Patent ID: 8687961

Claim:
An optical broadcast bus comprising: a number of optical interfaces, each optical interface electronically coupled to at least two nodes; a fan-in bus optically coupled to the number of optical interfaces; and a fan-out bus optically coupled to the number of optical interfaces, wherein each optical interface further comprises a transmitter configured to convert an electrical signal produced by either of the electronically coupled at least two nodes into an optical signal that is received and directed by the fan-in bus to the fan-out bus and broadcast by the fan-out bus to the number of optical interfaces, wherein each optical interface converts the optical signal into an electrical signal that is sent to each of the electronically coupled at least two nodes for processing, wherein the transmitter of each optical interface comprises: at least two drivers, wherein each of the at least two drivers is associated with a respective one of the at least two nodes electronically coupled to the transmitter, wherein a given driver of the at least two drivers receives an enable signal from a given node of the at least two nodes during a period of time that the given node has exclusive access to the transmitter; and at least two terminating resistors, wherein each of the terminating resistors is coupled to a corresponding one of the at least two drivers, and each of the terminating resistors is configured to prevent electrical signals from being reflected back toward the at least two nodes.