Telefonaktiebolaget Lm Ericsson (publ)

Francesco Testa

Marco Romagnoli

Alberto Bianchi

Luigi Tallone

Fabio Cavaliere

Wei-Ping Huang

Antonio D'errico

Antonio D'Errico

Giulio Bottari

Paola Iovanna

Luca Giorgi

Filippo Ponzini

Ernesto Ciaramella

Marzio Puleri

Roberto Sabella

Marco Presi

Gemma Vall-Llosera

Vito Sorianello

Paolo Andreozzi

Renato Norbiato

Stefano Merli

Tommaso Cassese

Jacob Österling

Stephane Lessard

Fabrizio Di Pasquale

Nicola Andriolli

Mats Johansson

Mauro Rudi Casanova

Patrizia Testa

Alessandra Bigongiari

Carmelo Decanis

Gabriele De Angelis

Claudio Oton

Paolo Pintus

Gianfranco Sfameni

Philippe Velha

Fabio Tomei

Francesco Palmeri

Carlo Mozetic

Erin Seder

Jacob ÖSterling

An optical connector for a photonic circuit. The optical connector includes a first part, fixable to a photonic circuit, having at least one slab of optically transparent material, the at least one slab including a first lens. The optical connector includes a second part, movable between a connected position adjacent the first part and a disconnected position removed from the first part. The second part includes at least one slab of optically transparent material, the at least one slab including a second lens located to be in alignment with the first lens in the connected position. One or more guiding elements are arranged to direct light to the second lens. The second part is configured to connect the one or more guiding elements to an optical fiber.

Optical connector for photonic circuits

An optical interconnect for optically coupling at least a first optical integrated circuit and a second optical integrated circuit. The optical interconnect comprises at least two layers of optically transparent material. There is a first optical waveguide arranged along a surface of a first one of the at least two layers of optically transparent material. There is further a first non-guided optical path extending from the first optical waveguide through the at least two layers of optically transparent material. A first reflective element is arranged to receive light from at least one of the first non-guided optical path and the first optical waveguide and direct the light to the other of the first non-guided optical path and the first optical waveguide. At least one lens is arranged at a boundary between two of the at least two layers of optically transparent material. The at least one lens is arranged to receive and focus light travelling along the first non-guided optical path.

Optical interconnect and method of manufacture thereof

Device and method for processing an optical signal. The device includes a photonic device arranged between a first input/output and second input/output and optically communicating with the inputs/outputs by a signal path for transmission of an optical signal in a first or second direction between the first input/output and second input/output. The device includes an optical gain element for amplifying the optical signal. The device includes a path switching circuit including a first signal amplification path connectable between the first input/output and the photonic device for optically coupling the signal path to and from the optical gain element, and a second signal amplification path connectable between the photonic device and the second input/output for optically coupling the signal path to and from the optical gain element. The path switching circuit selectively connects the first or second signal amplification path into the signal path.

Device and method for processing an optical signal

Methods and apparatus are provided for switching an optical signal. In one aspect, an optical switching apparatus comprises a first beam splitting apparatus configured to split a first optical input signal into first and second optical signals, wherein the first optical signal has substantially the same polarization state as the second optical signal. The apparatus also comprises a switching matrix comprising a plurality of first outputs of the switching matrix and a plurality of second outputs of the switching matrix, each first output of the switching matrix associated with a respective one of the second outputs of the switching matrix, the switching matrix configured to selectively direct the first optical signal to a selected one of the first outputs of the switching matrix and to selectively direct the second optical signal to the second output of the switching matrix associated with the selected first output of the switching matrix. The apparatus further comprises a plurality of beam combining apparatus, each beam combining apparatus configured to combine optical signals from a respective one of the first outputs of the switching matrix and its associated second output of the switching matrix.

