| 摘要 |
<p>Multiplexer (1300) includes a plurality of conventional 1 x 8 combiners (1310-1 to 1310-10), for example, each having eight inputs receiving a respective one of eight channels. Combiners (1310-1 to 1310-10) can include one or more of the following: dielectric filters, fiber couplers, planar waveguides, arrayed waveguide routers, and appropriate combinations of fiber Bragg gratings and circulators. Combiners (1310-1 to 1310-10) combine the received channels onto corresponding outputs, which are coupled to respective optical attenuators (1312-1 to 1312-9). A series of cascaded combiners, including for example optical filter elements (1314-1 to 1314-9), generally receive optical signal inputs from corresponding optical attenuators (1312-1 to 1314-9), and add these signals to signals input from a preceding optical filter element. In particular, filter element (1314-1) adds channels (μ1 to μ8) received from combiner (1310-1) and channels (μ9 to μ16) output from combiner (1310-2) via attenuator (1312-1). The aggregated channels, channels(μ1 to μ16), are passed to filtering element (1314-2), which adds channels (μ17 to μ24) output from attenuator (1312-2) thereto. In a similar fashion channel groups (μ25 to μ32, μ33 to μ40, μ41 to μ48, μ56 to μ64, and μ72 to μ80) are successively added by filters (1314-3 to 1314-9). The final filtering element stage (1314-9) outputs the entire aggregation of channels, ((μ1 to μ80) onto a single output fiber (1316).</p> |
