Abstract: A system and method for optical communication are disclosed that may include providing an optical network terminal (ONT) operable to transmit information over a passive optical network (PON) to an optical line terminal (OLT); transmitting gigabit encapsulation mode (GEM) frames from the ONT to the OLT; converting the GEM frames into IP fragments; and transmitting the IP fragments out of the OLT.

Abstract: An optical circuit is described which may include an SOA-MZI circuit providing an output signal; and a polarization filtering device (PFD) configured to receive the output signal of the SOA-MZI and to provide at least one signal at the output of the PFD.

Abstract: In a fiber-optic communications system, a backup or redundant optical link is provided at the central office in parallel with the primary one in use. Parameters associated with the backup link, including its signal delay, its attenuation, etc. are stored at the time of installation. Upon failure of the primary link, switchover can be automatic, and the stored parameters are used to make adjustments necessary for the differences between the primary link and the backup link. In addition, having information on the differences between the two links, the central office is able to send control information downstream which is used at the remote site to control changes that must be made for upstream signals. For example, customer equipment can be signaled to adjust its timing for the next time slot or interface amplifiers can be adjusted to account for the change in attenuation.

Abstract: An apparatus for monitoring optical equipment in an optical circuit is disclosed in which the apparatus may include an optical device situated to receive an optical input signal and to reflect a portion of the energy of the received optical input signal, thereby providing a reflected input signal; a first photodiode located along a path of the reflected input signal, and operable to receive optical energy from the reflected optical input signal and from ambient optical power; a second photodiode located substantially outside the reflection path of the optical input signal; and means for calculating a magnitude of a power level of the optical input signal from values of outputs from the first and second photodiodes.

Abstract: Methods and apparatus for implementing synchronous Optical Time Division Multiplexing are presented. Namely, a method of upconverting and combining N input NRZ optical data signals, each having an approximately equal pulse width and period, into one time-division multiplexed output signal, as well as a method for the inverse, i.e., down converting the N demultiplexed component signals are presented. Apparatus to implement these functionalities is also presented.

Abstract: A method and apparatus to achieve a resource optimized, class of Reed Solomon decoders, featuring balanced pipelined stages and parallel algorithmic components. The Reed Solomon decoder has two pipeline stages, with one stage implementing syndrome computation and the second stage implementing error locator polynomial evaluation, error location and error correction. Since the second pipeline stage performs several tasks, these tasks can share resources with each other, resulting in a compact implementation. In addition, we present a technique that can be used to compute the level of parallelism required of two key algorithmic components (syndrome computation, error location) so that the RS decoder can handle inputs of variable rates, with minimal latency and resource consumption. We show that low latency, in itself, is an important consideration for Reed Solomon decoders, and can lead to reduced buffering, resulting in significant hardware savings.

Abstract: An optical circuit is described which may include an SOA-MZI circuit providing an output signal; and a polarization filtering device (PFD) configured to receive the output signal of the SOA-MZI and to provide at least one signal at the output of the PFD.

Abstract: An optical circuit is described which may include an SOA-MZI circuit providing an output signal; and a polarization filtering device (PFD) configured to receive the output signal of the SOA-MZI and to provide at least one signal at the output of the PFD.

Abstract: An optical circuit is disclosed, which may include a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA); an optical filter operable to filter light emerging from the SOA; and a PIN for converting the light output from the optical filter into an electrical signal, wherein the gain profile of the optical filter is configured to maximize throughout of signal energy within a predetermined wavelength range (in-band), and to impose an insertion loss (Loob) of less than 20 dB on signal energy outside the predetermined wavelength range.

Abstract: A photonic integrated circuit having a plurality of circuit components, is disclosed, which may include an MMI for splitting signal power passing therethrough among first and second optical pathways coupled to first and second outputs, respectively, of the MMI, thereby directing first and second percentages of the signal power along the first and the second optical pathways, respectively; and a photodetector integrated into the photonic integrated circuit and coupled to said first optical pathway for measuring a signal power level on said first optical pathway.

