The Boeing Company

Barkhung Henry Pang

Eric Y Chan

Dennis Gary Koshinz

Tuong Kien Truong

Timothy Edward Jackson

Sean M Ramey

Kim Quan Anh Nguyen

A controller area network (CAN) comprising a plurality of CAN nodes that communicate via a CAN bus that comprises a fiber optical network. The fiber optical network uses a single fiber and a single wavelength for transmit and receive, and comprises a passive reflective optical star. The reflective optical star comprises an optical mixing rod having a mirror at one end. The other end of the reflective optical star is optically coupled to the transmitters and receivers of a plurality of optical-electrical media converters by way of respective high-isolation optical Y-couplers. Each CAN node produces electrical signals (in accordance with the CAN message-based protocol) which are converted into optical pulses that are broadcast to the fiber optical network. Those optical pulses are then reflected back to all CAN nodes by the reflective optical star.

Growing community of inventors

Mercer Island, WA, United States of America

Barkhung Henry Pang