Optical Comb Transponder Parallelization for Scalable Data Rates
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Solution Overview
Problem
The increase in data rates in optical transponders exceeds the scalability of analog bandwidth, leading to increased cost, size, and power consumption due to the need for high-performance optical components like lasers and modulators, while digital signal processors face challenges in scaling sampling rates without corresponding improvements in analog bandwidth.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a parallel optical transponder with an optical comb source that generates multiple optical carriers from a single source, allowing for the use of lower-performance components like lumped modulators and lower-speed converters, and enabling joint processing techniques for carrier recovery and signal demodulation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If data rate is increased in optical transponders, then transmission capacity is improved, but cost and power consumption increase due to requiring high-performance optical components
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the single high-data-rate transmission path into multiple parallel lower-data-rate paths. By using multiple optical carriers (e.g., 4 carriers at 100Gbit/s instead of 1 carrier at 400Gbit/s), the system achieves the same total data rate while each carrier uses lower-performance, lower-power components. This segmentation allows the use of multiple modest-capacity components rather than one high-capacity component, reducing overall power consumption and cost.
2Productivity
If data rate is increased in optical transponders, then transmission capacity is improved, but device size and cost increase due to requiring high-performance optical components
Solution Approach 1:
The system divides the high-data-rate signal into multiple parallel lower-data-rate signals using different optical carriers. Each carrier handles a portion of the total data rate, allowing the use of simpler, lower-performance optical components for each carrier. The patent employs multiple modulators and photodiodes operating at lower speeds rather than single high-speed components, thereby reducing device complexity and cost while maintaining the required aggregate data rate.
3Productivity
If digital signal processor sampling rate is increased, then data rate capacity is improved, but analog bandwidth requirements increase which is not scalable
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the high-bandwidth analog signal processing into multiple parallel lower-bandwidth processing paths. Instead of requiring a single high-speed ADC operating at very high sampling rates, the system uses multiple ADCs operating at lower sampling rates, each processing a separate optical carrier. This parallelization approach allows the digital signal processor to handle the aggregate data rate without requiring any single analog component to operate beyond scalable bandwidth limits.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This approach reduces the overall cost and power consumption of the transponder by using lower-cost, smaller components and optimizing signal processing, while maintaining performance characteristics.
Implementation Method 1
an optical comb source configured to generate an optical carrier signal including a plurality of optical carriers having a plurality of respective wavelengths
Implementation Method 2
a plurality of photodiodes configured to convert each optical component data signal into a respective electrical component data signal
Data Source
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AI summary
Parallel optical transponders with an optical comb source, and methods of using the same, are provided. The optical comb source can provide multiple optical carriers from a single source. The multiple optical carriers can be phase-aligned, which can allow joint processing of a received signal. The multiple optical carriers can also allow for modulating a demultiplexed data signal using multiple modulators rather than modulating the entire data signal using a single modulator.