Patent ID: 9344195
Filing Date: 2016-05-17
CPC Classification: H04B

Claim Text:
1. An apparatus to transmit optical signals comprising: first circuitry configured to generate at least a first outgoing signal that is encoded to have multiple signal levels, in which respective signal levels are indicative of different signal states of more than one bit; second circuitry configured to generate at least a second outgoing signal that is encoded to have multiple signal levels, in which respective signal levels are indicative of different signal states of one or more bits; a first optical transmitter, configured to operate with the first circuitry, to receive the first outgoing signal and to drive a first light source by modulating the first light source, based on the outgoing signal, to generate a first modulated light signal having the multiple signal levels for optical transmission; a second optical transmitter, configured to operate with the second circuitry, to receive the second outgoing signal and to drive a second light source by modulating the second light source, based on the outgoing signal, to generate a second modulated light signal having the multiple signal levels for optical transmission together with the first modulated light signal; and an optical interface configured to operate with the first and second optical transmitters, in which the optical interface is configured to couple the first and second modulated light signals for the optical transmission onto a passive optical network (PON), which has passive splitters to split modulated light, and to transmit the first and second modulated light signals having multiple signal levels to a plurality of destinations via the PON.