Optical transmission/reception device, optical communication system, and optical communication method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9954607-B2
Application number	US-201515129105-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 20, 2015
Priority date	Mar 27, 2014
Publication date	Apr 24, 2018
Grant date	Apr 24, 2018

Abstract

[Problem] To provide an optical transmission/reception device, an optical communication system, an optical communication method, and a program which are capable of securing the confidentiality of information included in an optical signal even when the optical signal is transferred to a device that is not an original transmission destination device.
[Solution] This optical transmission/reception device is provided with: a wave separation unit for receiving a wavelength-multiplexed optical signal and separating the same into a plurality of optical signals; a plurality of reception units for receiving each of the plurality of optical signals separated by the wave separation unit; a plurality of output units for outputting optical signals differing in wavelength from each other; a control unit for requesting, in response to the inclusion in the received wavelength-multiplexed optical signal of an optical signal to which a prescribed process has been applied, that a prescribed change be applied to the optical signal outputted by at least one of the plurality of output units; and a wave combining unit for combining the plurality of optical signals outputted from the plurality of output units and outputting the combined signal.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An optical transmission/reception device comprising:
a demultiplexing unit that receives a wavelength multiplexed optical signal, and demultiplexes the received wavelength multiplexed optical signal into a plurality of optical reception signals, the plurality of optical reception signals including a processed optical reception signal to which a predetermined processing has been applied;
a plurality of reception units that respectively receives the plurality of optical reception signals;
a plurality of output units that respectively outputs a plurality of optical transmission signals having different wavelengths, each of the plurality of output unit comprising a processing unit;
a control unit that sends, based on the processed optical reception signal, a processing request to one of the plurality of output units; and
a multiplexing unit that multiplexes the plurality of optical transmission signals output from the plurality of output units, and outputs a multiplexed optical signal,
wherein, in response to the processing request from the control unit, the processing unit of the one of the plurality of output units applies a predetermined change to the corresponding optical transmission signal.

2. The optical transmission/reception device according to claim 1 , wherein, in response to the processing request from the control unit, the processing unit of the one of the plurality of output units adds a predetermined pattern to the corresponding optical transmission signal.

3. The optical transmission/reception device according to claim 2 , wherein in response to the processing request from the control unit, the processing unit of the one of the plurality of output units scrambles the corresponding optical transmission signal.

4. The optical transmission/reception device according to claim 2 , wherein in response to the processing request from the control unit, the processing unit of the one of the plurality of output units degrades a transmission characteristics of the corresponding optical transmission signal.

5. The optical transmission/reception device according to claim 1 , wherein, in response to the processing request from the control unit, the processing unit of the one of the plurality of output units scrambles the corresponding optical transmission signal.

6. The optical transmission/reception device according to claim 5 , wherein in response to the processing request from the control unit, the processing unit of the one of the plurality of output units degrades a transmission characteristics of the corresponding optical transmission signal.

7. The optical transmission/reception device according to claim 1 , wherein, in response to the processing request from the control unit, the processing unit of the one of the plurality of output units degrades a transmission characteristics of the corresponding optical transmission signal.

8. The optical transmission/reception device according to claim 1 , wherein the optical transmission signal to which the predetermined change has been applied is output using a channel of the processed optical reception signal.

9. The optical transmission/reception device according to claim 8 , wherein, in response to the processing request from the control unit, the processing unit of the one of the plurality of output units adds a predetermined pattern to the corresponding optical transmission signal.

10. The optical transmission/reception device according to claim 8 , wherein, in response to the processing request from the control unit, the processing unit of the one of the plurality of output units scrambles the corresponding optical transmission signal.

11. The optical transmission/reception device according to claim 8 , wherein, in response to the processing request from the control unit, the processing unit of the one of the plurality of output units degrades a transmission characteristics of the corresponding optical transmission signal.

12. The optical transmission/reception device according to claim 1 , wherein the control unit sends, based on wavelength information indicating a wavelength of the processed optical reception signal, the processing request.

13. An optical communication system comprising:
an optical communication device that outputs a wavelength multiplexed optical signal; and
an optical transmission/reception device including:
a demultiplexing unit that receives the wavelength multiplexed optical signal, and demultiplexes the received wavelength multiplexed optical signal into a plurality of optical reception signals, the plurality of optical reception signals including a processed optical reception signal to which a predetermined processing has been applied;
a plurality of reception units that receive each of the plurality of optical reception signals;
a plurality of output units that respectively output optical transmission signals having different wavelengths, each of the plurality of output unit comprising a processing unit;
a control unit that sends, based on the processed optical reception signal, a processing request to one of the plurality of output units; and
a multiplexing unit that multiplexes the plurality of optical transmission signals output from the plurality of output units, and outputs the multiplexed signal,
wherein, in response to the processing request from the control unit, the processing unit of the one of the plurality of output units applies a predetermined change to the corresponding optical transmission signal.

14. The optical communication system according to claim 13 , wherein the optical communication device outputs the processed optical reception signal, the processed optical reception signal being other than an optical signal destined for the optical transmission/reception device.

15. The optical communication system according to claim 13 , further comprising
a control device that notifies the optical transmission/reception device of a wavelength of an optical reception signal to which the optical communication device has applied the predetermined processing,
wherein the control unit requests one of the output unit that outputs an optical transmission signal having a wavelength notified by the control device to apply a predetermined change to the optical transmission signal to be output.

16. An optical communication method comprising:
receiving a wavelength multiplexed optical signal including a processed optical reception signal to which a predetermined processing has been applied;
sending, based on the processed optical reception signal, a processing request indicating a predetermined change;
applying the predetermined change to an optical transmission signal in response to the processing request; and
multiplexing a plurality of optical transmission signals having different wavelengths, the plurality of optical signals including the optical transmission signal to which the predetermined change has been applied, and outputting a multiplexed signal.

Assignees

• Nec Corp

Inventors

• Abe Ryota

Classifications

• H04B10/80

  Optical aspects relating to the use of optical transmission for specific applications, not provided for in groups H04B10/03 - H04B10/70, e.g. optical power feeding or optical transmission through water · CPC title

• H04B10/03 Primary

  Arrangements for fault recovery · CPC title

• H04B10/296

  Transient power control, e.g. due to channel add/drop or rapid fluctuations in the input power · CPC title

• H04J14/021

  Reconfigurable arrangements, e.g. reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexers [ROADM] or tunable optical add/drop multiplexers [TOADM] · CPC title

• H04J14/0221

  Power control, e.g. to keep the total optical power constant · CPC title