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:
Dec. 23, 2003
Filed:
Feb. 23, 2001
Jules D. Levine, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Thomas W. Myers, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Christopher Weller, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Teraburst Networks, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Abstract
The present invention combines several features to create a novel type of optical telecommunications switching component using microwave waveguides as opposed to the usual methods employing light deflection or digital signal processing. Some of the components of the device include: (1) an optical crossconnect (OXC) which allows any combination of wavelengths to be added or dropped from an element to an optical network, (2) an optical add/drop multiplexer (OADM) which allows any wavelength to be converted to any other, (3) a microwave crossbar switch array optimized for this purpose, and (4) a means for reshaping the exiting signal from the microwave crosspoint switch array without regard to signal format and without need for complex and expensive digital signal processing. The minimal architecture for this functionality is shown to be three N×N microwave crossbar switch arrays.