Optical switching apparatus and methods

A method () is disclosed for filtering an optical signal to generate at least one electrical output. The method comprises receiving an optical signal () and directing at least a part of the optical signal through an n&#xd7;m array of wavelength selective elements (), the n&#xd7;m array comprising n parallel groups, each group comprising m coupled wavelength selective elements. The method further comprises photodetecting an output from each of the n groups of coupled wavelength selective elements (), and electrically selecting at least one of the photodetected outputs (). Also disclosed are an optical filtering module () a controller () for an optical filtering module and a computer program.

Optical filtering module and method

Systems and methods for controlling optical powers of optical channels in an optical communications network comprising a plurality of nodes is described herein. The method comprises obtaining a reference optical power. The method also includes determining an optical power of an optical channel generated by an optical transmitter of a node. The method further includes applying an attenuation to the optical channel to reduce the optical power of the optical channel to the reference optical power. In some implementations, the method is performed by a network controller operating in the optical communications network.

Optical transceiver and method of controlling optical powers of optical channels

A network () for a data center is disclosed. The network comprises computing resources (), storage resources (), and a switching apparatus (). The switching apparatus () comprises a plurality of electrical switching components () configured to provide packet switching for traffic between computing resources or between computing and storage resources, and an optical switching fabric () configured to select an electrical switching component to provide packet switching between computing resources () and to provide connectivity between the plurality of electrical switching components () and the computing and storage resources (). Also disclosed is a method () for configuring a Virtual Performance Optimised Data Center (vPOD) in a network. The method comprises assigning computing resources of the network to the vPOD (), assigning storage resources of the network to the vPOD () and assigning at least one of a plurality of electrical switching components of the network to provide packet switching for traffic between the computing resources of the vPOD or between the computing and storage resources of the vPOD (). The method further comprises interconnecting the assigned computing and storage resources and the assigned at least one of a plurality of electrical switching components using an optical switching fabric ().

Network and method for a data center

A wavelength selective optical switching arrangement () comprises a set of input ports (), a set of output ports (); a switching matrix; and a plurality of de-multiplexers each comprising an aggregate port () and a plurality of tributary ports (), each aggregate port being connected to an input port and each tributary port being connected to the switching matrix (), the switching matrix being coupled between the tributary ports and the output ports. The wavelength selective optical switching arrangement is configured to receive at an input port a group of optical signals, each optical signal being transmitted on a different wavelength and being assigned to one of a plurality of destination nodes. The wavelength selective optical switching arrangement is further configured to de-multiplex the group of optical signals in a said demultiplexer; re-group the optical signals into destination groups according to their destination node; and route each destination group to a respective output port assigned to the destination group.

Optical switch

An optical coupler () comprises a substrate (). A first waveguide element () is provided in a first layer with respect to the substrate, wherein the first waveguide element () comprises a first end () and a second end (), and wherein the first end () of the first waveguide element () is coupled to input/output light to/from a first end of the optical coupler. A second waveguide element () is provided in a second layer, the second layer arranged adjacent to the first layer, wherein the second waveguide element () comprises a first end () and a second end (), and wherein the first end () of the second waveguide element () is coupled to input/output light to/from a second end of the optical coupler. The first waveguide element () is configured to extend from the first end of the optical coupler towards the second end of the optical coupler, and the second waveguide element () is configured to extend from the second end of the optical coupler towards the first end of the optical coupler, such that the first waveguide element () partly overlaps with the second waveguide element () to adapt light passing between the first end () of the first waveguide element () and first end () of the second waveguide element ().

Apparatus and method for coupling light

A transport network is configured to connect one or more optical rings of optical add and drop devices with one or more digital units in a radio access network. The transport network comprises a first electronic cross-connect and a second electronic cross-connect. A switch is provided for connecting the first electronic cross-connect and/or the second electronic cross-connect to the one or more digital units. The first and second electronic cross-connects are each coupled to at least one of the one or more optical rings of optical add and drop devices.

