Transceiver system on a card for simultaneously transmitting and receiving information at a rate equal to or greater than approximately one terabit per second

摘要

An optical transceiver system is provided that comprises multiple parallel transceiver modules that are mounted on a card. The transceiver card is small in terms of spatial dimensions, has very good heat dissipation characteristics, and is capable of simultaneously transmitting and receiving data at a rate equal to or greater than approximately one Tb per second (1 Tb/s). A plurality of the transceiver systems may be interconnected to achieve a communications hub system having even higher bandwidths. In addition, the transceiver system may be configured such that each card has a routing controller mounted thereon for performing router functions. The router functions include, for example: causing signals received by one transceiver module on the card to be routed to and transmitted by another of the transceiver modules; causing signals received by one transceiver module on the card to be retransmitted by the same transceiver module over one of it's optical transmit channels; and causing signals received by one transceiver module on the card to be routed to and transmitted by a transceiver module on a different card.

主权项

1. An optical transceiver system for simultaneously transmitting multiple optical signals and receiving multiple optical signals, the optical transceiver system comprising:
a circuit board card comprising a substrate having an upper surface and an opposing lower surface, the upper and lower surfaces having electrical conductors disposed thereon, wherein at least some of the electrical conductors disposed on the upper surface are electrically connected with at least some of the electrical conductors disposed on the lower surface; a plurality of separate parallel optical transceiver modules mechanically coupled to the upper surface of the card, each of the separate transceiver modules having electrical contacts that are electrically coupled to at least some of the electrical conductors disposed on the upper surface of the card; a plurality of separate transceiver controllers mounted on the card, each of the separate transceiver controllers electrically connected to more than one of the plurality of separate parallel optical transceiver modules; a router controller mounted on the card and electrically connected to at least some of the electrical conductors disposed on the upper surface of the card, the router controller operable to cause an optical receive signal received by a first of the separate parallel optical transceiver module to be retransmitted as an optical transmit signal by one or more of the plurality of separate parallel optical transceiver modules; and plurality of optical fiber ribbon cables, each optical fiber ribbon cables comprising a plurality of optical fibers, at least some of the optical fibers being optical transmit fibers and at least some of the optical fibers being optical receive fibers, wherein each separate transceiver module is connected to an end of a different one of the plurality of optical fiber ribbon cables: each of the separate transceiver modules coupled to the upper surface of the card-comprises a plurality of opto-electronic conversion devices, each opto-electronic conversion device comprising one of a light source and a photodetector, each separate transceiver module further comprises a respective optics system for coupling the optical signals between each of the separate transceiver modules and the ends of the optical fibers of the respective ribbon cable connected to the transceiver module, and wherein the transceiver system is configured to simultaneously transmit the optical transmit signals at a rate equal to or greater than approximately one terabit per second (Tb/s) and receive the optical receive signals at a rate equal to or greater than approximately one.