Patent ID: 7412164

Claim:
A photoelectric cross-connect system used in an optical-communication system having an optical-transmission line having a main channel and a redundant channel connected between a plurality of nodes, each node automatically recognizes a data rate of an input signal and is configured for communication over the redundant channel to communicate with adjacent nodes, comprising: an optical-receiving unit for receiving and converting an input signal into an electric signal; an optical-transmitting unit for recovering a clock and data from the converted electric signal extracting a data rate from the electric signal for a subsequent transmission via the main channel; a redundant-transmitting unit for recovering a clock and data from the converted electric signal and extracting a data rate from the converted electrical signal for a subsequent transmission via the redundant channel; a switch for selectively adjusting a connection state between the optical-receiving unit and the optical-transmitting unit and between the optical-receiving unit and the redundant-transmitting unit; and, a control unit for outputting the control signal so that the optical-receiving unit can be connected simultaneously to the main transmitting unit and the redundant transmitting unit for a predetermined time period; wherein the optical-transmitting unit comprises at least one optical transmitter, the optical transmitter comprising: a data rate recognizing module for recognizing a data rate of the converted electric signal; a reference-clock generator for generating a reference-clock signal identical to the recognized data rate; a clock/data recovery circuit for reproducing a clock and data from the converted electric signal according to the reference clock; and, a laser diode for outputting an output signal modulated according to the reproduced clock and data; and wherein the data-rate-recognizing module comprises: a buffer for dividing the converted electrical signal into two signals; a delay unit for delaying one of the two signals according to a predetermined time; a computing unit for recombining output signals of the delay unit; a filter for filtering the recombined signal; an A/D converter for converting the filtered signal into a digital signal; and, a processor extracting the data rate based on a voltage level of the filtered signal.