Abstract: An optical circuit is described which may include an SOA-MZI circuit providing an output signal; and a polarization filtering device (PFD) configured to receive the output signal of the SOA-MZI and to provide at least one signal at the output of the PFD.

Abstract: A photonic integrated circuit having a plurality of circuit components, is disclosed, which may include an MMI for splitting signal power passing therethrough among first and second optical pathways coupled to first and second outputs, respectively, of the MMI, thereby directing first and second percentages of the signal power along the first and the second optical pathways, respectively; and a photodetector integrated into the photonic integrated circuit and coupled to said first optical pathway for measuring a signal power level on said first optical pathway.

Abstract: The method of isolating faults internal to, for example, from tonic integrated circuits by diverting a portion of certain input and output signals to integrated photo detectors. By analyzing the admitted optical signal in each of plural photo detectors, falls within the circuit can be isolated.

Abstract: An optical circuit is disclosed, which may include a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA); an optical filter operable to filter light emerging from the SOA; and a PIN for converting the light output from the optical filter into an electrical signal, wherein the gain profile of the optical filter is configured to maximize throughout of signal energy within a predetermined wavelength range (in-band), and to impose an insertion loss (Loob) of less than 20 dB on signal energy outside the predetermined wavelength range.

Abstract: A system and method are disclosed that may be operable to avoid upstream reassembly at an optical line terminal in a passive optical network.

Abstract: Monitoring of the input power is performed on-chip and is used to monitor and maintain performance, detect failure and trigger network protection strategies. An optical power-monitoring technique uses a photodetector monolithically integrated with the semiconductor optical amplifier—Mach-Zehnder interferometer circuit to monitor the P2R device and keep the output stable while the input power varies.

Abstract: A method and apparatus are disclosed to achieve a resource optimized, class of RS decoders, featuring balanced pipelined stages and parallel algorithmic components. Our RS decoder has two pipeline stages, with one stage implementing syndrome computation and the second stage implementing error locator polynomial evaluation, error location and error correction. Since the second pipeline stage performs several tasks, these tasks can share resources with each other, resulting in a compact implementation. In addition, we present a technique that can be used to compute the level of parallelism required of two key algorithmic components (syndrome computation, error location) so that the RS decoder can handle inputs of variable rates, with minimal latency and resource consumption. We show that low latency, in itself, is an important consideration for RS decoders, and can lead to reduced buffering, resulting in significant hardware savings.

Abstract: A integrated optical circuit comprises an interferometer having a first optical path and a second optical path configured for regenerating an input signal entering the first path by interference at a first coupler between continuous wave (CW) signals from the two optical paths, and a third optical path configured such that a canceling signal passing therethrough cancels, at a second coupler, a traveling signal from the first arm. When the device is operated in a counter-propagative mode, the traveling signal is the CW signal from the first arm. When the device is operated in a co-propagative mode, the traveling signal is the input signal from the first arm.

Abstract: A system, method and device for AO2R is presented. The AO2R system presented is redundant, containing multiple pathways for the input and output signals to travel. The system carries out both the regeneration and reshaping functions in the optical domain, and returns a clean output signal at the same bit rate and in the same format as the input signal, on a wavelength of choice. As an all optical device, the apparatus is bit rate and format transparent, and requires no optical-electrical-optical conversion. The system's built in redundancy and symmetry allows less than perfect yields on components to be tolerated, thus increasing the utility of devices manufactured with less than perfect yields. In alternative embodiments the redundancy aspect of the invention can be extended to any optical signal processing device, thus facilitating high availability optical signal processing.

Abstract: Method and apparatus are presented for the generation and detection of maintenance signals in an optical data network. The maintenance signals are such that they can be read both by high bit-rate and low bit-rate receivers. Detection of the maintenance signals occurs in two stages. In a low bit-rate first stage each nodal input port is sampled in a round robin fashion to detect the presence of a maintenance signal. In a high bit-rate second stage the maintenance signal is verified and read by a high speed receiver, along with other high bit-rate information transmitted with it. One second stage high speed receiver is shared among M input channels for cost and circuit efficiency.