Abstract:
The present invention describes systems (1, 12) and methods for control of optical devices and communications subsystems. The control system comprises ASIC sub-modules and programmable circuitry (25) which may be integrated into a self-contained, stand-alone module. In one embodiment, the module has one or more FPGAs (25) in conjunction with RF and Digital ASICs (30), an integrated cross-connect (36) between the FPGA and digital and RF ASIC" building blocks, and an integrated cross-connect (41) between the ASIC and optical circuits and supporting functions. Programmable chip control and other transmission and tuning functions, programmable transponders, and each FPGA/ASIC (25, 30) that is incorporated into a transponder form factor or a host board, can have the same or different functionalities and other parameters including but not limited to modulation format.
Abstract:
An optical network interface (ONI) module has two main components: an optoelectronic front-end and a general purpose hardware-programmable optical network interface engine. The ONI engine is hardware programmable, allowing the user to configure the overall ONI module with different optoelectronic front-ends and for use with different host modules. In this way, the ONI module can be configured for different applications and protocols. In some implementations, the ONI module may include a burst mode clock recovery module that recovers the clock rapidly and with a small number of preamble or overhead bits at the front end of the data. In one approach, a local clock is used for timing when the recovered clock is not available. Transitions between the recovered clock and local clock are smoothed out to avoid undesirable artifacts
Abstract:
Wavelength tunable submodules (104), arrayed in a module (100), for data communications is provided. Each submodule (104) has a wavelength tunable laser, and each submodule (104) comprises, as an individual unit, a self-contained wavelength locker having optical and/or optoelectronic functions. The system may be a transponder array comprising a plurality of WDM or DWDM modules (100). In some embodiments, the individual submodules (104) comprise photonic integrated wavelength tunable lasers with other optical, electrical and optoelectronic components (112, 114, 116, 118, 120, 122). Each wavelength tunable submodule (104) incorporated into the module 100 or module array can have the same or different output optical wavelength (132). By utilizing the wavelength tunable laser submodules to build a module or array, the need for individual modules dedicated to wavelength sub-bands in the array is eliminated and the same tunable module can fill all the wavelengths on a transmission fiber.