Patent ID: 7889996
Filing Date: 2011-02-15
Classification: H04B,H04J,H04Q

Abstract:
1. A system, comprising an array of chip modules (CMs) configured to communicate data signals with each other via optical communication, wherein a given CM includes: a transmitter; a first primary optical signal path and a secondary primary optical signal path; a 2-way optical splitter, coupled to the transmitter, the first primary optical signal path and the second primary optical signal path, configured to receive an optical signal from the transmitter and to provide a first unidirectional optical signal on the first primary optical signal path and to provide a second unidirectional optical signal on the second primary optical signal path, wherein the first primary optical signal path is optically coupled to CMs in the array along a direction in a dimension of the array and wherein the second primary optical signal path is optically coupled to CMs in the array along another direction in the dimension of the array; additional primary optical signal paths, wherein a given additional primary optical signal path is optically coupled to CMs in the array along the dimension, and wherein the given additional primary optical signal path is configured to communicate a given unidirectional optical signal from another of the CMs; secondary optical signal paths, optically coupled to CMs in the array along another dimension of the array, configured to communicate bidirectional optical signals; and 3-way, bidirectional optical splitters, wherein a given 3-way optical splitter is coupled to a given secondary optical signal path and a given primary optical signal path, which can be the second primary optical signal path or one of the additional primary optical signal paths; wherein the given 3-way optical splitter is configured to receive an input optical signal on an input node and to provide output optical signals on three output nodes; and wherein the input optical signal can be the second unidirectional optical signal, the given unidirectional optical signal, or one of the bidirectional optical signals.