Patents Examined by Danny Leung
  • Patent number: 10097798
    Abstract: Systems and methods for optical narrowcasting are provided for transmitting various types of content. Optical narrowcasting content indicative of the presence of additional information along with identifying information may be transmitted. The additional information (which may include meaningful amounts of advertising information, media, or any other content) may also be transmitted as optical narrowcasting content. Elements of an optical narrowcasting system may include optical transmitters and optical receivers which can be configured to be operative at distances ranging from, e.g., 400 meters to 1200 meters. Moreover, the elements can be implemented on a miniaturized scale in conjunction with small, user devices such as smartphones, thereby also realizing optical ad-hoc networking, as well as interoperability with other types of data networks. Optically narrowcast content can be used to augment a real-world experience, enhance and/or spawn new forms of social-media and media content.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 6, 2017
    Date of Patent: October 9, 2018
    Assignee: ARON SUREFIRE, LLC
    Inventors: Narkis E. Shatz, John C. Bortz
  • Patent number: 10050704
    Abstract: Several embodiments of a system and method of an optical-frequency (OF) synthesizer are disclosed that produces an optical frequency (OF) tone derived from a dispersive resonator and phase-locking to a radio frequency (RF) tone to achieve high precision. Thus, the stability of the synthesized OF tone is related to the stability of the RF tone. A frequency control word provides for a wide range of programmability to the frequency of the output OF tone. The OF synthesizer establishes the absolute value of the optical frequency of its output tone by making use of a dispersive optical resonator and applying appropriate corrections obtained dynamically by interrogating the comb lines. The reference resonator defines a semi-dormant OF reference comb, wherein the lines of that reference comb are associated with the modes of the reference resonator. Several selected modes of this reference resonator are interrogated by locking the frequency of light emitted by lasers to those resonator modes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 18, 2016
    Date of Patent: August 14, 2018
    Assignee: HRL Laboratories, LLC
    Inventor: Daniel Yap
  • Patent number: 10050702
    Abstract: Techniques are described for determining, with a first optical node, a correction factor indicative of an amount of optical power loss that a Raman amplifier in a second optical node causes in an optical signal having a first wavelength that is transmitted by the first optical node and received by the second optical node, transmitting, with the first optical node to the second optical node, information, based on the determined correction factor, that is to be used for determining a gain of the Raman amplifier, and transmitting, with the first optical node to the second optical node, an optical signal having a second wavelength that is to be amplified by the Raman amplifier.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 7, 2017
    Date of Patent: August 14, 2018
    Assignee: Juniper Networks, Inc.
    Inventors: Qiang Wang, Yang Yue, Bo Zhang
  • Patent number: 10042192
    Abstract: Methods, apparatus, and systems are provided including an electro-absorption modulator (EAM) with local temperature control for optical communication. One aspect provides an optical EAM including a semiconductor portion configured to modulate light for transmission or reception of an optical signal. The modulator includes a temperature sensing element configured to sense temperature and to provide an output signal based on the sensed temperature, and a temperature control element configured to control temperature of the semiconductor portion based on the output signal from the temperature sensing element. In one example, the semiconductor portion includes germanium silicon (GeSi).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 28, 2016
    Date of Patent: August 7, 2018
    Assignee: Futurewei Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Yan Cai, YuSheng Bai, Hongbing Lei, Xiao Andy Shen
  • Patent number: 10038505
    Abstract: Apparatus and method for digital signal constellation transformation are provided herein. In certain configurations, an integrated circuit includes an analog front-end that converts an analog signal vector representing an optical signal into a digital signal vector, and a digital signal processing circuit that processes the digital signal vector to recover data from the optical signal. The digital signal processing circuit generates signal data representing a signal constellation of the digital signal vector. The digital signal processing circuit includes an adaptive gain equalizer that compensates the signal data for distortion of the signal constellation arising from biasing errors of optical modulators used to transmit the optical signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 21, 2017
    Date of Patent: July 31, 2018
    Assignee: INPHI CORPORATION
    Inventor: Shu Hao Fan
  • Patent number: 10027418
    Abstract: A method of controlling an input signal supplied from an encoder to a modulator, wherein the input signal causes modulation of a current flowing through a light source in order to embed data in light emitted by the light source. The method comprises: for each of a plurality of possible logical transitions allowed by the encoding scheme from an adjacently preceding symbol to a present symbol, determining a respective observed value for the current level of the present symbol; for each of the plurality of logical transitions, determining an associated error between the respective observed value and a corresponding one of a set of nominal values for the current levels; and based on the respective error for each of the plurality of logical transitions, applying a respective compensation to the corresponding input in order to bring the resulting current level closer to the corresponding nominal value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 19, 2016
    Date of Patent: July 17, 2018
    Assignee: PHILIPS LIGHTING HOLDING B.V.
