METHOD AND APPARATUS TO FACILITATE MULTIPLEXING LIGHT IN A SHARED OPTICAL CONDUIT

摘要

One provides a source of optical power (101, 202), a source of optical lighting (102, 204), and a source of optically-encoded data (103, 206, 208). The outputs of these various sources are then multiplexed (104) together such that the optical power, the optical lighting, and the optically-encoded data all share a common optical conduit (210). By one approach, this multiplexing can comprise frequency division multiplexing. By this approach, for example, the optical lighting occupies one range of frequencies, the optical power occupies another, different range of frequencies, and the optically-encoded data occupies yet another, different range of frequencies.