Abstract
It is always desirable to maximize the number of stations on a linear bus in fiber-optic local area networks. The limiting factor, besides excess loss, for maximizing the number of stations includes the inevitable loss of the conventional fiber coupler due to coupler reciprocity, in that the fraction of power launched into the bus must equal the fraction of signal power removed from the bus. A compromise between maximizing the transmitting power and keeping the signal power moderate in the subsequent receiving makes the transmitting tap unavoidably lossy, and one of the solutions is to use nonreciprocal couplers.1 In receiving, however, nearly lossless tapping is possible if wavelength-division-multiplexed (WDM) couplers2 and a nonlinear polarization interferometer are used. WDM couplers are wavelength-selective devices whose coupling ratio might be nearly unity for one wavelength but negligibly small for another wavelength. By choosing the probe and signal wavelength properly, the coupler can function as a tap for the probe only.
© 1991 Optical Society of America
PDF ArticleMore Like This
C. H. Lee, K. Imen, S. D. Allen, and A. Ghosh
CThQ3 Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO:S&I) 1991
Rajiv Ramaswami and Karen Liu
FE5 Optical Fiber Communication Conference (OFC) 1991
DONALD J. CHANNIN and D. R. PATTERSON
MD1 Optical Fiber Communication Conference (OFC) 1986