Lucent Technologies Inc.

Alcatel-lucent USA Inc.

Alcatel Lucent

Jinpin Ying

Peng Wang

Hongxing Dai

Xiang Liu

Daniel A Fishman

William A Thompson

Vincent J Silverio

Vincent John Silverio

A pulse reshaper for reshaping and re-amplifying optical signals in a communications network by adjusting threshold and amplification characteristics of a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) having first and second reflective regions optically cooperating at each of an input signal wavelength (&#x3bb;) and an offset wavelength (&#x3bb;) proximate the input signal wavelength (&#x3bb;). In one embodiment, a vertical cavity semiconductor optical amplifier (VCSOA) device, comprising dual mode reflectors optically cooperating at each of an input signal wavelength (&#x3bb;) and an offset wavelength (&#x3bb;) proximate the input signal wavelength (&#x3bb;) to provide thereby non-linear amplification of input signal (&#x3bb;).

Semiconductor optical amplifier pulse reshaper

A system includes a pulse reshaper for reshaping and re-amplifying optical signals in a communications network. In one embodiment, a vertical cavity semiconductor optical amplifier (VCSOA) device, comprising dual mode reflectors optically cooperating at each of an input signal wavelength (&#x3bb;) and an offset wavelength (&#x3bb;) proximate the input signal wavelength (&#x3bb;) to provide thereby non-linear amplification of input signal (&#x3bb;).

An optical add/drop multiplexer (OADM) adapted to route optical signals having at least two different bit rates. The OADM has at least two sets of DWDM channels, e.g., with channels in a first set having a first bandwidth value suitable for the transmission of 10-Gb/s signals and channels in a second set having a second bandwidth value suitable for the transmission of 40-Gb/s signals. The first and second sets occupy two different spectral bands and the first set has two subsets of interleaved channels. In one embodiment, the OADM has first and second optical branches adapted to process optical signals corresponding to first and second groups of channels, respectively. The first group includes a first subset from the first set while the second group includes the second set and a second subset from the first set. Advantageously, OADMs of the invention may be used to create independent processing paths for different groups of channels. As a result, a communication system having those OADMs can be upgraded, e.g., to add a new 40-Gb/s service and/or to populate additional 10-Gb/s channels substantially without interrupting the 10-Gb/s service already in place.

Optical add/drop multiplexer having a banded channel configuration

Growing community of inventors

East Brunswick, NJ, United States of America

Jinpin Ying