The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
May. 10, 1994
Filed:
Sep. 30, 1992
Thomas J Cloonan, Downers Grove, IL (US);
Gaylord W Richards, Lisle, IL (US);
AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, NJ (US);
Abstract
A growable packet switching arrangement where the number, S, of distribution network stages is reduced by bounding S according to log.sub.2 (max(L,N))<S+1<[log.sub.2 (max(L,N))].sup.2 /2. Since the distribution network is made up of stages of opto-electronic nodes and interconnecting free-space optical link stages, there is no need to transmit input signals using different frequencies. Input signals are instead distinguished based on their spatial location. Accordingly, there is no receiver tunability restriction on L, the number of inputs. Further, because signals are regenerated at each network stage and there is only a 3:1 power loss (approximate) at a given stage, high signal/noise ratios and corresponding low bit error rates are achieved.