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:
Apr. 22, 1997
Filed:
Feb. 09, 1995
Ivan P Kaminow, Holmdel, NJ (US);
Hisashi Kobayashi, Princeton, NJ (US);
Lucent Technologies Inc., Murray Hill, NJ (US);
Abstract
A combined wavelength router and switch apparatus for use in an optical communication system is disclosed. The apparatus includes arrays of optical signal demultiplexers, wavelength division switches, space division switches and multiplexers, arranged in a manner that can increase the connectivity of an optical system using wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) signals. In several embodiments, time-multiplexed wavelength division switches and time-multiplexed space division switches may be used to increase further the degree of connectivity of the system or to reduce the number of wavelength division switches and space division switches required. Additional arrays of wavelength division switches or time-multiplexed wavelength division switches may be included to allow carrier frequencies to be shifted to meet the channel ordering requirements of the optical system.