SMALL FORM FACTOR PLUGGABLE MODULE PROVIDING PASSIVE OPTICAL SIGNAL PROCESSING OF WAVELENGTH DIVISION MULTIPLEXED SIGNALS

摘要

An optical network device is provided having a small form factor pluggable housing with a maximum width dimension not greater than 31 mm (i.e., the width of a GBIC module). The housing supports an optical subsystem and an electrical interface. The optical subsystem provides passive optical processing of wavelength division multiplexed optical signals. The electrical interface communicates electrical signals to a host system operably coupled thereto. The electrical signals carry data to the host system, which preferably includes module identification data (e.g., a manufacturer name; a part number; and a serial number of the device) and/or operational parameter data (e.g., wavelengths that are multiplexed, demultiplexed, added, dropped by the optical subsystem). The interfaces of the device (i.e., connectors and fiber optic pigtails) as well as the functionality of the optical subsystem can readily be adapted for different applications and network configurations. In the preferred embodiment, the optical device is a GBIC module for CWDM applications; however, it can be readily adapted to smaller form factor designs (such as SFP and XFP) and for other WDM applications (such as DWDM).