JPS59107319A - Optical star coupler provided with repeating node - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To form a communication network with a large scale and high reliability by a simple circuit constitution by connecting and placing one or more branching and coupling optical transmission lines at a position where a light from the coupling optical transmission line is not coupled with the branching optical transmission line, in a mixing waveguide. CONSTITUTION:In an optical coupler 10 (10-1, 10-2) provided with a repeating note; a light which is made incident to a high refractive index part (a) of a slab type optical waveguide (mixing waveguide) from an input fiber 2 expands in the high refractive index part (a), and is made to branch into the high refractive index part (a) of the slab type optical waveguide 1-2 and a branching repeating node optical fiber 5. The light which is made incident to the optical waveguide 1-2 is distributed to all output optical fibers 3. On the other hand, the light which is made incident to the part (a) of the optical waveguide 1-2 from a coupling repeating node optical fiber 4 is distributed to all the output optical fibers 3. By using this star coupler 10, the input/output optical fibers 2, 3, and an optical repeater 12, a communication network with a large scale and high reliability can be formed by a simple circuit constitution.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an original star coupler that allows connection between an optical coupler and a coupler using an optical repeater.

As a method to increase the number of ports in a conventional optical star coupler, the input light of each party star coupler is converted into electricity, connected to other optical star couplers at an electrical stage, and distributed to each optical star coupler for government communication. was going on. An example of this is JP-A-57-127377 ``Optical Star Repeater''. However, this device has a repeater inside the optical star coupler that requires power supply, so if the power is cut off or the repeater malfunctions, all the connections connected to the optical star coupler will be disconnected. There was a drawback that made it impossible.

As another method, if conventional original star couplers are coupled using an optical repeater, all the light input to the original star couplers appears on their output ports.

Therefore, the light amplified by the optical repeater returns through both optical star cassillas, forming a closed circuit. That is, if light is manually applied to the optical repeater, it will no longer be able to operate normally. To solve this problem, it is necessary to have a function in the optical repeater that determines not to repeat the light emitted from the base repeater in the opposite direction when it returns, and a circuit to analyze the contents of the transmitted signal. The disadvantage of this addition is that the price of the optical repeater (generally called a gateway) increases.

The present invention was made to solve the above-mentioned drawbacks, and it is possible to connect optical star couplers using repeaters, and in this case, communication within each optical star coupler is possible even if the repeater stops working. In order to achieve this, an optical repeater is connected between the original star couplers, and no active parts are used inside the optical star coupler, making it possible to connect the optical star couplers with an optical repeater with a simple amplification function. , the drawings will be explained in detail below.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing the configuration of an embodiment of the relay-to-toy star coupler of the present invention, in which 1 is a slab-type optical waveguide (mixong waveguide) with a high refractive index section a and a low refractive index section a. 2 is a manual optical fiber, 3 is an output optical fiber, 4 is a coupling relay node optical fiber, and 5 is a branch relay 1-node optical fiber.

In this relay-to-toy optical star coupler, the light entering the high refractive index section a of the slab optical waveguide 1-1 from the input light beam 2 spreads within the high refractive index section a, and the light enters the high refractive index section a of the slab optical waveguide 1-1. It is branched into a high refractive index section a of No. 2 and a branching relay node optical fiber 5. The light entering the slab type optical waveguide 1-2 is distributed to all the fibers of the output light inlet 3. On the other hand, the light entering the high refractive index section a of the slab optical waveguide 1-2 from the coupling relay node optical fiber 4 is distributed to all the fibers of the output optical fiber 3. In order to sufficiently distribute the light as described above, it is possible to increase the length of the slab waveguide 1 in the light propagation direction. It can be seen that the light that enters from the input source fiber 2 is distributed to all the output optical fibers (3).

FIGS. 2 and 3 are diagrams showing an embodiment in which a communication network is constructed using the optical star coupler with relay node shown in FIG. 1.

2 and 3, 10 is an optical star coupler with a relay node, 11 is a terminal connected to input and output fibers 2 and 3 of the optical star coupler 10, 12 is an optical repeater, and the others are as shown in FIG. is the same as

Next, in FIG. 2, communication 1j between terminals 1-1 and 11-2 will be explained.

