Patent ID: 6944404

Claim:
A multimode wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) network transceiver system comprising: a plurality of optical single channel transceivers each operative at a first wavelength band and receiving optical communications signals; a plurality of optical transmitters operatively connected and matched to respective single channel transceivers and receiving signals electrically processed at each respective single channel transceiver at the first wavelength band and transmit optical communications signals along respective signal paths at a second wavelength band; a wavelength division multiplexer operatively connected to each optical transmitter for receiving the optical communications signals at the second wavelength band and wavelength division multiplexing the optical communications signals within the second wavelength band into a multimode wavelength division multiplexed optical communications signal having a wavelength channel spacing less than about 1,000 gigahertz; a demultiplexer for receiving a multimode wavelength division multiplexed optical communications signal within the second wavelength band from another multimode wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) network transceiver system and demultiplexing the signal into a plurality of demultiplexed optical communications signals; and a plurality of optical receivers each connected to the demultiplexer and matched with a respective single channel transceiver for receiving and detecting the demultiplexed optical communications signal and passing to a respective single channel transceiver the optical communications signal at the first wavelength band, the network transceiver system further comprising a serial/deserializer (SERDES) circuit operatively connected to an optical transmitter and matched optical receiver, a switch circuit operatively connected to said serial/deserializer circuit, and a physical sublayer chip circuit and electrical interface operatively connected to said switch circuit.