Optical transceiver including a plurality of transmitter units and a process to control the same
AssigneeSumitomo Electric Industries, Ltd.
InventorHirotaka Oomori
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Abstract
An optical transceiver is disclosed in which the optical output thereof is controlled without degrading the signal quality. The optical transceiver of the invention includes a plurality of transmitter units and a controller that adjusts the bias current of respective transmitter units. The controller, receiving information to decrease/increase the output of the optical transceiver, decides a unique unit that has a largest margin to increase/decrease the bias current and provides a control signal only to the unique unit to increase/decrease the bias current.
Claims12
An optical transceiver comprising:
- a plurality of transmitter units each installing a semiconductor laser diode and a bias current source, said semiconductor laser diode being provided with a bias current from said bias current source;
- an optical multiplexer configured to multiplex optical signals output from respective transmitter units;
- a monitor photodiode configured to monitor an optical output of said optical transceiver, and
- a controller to control said optical output,
- wherein said controller selects one of transmitter units that has a margin of said bias current widest to a predetermined upper limit or a predetermined lower limit when said controller receives information from said monitor photodiode to increase or decrease said optical output, and provides a control signal to said bias current source in said one of transmitter units, and
- wherein said bias current source in said one of transmitter units increases or decreases said bias current by a preset step.
A process to control an optical output of an optical transceiver that installs a plurality of transmitter units each including a laser diode and a bias current source, an optical multiplexer configured to multiplex optical signals each output from said transmitter unit to generate said optical output, a monitor photodiode to detect said optical output, and a controller, said process comprising steps of:
- deciding an increasing margin of a bias current provided to said laser diode from said bias current source for respective transmitter units when said controller receives information from said monitor photodiode to increase said optical output of said optical transceiver, or a decreasing margin for respective transmitter units when said controller receives information from said monitor photodiode to decrease said optical output of said optical transceiver;
- identifying one of said transmitter units that has a widest increasing margin or a widest decreasing margin of said bias current;
- and
- providing a control signal to said one of transmitter units so as to increase or to decrease said bias current provided to said laser diode by a preset increasing step or a preset decreasing step.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.