Patent ID: 7412116

Claim:
An optical device, comprising: P inputs s, with 1≦s≦P, and P≧1, and N outputs k, with 1≦k≦N and N≧1, wherein the optical device is adapted to generate and process optical codes at at least one wavelength, the optical device is adapted to simultaneously generate and process N c phase and/or amplitude optical codes at one or more wavelengths, with N c ≧2, made of C chips with time interval τ, with C≧2, wherein a transfer function T sk (ƒ) from the input s to the output k satisfies the following formula:  T sk ⁡ ( f )  = ∏ v = 0 V - 1 ⁢ ⁢  F v ⁡ ( a v ⁢ f + S sk N k ⁢ τ )  , ⁢ for ⁢ ⁢ s = 1 , 2 ⁢ ⁢ … ⁢ ⁢ P k = 1 , 2 , … ⁢ ⁢ N where: F v (f) is a transfer function of an optical filter, for v=0, 1, . . . , V−1, a v is a constant value, for v=0, 1, . . . , V−1, S sk is an integer number (S sk εZ), N k is a constant value, for k=1, 2, . . . N, and V is a positive integer number with 1≦V≦log 2 N.