Patent ID: 8636427

Claim:
An aircraft avionics system comprising: at least first and second pieces of equipment comprising a first and second bus interface, respectively, configured for exchanging information over at least one electrical bus for simultaneous two-way communication, at least one two-way optical communication bus, configured to replace the at least one electrical communication bus and connected between the first and second bus interface of the at least first and second pieces of equipment, respectively, for exchanging information between the at least first and second pieces of equipment, the at least one two-way optical communication bus comprising at least one optical cable having: a first end comprising: a first electrooptic converter for converting electrical signals from one of the first and second pieces of equipment into optical signals of a first wavelength λ1, and a second electrooptic converter for converting optical signals of a second wavelength λ2 into electrical signals provided to the one of the first and second pieces of equipment; and a second end comprising: a third electrooptic converter for converting electrical signals from other of the first and second pieces of equipment into optical signals of the second wavelength λ2, a fourth electrooptic converter for converting optical signals of the first wavelength λ1 into electrical signals provided to the other of the first and second pieces of equipment.