| US 7,522,837 B2 | ||
| Optical communication system | ||
| Hiromasa Tanobe, Tokyo (Japan); Akira Okada, Tokyo (Japan); Morito Matsuoka, Atsugi (Japan); Kazuto Noguchi, Atsugi (Japan); Takashi Sakamoto, Zama (Japan); and Osamu Moriwaki, Zama (Japan) | ||
| Assigned to Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation, Tokyo (Japan) | ||
| Filed on Nov. 19, 2003, as Appl. No. 10/717,225. | ||
| Claims priority of application No. 2002-338242 (JP), filed on Nov. 21, 2002; and application No. 2003-326317 (JP), filed on Sep. 18, 2003. | ||
| Prior Publication US 2004/0151498 A1, Aug. 05, 2004 | ||
| Int. Cl. H04J 14/00 (2006.01) | ||
| U.S. Cl. 398—63 [398/3; 398/48; 398/59] | 33 Claims |

| 1. An optical communication system comprising:
an N×N wavelength path establishment circuit having N input ports and N output ports, N being an integer of at least 2, outputting
light input from an input port to a different output port depending on the wavelength of the input light, and the wavelength
of light output from an output port being different depending on the input port;
n communication nodes, n being an integer at least 2 and not greater than N, for outputting information of an input optical
signal, as is or after changing a part of the information, as an optical signal of a predetermined wavelength; and
optical waveguides for connecting the input ports and the output ports of the N×N wavelength path establishment circuit, and
the communication nodes,
wherein for at least some of the n communication nodes, in order to form a first logical-ring transmission path where an optical
signal transmitted from one communication node circulates in a clockwise direction and returns to the one communication node
via other communication nodes or to form both the first logical-ring transmission path and a second logical-ring transmission
path where an optical signal transmitted from the one communication node circulates in a counterclockwise direction and returns
to the one communication node via the other communication nodes, a correlation of wavelengths for connecting between the input
ports and the output ports of the N×N wavelength path establishment circuit, wavelengths of optical signals output from the
respective communication nodes, and connections between the input ports and the output ports of the N×N wavelength path establishment
circuit, and the respective communication nodes are set.
|