Patent ID: 7336906

Claim:
An optical signal transmission apparatus for transmitting a plurality of data signals, comprising: a) a plurality of input means for receiving a respective one of the data signals, and for delivering the respective data signal with a controlled phase and at a controlled data rate; b) optical carrier generation means for generating a plurality of optical carrier signals having different wavelengths; c) a plurality of first modulation means each being operative for modulating a respective one of the optical carriers with a respective data signal to provide a first-modulated optical carrier signal; d) an optical signal-routing device having a plurality of input ports, each input port being operative for receiving and delivering a respective one of the first-modulated optical carrier signals to an output port of the device; e) further modulation means for further modulating each of the first-modulated optical carrier signals in dependence upon a clock to provide a plurality of further-modulated optical carrier signals; and f) a feedback arrangement, including the optical signal-routing device, for feeding back a proportion of each of the further-modulated optical carrier signals to a respective input means for controlling the phase and rate at which the input means delivers the data signal to the first modulation means in dependence upon the further modulation to thereby synchronize each input data signal to the clock, the optical signal-routing device being operative to deliver each of the further-modulated signals applied to the output port to a respective input means along a path which is dependent upon the wavelength of the signal.