    Inventors: Joost Jacob Brilman, Hugo Jose Kraijnc
  • Patent number: 10014658
    Abstract: Described herein are photonic integrated circuits (PICs) comprising a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) to output a signal comprising a plurality of wavelengths, a sensor to detect data associated with a power value of each wavelength of the output signal of the SOA, a filter to filter power values of one or more of the wavelengths of the output signal of the SOA, and control circuitry to control the filter to reduce a difference between a pre-determined power value of each filtered wavelength of the output signal of the SOA and the detected power value of each filtered wavelength of the output signal of the SOA.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 18, 2017
    Date of Patent: July 3, 2018
    Assignee: Aurrion, Inc.
    Inventors: Erik Johan Norberg, John M. Garcia, Brian Koch, Gregory Alan Fish
  • Patent number: 10014938
    Abstract: Techniques are described for indicating a wavelength at which a network interface device is configured to operate. A first controller circuit may determine a wavelength at which the network interface device is operating. The wavelength at which the network interface device is operating includes at least one of an optical wavelength at which a laser of the network interface device is transmitting optical data or an optical wavelength at which a photodiode of the network interface device is receiving optical data. A second controller circuit may cause the network interface device to output a sensory output that indicates the wavelength at which the network interface device is operating.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 18, 2016
    Date of Patent: July 3, 2018
    Assignee: Calix, Inc.
    Inventor: Christopher T. Bernard
  • Patent number: 9998222
    Abstract: An optical signal transmission system and method of allocating center frequencies of intermediate frequency (IF) carriers in a frequency division multiplexing (FDM) optical fiber link. The optical signal transmission method includes determining a center frequency interval between modulated signals based on a bandwidth of the modulated signals or a center frequency of a modulated signal having a lowest center frequency, among the modulated signals, reallocating center frequencies to the modulated signals based on the center frequency interval between the modulated signals, and converting the modulated signals reallocated the center frequencies from electrical signal into optical signal and transmitting the optical signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 24, 2016
    Date of Patent: June 12, 2018
    Assignee: ELECTRONICS AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS RESEARCH INSTITUTE
    Inventors: Chan Gyo Han, Min Kyu Sung, Jong Hyun Lee, Hwan Seok Chung, Seung Hyun Cho
  • Patent number: 9989786
    Abstract: An optical transmission device includes an optical modulator and a processor. The optical modulator optically modulates an optical signal with a driving signal to output a modulated optical signal. The processor performs ABC on a bias of the optical modulator, using the modulated optical signal, so as to cause the bias to converge to an optimum point. The processor starts the ABC using a modulated optical signal optically modulated with a QPSK signal at start-up timing, acquires an optimum value that is a bias value when the bias converges to the optimum point, and stops the ABC. After the ABC is stopped, the processor sets the acquired optimum value as an initial value, and restarts the ABC using a modulated optical signal optically modulated with an N-QPSK signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 3, 2017
    Date of Patent: June 5, 2018
    Assignee: FUJITSU LIMITED
    Inventors: Tomohiro Kaneoka, Hiroshi Ogiwara, Yuichi Akiyama
  • Patent number: 9991878
    Abstract: This disclosure describes techniques for shifting the cross-point of a digital signal in an optical transmitter. The cross-point shifting techniques may use multiple differential transconductors with their common polarity outputs coupled together to shift the cross-point of a signal. Using multiple differential transconductors in this manner may increase the balance between the positive and negative polarities of the resulting cross-point shifted signal relative to other types of cross-point shifting techniques, which may improve the quality of an optical signal generated by an optical transmitter.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 3, 2015
    Date of Patent: June 5, 2018
    Assignee: TEXAS INSTRUMENTS INCORPORATED
    Inventor: Andreas Bock
  • Patent number: 9979468
    Abstract: It is difficult in an optical network to achieve fault recovery in case of multiple failures without decreasing the usage efficiency of the optical network; therefore, an optical communication system according to an exemplary aspect of the present invention includes an optical network management device including an optical path setting means for setting, to a physical route differing from each other, a backup path corresponding to each of a plurality of active paths on an identical physical route, and a failure-case optical path setting means for setting a failure-case backup path with a compressed band of the backup path, to a physical route without a failure in a case where failures arising on more than one physical route among the physical routes; and an optical node device including an optical transceiver means for transmitting and receiving optical signals using failure-case backup path information resulting from setting by the failure-case optical path setting means.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 15, 2015
    Date of Patent: May 22, 2018
    Assignee: NEC Corporation
    Inventors: Shinsuke Fujisawa, Hitoshi Takeshita, Tomoyuki Hino, Akio Tajima
  • Patent number: 9979483
    Abstract: Receiving a plurality of optical signals from a plurality of optical paths using a single optical receiver having a large-area photodiode having an active area that is optically coupled to the plurality of optical paths provides significant commercial advantages such as lower cost as well as reduced size and maintenance.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 15, 2016
    Date of Patent: May 22, 2018
    Assignee: Aurora Networks, Inc.
