Host board, optical receiver, optical transmitter, optical transceiver, and method of mounting optical transceiver on host board

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10746946-B2
Application number	US-201716321140-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 19, 2017
Priority date	Aug 26, 2016
Publication date	Aug 18, 2020
Grant date	Aug 18, 2020

Abstract

A host board for mounting an optical transceiver includes a connector that is configured to attach thereto and detach therefrom an optical transceiver having at least one lane and includes electrical contacts as many as the at least one lane, a management unit configured to receive lane information regarding the at least one lane of the optical transceiver from the optical transceiver through the connector and specify an available electrical contact, and a communication unit configured to communicate with the optical transceiver through the connector. The communication unit is configured to communicate information with the optical transceiver through the electrical contact specified by the management unit.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A host board for mounting an optical transceiver, the host board comprising:
a connector configured to attach thereto and detach therefrom the optical transceiver having at least one lane, the connector including at least one electrical contact corresponding to the at least one lane;
a management unit configured to receive lane information regarding an available lane of the optical transceiver from the optical transceiver through the connector and specify the at least one electrical contact that is available; and
a communication unit configured to communicate with the optical transceiver through the connector,
the communication unit being configured to communicate information with the optical transceiver through the at least one electrical contact specified by the management unit.

2. The host board according to claim 1 , wherein the lane information includes at least one of
information indicating whether each of the at least one lane is implemented, and
information regarding a wavelength of an optical signal.

3. The host board according to claim 1 , wherein
the lane information includes information regarding a communication rate of the optical transceiver, and
the management unit is configured to specify the at least one electrical contact that is available based on the information regarding the communication rate.

4. The host board according to claim 1 , wherein the connector includes four electrical contacts corresponding to four lanes.

5. The host board according to claim 1 , wherein the at least one lane includes
a first lane for a first communication rate of the optical transceiver, and
a second lane for a second communication rate of the optical transceiver, the second communication rate differing from the first communication rate.

6. The host board according to claim 1 , wherein the management unit is configured to detect connection of the optical transceiver to the connector and reads the lane information from the optical transceiver.

7. An optical receiver comprising:
a wavelength demultiplexing unit configured to separate at least one optical signal to be received from an optical signal transmitted through an optical fiber and subjected to wavelength multiplexing;
at least one optical reception unit configured to receive the at least one optical signal to be received and output an electric signal;
an interface including an electrical contact for outputting the electric signal from the at least one optical reception unit to a host board; and
a communication unit configured to notify information to the host board, the information specifying:
an electrical contact available for transmitting the electric signal from the at least one optical reception unit to the host board, and
the at least one optical reception unit.

8. The optical receiver according to claim 7 , wherein the information includes information indicating whether each of a plurality of lanes is implemented.

9. The optical receiver according to claim 8 , wherein the plurality of lanes include
a first lane for a first communication rate of the optical receiver, and
a second lane for a second communication rate of the optical receiver, the second communication rate differing from the first communication rate.

10. The optical receiver according to claim 8 , wherein the information includes information regarding a communication rate of the optical receiver.

11. An optical transmitter comprising:
at least one optical transmission unit configured to receive an electric signal from a host board and transmit at least one optical signal having an identical wavelength or different wavelengths, wherein when the at least one optical transmission unit is a plurality of optical transmission units, the plurality of optical transmission units transmit optical signals having different wavelengths;
a wavelength multiplexing unit configured to
transmit the at least one optical signal from the at least one optical transmission unit to an optical fiber, and
when the optical signals from the plurality of optical transmission units have different wavelengths, transmit an optical signal subjected to wavelength multiplexing to the optical fiber,

an interface including an electrical contact for receiving an electric signal from the host board; and
a communication unit configured to notify information to the host board, the information specifying:
the electrical contact available for transmitting the electric signal from the host board to the at least one optical transmission unit, and
the at least one optical transmission unit.

12. The optical transmitter according to claim 11 , wherein the information includes information indicating whether each of a plurality of lanes is implemented.

13. The optical transmitter according to claim 12 , wherein the plurality of lanes include
a first lane for a first communication rate of the optical transmitter, and
a second lane for a second communication rate of the optical transmitter, the second communication rate differing from the first communication rate.

14. The optical transmitter according to claim 12 , wherein the information includes information regarding a communication rate of the optical transmitter.

15. An optical transceiver comprising:
a wavelength demultiplexing unit configured to separate at least one optical signal to be received from an optical signal transmitted through an optical fiber and subjected to wavelength multiplexing;
a wavelength multiplexing unit integral with the wavelength demultiplexing unit or separate from the wavelength demultiplexing unit;
at least one optical reception unit configured to receive the at least one optical signal to be received;
at least one optical transmission unit configured to receive an electric signal from a host board and output an optical signal;
an interface having a first electrical contact for receiving an electric signal from the host board and a second electrical contact for outputting an electric signal from the at least one optical reception unit to the host board, the interface being adapted to a plurality of lanes; and
a communication unit configured to notify information to the host board, the information specifying the at least one optical reception unit, the at least one optical transmission unit, the first electrical contact available for transmitting the electric signal from the host board to the at least one optical transmission unit, and the second electrical contact available for transmitting the electric signal from the at least one optical reception unit to the host board.

16. A method of mounting an optical transceiver on a host board, the method comprising:
connecting an optical transceiver storing lane information regarding an available lane of the optical transceiver to a connector of a host board;
reading the lane information from the optical transceiver;
determining a number of lanes based on the lane information; and
performing control for multi-lane distribution based on the number of lanes.

17. The method according to claim 16 , further comprising connecting another optical transceiver having a communication rate higher than that of the optical transceiver to the connector in place of the optical transceiver.

18. The method according to claim 16 , further comprising connecting another optical transceiver to the connector in place of the optical transceiver, the other optical transceiver having a first communication rate identical to a communication rate of the optical transceiver and a second communicatio

Assignees

• Sumitomo Electric Industries

Inventors

• Funada Tomoyuki
• Umeda Daisuke
• Tanaka Naruto

Classifications

• G02B6/3897

  Connectors fixed to housings, casing, frames or circuit boards (G02B6/44528 takes precedence) · CPC title

• G02B6/424 Primary

  Mounting of the optical light guide · CPC title

• G02B6/4286 Primary

  Optical modules with optical power monitoring · CPC title

• H04J14/02

  Wavelength-division multiplex systems · CPC title

• G02B6/4246

  Bidirectionally operating package structures · CPC title