High capacity fiber-optic integrated transmission and switching systems

摘要

A reconfigurable electrical add/drop multiplexing node, a network, and optoelectronic integrated circuit form a novel high capacity fiber-optic integrated transmission and switching system with a baseline target capacity in excess of 1 Tbps. The node, network, and circuit can leverage optoelectronic integration of transmission and switching components along with using the full “transparency” window of modern optical fibers from about 1270 nm to about 1670 nm for a large number of relatively low-rate wavelengths. The electrical switching fabric can be part of a Reconfigurable Electrical Add/Drop Multiplexer (READM) with similar functionality as a Reconfigurable Optical Add/Drop Multiplexer (ROADM) except in a highly integrated fashion with the transmission components. The electrical switching fabric can implement flow switching on a composite signal to provide comparable functionality to optical components in electrical circuitry such as in Complementary metal-oxide-semiconductors.

主权项

1. A reconfigurable electrical add/drop multiplexing node, comprising:
an optoelectronic integrated circuit comprising a transmitter section and a receiver section; and a switching fabric communicatively coupling the transmitter section and the receiver section of the optoelectronic integrated circuit, wherein the transmitter section and the receiver section interface the switching fabric at a full signal level and the switching fabric is configured to perform flow switching on the full signal level between the transmitter section and the receiver section with subrate grooming of the full signal performed in a separate device external to the optoelectronic integrated circuit; wherein the transmitter section comprises N channels formed by N lasers locked to a wavelength grid, and N modulators and drivers associated with each of the N lasers, and wherein the N modulators comprise one of a Mach-Zehnder modulator, an electro-absorption modulator, and a ring modulator with associated bandwidth, extinction ratio, and chirp control, and wherein the receiver section is configured to receive each of the N channels optically and provide corresponding electrical signals based thereon through a polarization splitter, a horizontal demultiplexer coupled to the polarization splitter, a vertical demultiplexer coupled to the polarization splitter, photodiodes each coupled to one of the horizontal demultiplexer and the vertical demultiplexer, and transimpedance amplifiers each coupled to one of the photodiodes.