Patent ID: 7747170

Claim:
An optical code division multiplexing transmission/reception method, comprising: (A) a transmission step of using time-spreading wavelength-hopping codes, which are different for each channel, to encode optical pulse signals comprising light of different wavelengths, allocated to different channels for transmission, to generate encoded optical pulse signals, and of multiplexing said encoded optical pulse signals to be transmitted as the optical code division multiplexed signals; and (B) a reception step of intensity-dividing said optical code division multiplexed signals by channel, decoding said divided optical code division multiplexed signals using the same codes as said time-spreading wavelength-hopping codes by channel, generating decoded optical pulse signals comprising auto-correlated waveform components and cross-correlated waveform components of said optical pulse signals, and extracting only auto-correlated waveform components from said decoded optical pulse signals to obtain received signals, wherein said transmission step comprises: (A1) a step of causing continuous-wave light of different wavelengths to be generated; (A2) a first polarization control step of controlling the planes of polarization such that the planes of polarization of said continuous-wave light, alternating in the order of the wavelengths of said continuous-wave light, are orthogonal; (A3) a step of combining said continuous-wave light with polarization planes controlled, and generating multi-wavelength continuous-wave light; (A4) a step of converting said multi-wavelength continuous-wave light into an optical pulse train; (A5) a step of converting said optical pulse train into optical pulse signals; (A6) a step of converting said optical pulse signals into encoded optical pulse signals; and (A7) a second polarization control step of controlling the planes of polarization of said encoded optical pulse signals, such that the planes of polarization of said encoded optical pulse signals in adjacent channels are mutually orthogonal.