Transport network and method

An optical beam spot size convertor is provided having a body. The body comprises a first optical waveguide having a first refractive index and a plurality of second optical waveguides each having a second refractive index higher than the first refractive index. The first optical waveguide is arranged to receive an input optical beam. The first optical waveguide is further arranged such that light from the input optical beam is coupled from the first optical waveguide into the plurality of second optical waveguides. The body further comprises an output optical waveguide and a reflective part coupled to the plurality of second optical waveguides and to the output optical waveguide. The reflective part is arranged to focus optical beams received from the plurality of second optical waveguides into a single optical beam which is directed to the output optical waveguide.

Optical beam spot size converter

In an optical transceiver, an optical transmitter coupled to a reconfigurable optical channel-add apparatus has first and second add paths, an add micro-ring resonator, and first and second optical attenuators, reconfigurable to selectively block an optical channel from an optical transmitter in one of the first and second add paths. The add micro-ring resonator is reconfigurable selectively to add an optical channel from the first add path to an optical waveguide to travel towards the first add-drop port or to add an optical channel from the second add path to the optical waveguide to travel towards the second add-drop port. An optical receiver is coupled to a reconfigurable optical channel-drop apparatus having a drop micro-ring resonator, and first and second drop paths. The drop micro-ring resonator is reconfigurable selectively to drop an optical channel travelling from the first add-drop port from the optical waveguide to the first drop path or to drop an optical channel travelling from the second add-drop port from the optical waveguide to the second drop path.

An optical source comprises a first laser arranged to generate a first optical signal having a first state of polarization (SOP) and a first optical frequency; a second laser arranged to generate a second optical signal having a second SOP, substantially orthogonal to the first SOP, and having a second optical frequency, different from the first optical frequency by a preselected frequency difference; a polarisation beam coupler arranged to combine the first optical signal and the second optical signal into a composite optical signal comprising both the first optical signal and the second optical signal having said substantially orthogonal SOPs; and an output arranged to output the composite optical signal.

Optical source, communications network optical apparatus and method of providing an optical signal

An optical node () is disclosed. The optical node () comprises first and second line ports () for Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) signals and first and second pluralities of local add/drop ports () for optical signals. The optical node further comprises a wavelength selective switch (), coupled between the first and second line ports () and configured to drop optical signals from a WDM signal traversing the optical node between the first and second line ports (), and a node optical combiner () coupled between the first and second line ports () and configured to add optical signals to a WDM signal traversing the optical node between the first and second line ports (). The optical node also comprises first and second switching units (), each switching unit coupled to the wavelength selective switch (), the node optical combiner (), a respective one of the first and second pluralities of local add/drop ports () and the other of the first and second switching units (). Each of the first and second switching units () is configured to distribute dropped optical signals from the wavelength selective switch () to its coupled plurality of local add/drop ports and to provide optical signals from its coupled plurality of local add/drop ports to the node optical combiner (). Each of the first and second switching units () is also configured to distribute optical signals from its coupled plurality of local add/drop ports to the other of the first and second switching units () and to distribute optical signals from the other of the first and second switching units to its coupled plurality of local add/drop ports.

Optical node

An integrated circuit optical interconnect for connecting a first circuit part arranged to output an optical signal and a second circuit part arranged to receive an optical signal. The integrated circuit optical interconnect comprises a body comprising a glass material. The glass material has embedded therein an optical waveguide arrangement having an input, located at a surface of the body, for coupling to the first circuit part, and an output, located at a surface of the body, for coupling to the second circuit part. The optical waveguide arrangement comprises at least two optical waveguide segments extending in different directions through the glass material and at least one reflecting part arranged between the two optical waveguide segments, for directing an optical signal from one of the optical waveguide segments to the other of the optical waveguide segments. The optical waveguide arrangement is arranged to optically couple the input and the output, whereby an optical signal can pass from the input to the output through the optical waveguide arrangement. There is also provided an integrated circuit module comprising the integrated circuit optical interconnect, and a telecommunications switch comprising the integrated circuit module. There is further provided a method for manufacturing an integrated circuit optical interconnect.

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Pisa, Italy

Francesco Testa