Patent EP-2541808-A1 (EP)
Inventor: GROBE KLAUS
IPC: H04B10/275
Filed: 2011-06-27
Abstract: The invention relates to a remote node architecture for a fiber-optic network, especially for low bit-rate data transmission, the fiber-optic network comprising a central node and a plurality of remote nodes serially connected to each other or to the central node, respectively, the central node and the remote node being capable of communicating by means of digital optical signals created by the central node or a respective remote node, each digital optical signal comprising a data frame. The remote node comprises an optical connection network, a single transceiver device comprising an optical receiver unit and an optical transmitter unit, and an electronic controller device for controlling the transceiver device. The optical connection network defines a western optical connection port, an eastern optical connection port, an internal optical receiving port being connected to the optical receiver unit and an internal optical transmitting port being connected to the optical transmitter unit, the western and eastern optical connection ports being connected via an optical pass-through path for passing through a digital optical signal received at the western or eastern optical connection port as digital optical pass-through signal to the respective other optical connection port with at least a portion of the optical power of the received digital optical signal. The controller device, the transceiver device and the optical connection network are designed such that for transmitting information from the remote node to the central node, the controller device creates a data frame including content data supplied to the controller device and address data for addressing the central node and controls the optical transmitter unit such that a digital optical transmit signal according to the data frame is created, the digital optical transmit signal being supplied at least to the optical connection port facing the central node, for receiving information from the central node, the receiver unit receives a digital optical transmit signal created by the central node or a digital optical echo signal created by another remote node, which is supplied to the western or eastern optical connection port and which comprises a data frame including content data and address data for addressing the remote node, with at least a given power portion at the internal optical receiving port, and the controller device processes the respective data frame, and for regenerating a digital optical transmit or echo signal received, the receiver unit receives a digital optical transmit signal created by the central node or a remote node or a digital optical echo signal created by another remote node, which is supplied to the western or eastern optical connection port and which comprises a data frame including content data and address data not addressing the remote node, with at least a given power portion at the internal optical receiving port, the controller device creates an echo data frame including the same content and address data as the received data frame and controls the optical transmitter unit such that a digital optical echo signal according to the echo data frame is created immediately or after a predetermined time interval after the end of the data frame of the received optical signal, the digital optical echo signal being output at the respective other optical connection port or at both optical connection ports. Further, the invention relates to a fiber-optic network architecture having a linear bus structure comprising a central node and a plurality of remote nodes having a respective architecture and to a simple method for transmitting digital data in a respective network architecture.