said switch section different from each other between said groups, are input to corresponding selectors, and the digital signal of one of said groups is selectively output.

12 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.