The light emitted from the terminal 11-1 passes through the input source fiber 2-1 of the optical star coupler 10-1 and is connected to the optical star coupler 10-1.
Enter -1. Part of this light is light Sukanobla 10-1
returns to the terminals 11-1 through the output optical fiber 3-1 of
A part of the attenuated light passes through the branching relay node optical fiber node 5-1 and is amplified by the optical repeater 12. This amplified Tsu 1
'S enters the optical star coupler 10-2 from the coupling relay node optical fiber 4-2, and is distributed to the υ terminal 11-2 through the output optical fiber 3-2. From terminal 11-2 to terminal 1
Communication to 1-1 is performed in the same manner.

Like this☆11. The signal output from the i-terminal returns from the nearest optical star coupler to which the terminal is connected, but it does not return via the optical repeater, so the signal output from the own terminal There will be no collision.

As described above, the configuration shown in FIG. 2 allows communication between arbitrary terminals.

FIG. 3 shows an example in which three optical star couplers 10 are used.

In this case, all connections are made by a set of optical star couplers as in Fig. 2, and if there are many star couplers, each optical star coupler 10-],
By making star connections between 1.0-2.10-3, communication between any terminals becomes possible.

FIG. 4 is a conceptual diagram of another example of the configuration of an optical star cumbra using the slab waveguide 1 of FIG. 1.

Fig. 4 (A) shows an example in which the connection between the slab type optical waveguides 1- and 1-2 is made oblique, thereby making it easier to take out the relay 1-node optical fibers 4 and 5 for coupling and branching. Input and output optical fibers 2 and 3 are formed by forming slab-type optical waveguide]-1 and 1-2 into thick parallelograms.
may be connected diagonally.

Figure 4 (B) shows that in order to connect the slab type optical waveguides 1-1 and 1-2 on the side, the optical waveguide is cut diagonally to form a total reflection surface, and furthermore, a relay for coupling and branching is installed on that surface. A few examples are Nord Optical F, Aiba 4 and 5. This is also (
Similar to A), this is an example in which the attachment of the relay node optical fibers 4 and 5 for coupling and branching is facilitated.

Note that the matrix and function d in FIG. 4 are the same as those in FIG. 1, so their explanation will be omitted.

FIG. 5 shows an embodiment in which the optical waveguide shown in FIG.
It is similar to the figure.

FIG. 6 shows another embodiment of the present invention, in which an optical waveguide 8 is formed on the surface of a substrate 70, and this is used as an optical star coupler with a relay node. Same as Figure 1. Note that the optical waveguide can be created by changing the refractive index by an ion exchange method, by changing the original guide by etching, etc.

As explained below, according to the present invention, it is possible to connect a large number of optical star couplers with a small number of ports, so it is possible to form a large-scale communication network, and since there are no active parts in the optical star coupler, the original Communication using one star can be performed with high reliability, and even if an optical repeater becomes inoperable due to power outage, failure, etc., only communication via that optical repeater will be interrupted. There is an advantage that there is no effect on other things, and the optical repeater used only needs to have an amplification function, so 1
This has the advantage of simplifying the n-way configuration.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing the configuration of an embodiment of the optical star cambra with relay node of the present invention, and FIGS.
Embodiments of a communication network constructed using the relay-to-toy optical star coupler of the present invention shown in the figure, FIGS. FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating another embodiment of the invention. 1, 6.8... Optical waveguide, 2... Input optical fiber, 3... Output light 7 eyes/ku,
4...... Relay mate optical fiber for coupling, 5...... Relay node optical fiber for branching, 7...... Board, 10・・・・・・
・・Hikari Star Katsufu with relay node “Uh, Jl...
...terminal, 12...optical repeater. Patent applicant Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation

Claims (1)

[Claims] In an optical star coupler configured to use an input section and an output section consisting of a plurality of optical transmission lines and a miking waveguide, the miking waveguide is arranged between the human power section and the output section, Connecting one or more VC branching optical transmission lines and one or more coupling optical transmission lines in the mixing waveguide,
An optical star coupler with a relay node, characterized in that the optical star coupler with a relay node is arranged at a position where light from the coupling optical transmission line is not coupled to the branching optical transmission line.