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:
Feb. 19, 2002
Filed:
Nov. 05, 1998
Victor Mizrahi, Columbia, MD (US);
Ciena Corporation, Linthicum, MA (US);
Abstract
In accordance with the present invention, an optical device includes a bandsplitter for separating a wavelength division multiplexed signal into a first and second group of channels. Transmission of one or more channels within the first group of channels is suppressed by one or more filtering elements positioned within a transmission path. The one or more suppressed channels correspond to channels to be added to the wavelength division multiplexed signal. By splitting the multiplexed optical signal into separate wavelength bands, channels previously designated as add/drop channels and their associated components, do not have to be altered with the introduction of additional channels into a WDM or DWDM network. An add/drop module optically communicates with the bandsplitter to add/drop one or more of the channels included in the multiplexed optical signal.