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:
Sep. 21, 2004
Filed:
Oct. 11, 2001
Applicant:
Inventors:
Jean Luc Archambault, Severna Park, MD (US);
Vipul Bhatnagar, Kensington, MD (US);
Michael Y. Frankel, Baltimore, MD (US);
Assignee:
Ciena Corporation, Linthicum, MD (US);
Attorney:
Primary Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
G02B 6/28 ;
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
G02B 6/28 ;
Abstract
Consistent with the present invention, a tunable laser emits a monitoring signal which is combined with the WDM channels typically at the transmit side of a WDM system. At each monitoring point along the WDM system, the WDM channels are filtered out, the monitoring signal is sensed, and desired systems parameters (e.g., gain flatness, dispersion, PMD and OSNR) are measured. Accordingly, a single tunable element, i.e., the tunable laser, can be provided, thereby reducing costs. Moreover, system performance can be ascertained regardless of whether WDM channels are present.