Switchable dispersion compensating module

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11290184-B2
Application number	US-201916289700-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 1, 2019
Priority date	Mar 1, 2019
Publication date	Mar 29, 2022
Grant date	Mar 29, 2022

Abstract

An optical fiber transmission system and method for using the system are provided. The system may include a span of transmission fiber for transmitting light signals through the optical fiber transmission system. The system may include a dispersion compensating module coupled to the span of transmission fiber. The system may include a switchable module including a set of selectable light signal paths, the set of selectable light signal paths including at least one path through a dispersion compensating element. The system may include a processor coupled to the switchable module for selectively monitoring the set of selectable light signal paths, where the processor is further configured to derive a metric based on the set of selectable light signal paths for controlling the dispersion compensating module.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An optical fiber transmission system, the system comprising:
an optical transmission path defined by at least:
a span of transmission fiber for transmitting light signals through the optical fiber transmission system, and
a tunable dispersion compensating module coupled to the span of transmission fiber; and

a feedback loop and coupled to, but out-of-line with, the optical transmission path including:
a switchable module, coupled to the primary optical transmission path via an optical add/drop filter, and comprising a plurality of selectable light signal paths, the plurality of selectable light signal paths comprising at least one path through a dispersion compensating element, and
a processor coupled to the switchable module for selectively monitoring the plurality of selectable light signal paths, the processor being configured to:
control the switchable module to switch between the plurality of selectable light signal paths to calculate an error metric for each of the plurality of selectable light signal paths, and
derive a dispersion correction based on the error metric for each of the plurality of selectable light paths, and
control the tunable dispersion compensating module based on the dispersion correction.

2. The optical fiber transmission system of claim 1 ,
the optical transmission path further comprising:
an amplifier coupled to the span of transmission fiber, the amplifier configured for offsetting losses of the light signals;
the optical add-drop filter; and

the feedback loop further comprising: a transceiver coupled to the switchable module and to the processor, wherein the transceiver is configured to decode the light signals received from the switchable module.

3. The optical fiber transmission system of claim 2 , further comprising:
a second span of transmission fiber for transmitting other light signals through the optical fiber transmission system;
a second amplifier coupled to the second span of transmission fiber, the second amplifier configured for offsetting losses of the other light signals through the second span of transmission fiber; and
a second OADF configured to multiplex light signals from the transceiver to the second span of transmission fiber.

4. The optical fiber transmission system of claim 3 , wherein the plurality of selectable light signal paths comprises at least one path through a pass-through optical fiber segment, a negative-slope compensating module, or a positive-slope compensating module.

5. The optical fiber transmission system of claim 3 , wherein either the span of transmission fiber or the second span of transmission fiber comprises dispersion compensating fiber.

6. The optical fiber transmission system of claim 1 , wherein deriving the dispersion correction further comprises calculating the dispersion correction based on logarithmic functions of each error metric.

7. The optical fiber transmission system of claim 3 , further comprising a second switchable module comprising a plurality of second selectable light signal paths, wherein the second switchable module is coupled in-line with the second span of optical fiber; and
wherein the processor is further coupled to the second switchable module.

8. The optical fiber transmission system of claim 7 , wherein the plurality of second selectable light signal paths of the second switchable module comprises at least one path through a dispersion compensating element or at least one path through a pass-through optical fiber segment.

9. The optical fiber transmission system of claim 7 , wherein the processor is further configured to select one of the plurality of second selectable light signal paths based on a second dispersion correction derived from light signals received from the switchable module, and wherein the selected one of the plurality of second selectable light signal paths is selected to offset residual dispersion through the second span of transmission fiber.

10. The optical fiber transmission system of claim 1 , wherein the light signals of the transmission system are modulated based on pulse amplitude modulation with four amplitude levels (PAM-4) at 50 gigabits per second (Gbps) or greater.

Assignees

• Molex Llc

Inventors

• Huang Bichang
• Shi Chao
• Gong Lifu

Classifications

• H04B10/25253

  with dispersion management, i.e. using a combination of different kind of fibres in the transmission system · CPC title

• H04B2210/003

  Devices including multiple stages, e.g., multi-stage optical amplifiers or dispersion compensators · CPC title

• H04B10/25133 Primary

  including a lumped electrical or optical dispersion compensator (H04B10/2519, H04B10/2525 takes precedence) · CPC title

• H04J14/0202

  Arrangements therefor · CPC title

• G02B6/29394

  Compensating wavelength dispersion (G02B6/29376 takes precedence; dispersion compensated optical transmission systems H04B10/2507) · CPC title