    Inventor: Sudhesh Mysore
  • Patent number: 9979478
    Abstract: A pico projector with visible light communication has three different modes for various applications.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 23, 2016
    Date of Patent: May 22, 2018
    Inventor: Ping-Hung Yin
  • Patent number: 9967031
    Abstract: A communications system may include an optical source to generate an optical carrier signal, and an RF signal path including a first electro-optic (EO) modulator to modulate the optical carrier signal based upon an RF signal, a stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) device coupled to the first EO modulator, and an optical circulator downstream from the SBS device. A local oscillator (LO) path may include a second EO modulator coupled to the optical source to modulate the optical carrier signal based upon an LO signal, and an optical bandpass filter(s) coupled to the second EO modulator. A filter function path may be coupled to the optical circulator and include a third EO modulator to perform optical modulation based upon a filter function signal. A detector may be coupled to the RF signal path and the LO path to generate an intermediate frequency (IF) signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 5, 2017
    Date of Patent: May 8, 2018
    Assignee: HARRIS CORPORATION
    Inventors: Charles F. Middleton, John R. Desalvo, Anthony C. Klee
  • Patent number: 9967033
    Abstract: An apparatus comprising an arrayed waveguide grating (AWG) comprising a plurality of AWG ports, a power splitter comprising a plurality of splitter ports, and a plurality of optical interleavers, each coupled to a respective AWG port and a respective splitter port, for directing incoming optical signals to one of the AWG and the power splitter.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 11, 2016
    Date of Patent: May 8, 2018
    Assignee: Futurewei Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Ning Cheng, Frank J. Effenberger
  • Patent number: 9960879
    Abstract: An optical line terminal (OLT) coupled to a plurality of optical network units (ONUs) through a passive optical network (PON). The OLT includes a transceiver configured to communicate via a management channel of a communication network with a plurality of OLTs. The communication includes sending or receiving a notification, wherein the notification includes the following: a source OLT identifier associated with a source OLT sending the notification, wherein the source OLT is configured to communicate over a first channel at a first wavelength of the PON; a destination OLT identifier associated with a destination OLT receiving the notification, wherein the destination OLT is configured to communicate over a second channel at a second wavelength of the PON; and an ONU identifier associated with a first ONU associated with the notification.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 3, 2017
    Date of Patent: May 1, 2018
    Assignee: FUTUREWEI TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
    Inventors: Yuanqiu Luo, Bo Gao, Frank Effenberger
  • Patent number: 9954615
    Abstract: To provide a method capable of easily compensating waveform distortion due to a non-linear effect caused by a complicated electric circuit, and a device for implementing the method. Provided are a method capable of effectively compensating signal degradation such as waveform distortion due to a nonlinear effect caused by an optical fiber that is an optical transfer path using an optical phase conjugate signal pair at the time of optical up-conversion or down-conversion, and a device capable of implementing the method. This emission device 25 includes an optical modulator 11, a signal source 13, an optical fiber 15, a multiplexing unit 17, a multiplexing local signal source 19, an optical detector 12, and a transmission antenna 23.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 2, 2015
    Date of Patent: April 24, 2018
    Assignee: National Institute of Information and Communications Technology
    Inventor: Takahide Sakamoto
  • Patent number: 9948384
    Abstract: A method of identifying network faults includes receiving subscriber statuses of customer premises equipment (CPE) of a communication network represented as a tree having a root node and leaf nodes. Each leaf node corresponds to a CPE. For each CPE, the method includes: (i) determining a conditional probability of the subscriber status of the CPE for each sub-tree in the network tree; (ii) determining a joint probability of the subscriber status of the CPE for every sub-tree in the network tree; (iii) determining a joint probability of the subscriber status of the CPE for every residual tree in the network tree; and (iv) determining a Bayesian posterior probability of a cut at each leaf node, given the subscriber status of the CPE. The method further includes determining a network node status topology indicating node statuses of nodes of the network tree based on the determined Bayesian posterior probabilities.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 23, 2016
    Date of Patent: April 17, 2018
    Assignee: Google LLC
    Inventors: Michele Morara, Raphael Cendrillon
  • Patent number: 9941961
    Abstract: A signal detection device including: a comparison unit that obtains data including central frequencies of optical signals respectively transmitted by a plurality of optical transmitters and a central frequency interval indicating the interval between the central frequencies, power measurement values obtained by measuring, at sampling point frequencies arranged at a prescribed sampling interval, the power of a WDM signal for which the wavelength of optical signals has been multiplexed, a sampling interval, and sampling point frequencies, that selects a selection value from among the power measurement values on the basis of the central frequency interval and the sampling interval, and that outputs a result of comparison between the selection value and a prescribed threshold; and an alarm generator that outputs a signal interruption alarm in a case where the comparison result indicates that the selection value is less than the threshold.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 14, 2015
    Date of Patent: April 10, 2018
    Assignee: NEC CORPORATION
    Inventor: Yoshirou Satou