Appeal 2007-0680
Application 10/655,901
1 The invention is directed to an amplifier for an optical communication
2 system. A light beam used to provide pumping power is split, a portion is
3 coupled to a fiber in the direction counter to the direction of the signal
4 propagation. The other portion is coupled to a second fiber in the direction
5 of signal propagation in that fiber. See page 3 of Appellant’s specification.
6 Claim 1 representative of the invention and reproduced below:
7 1. A communication system for distributed Raman amplification of
8 optical signals, the communication system comprising:
9 a first fiber span;
10 a second fiber span;
11 a third fiber span;
12 a first pump system configured to generate and transmit a first light
13 beam;
14 a first splitter configured to receive the first light beam, split the first
15 light beam into a first portion of the first light beam and a second portion of
16 the first light beam, transfer the first portion of the first light beam onto the
17 first fiber span to backward propagate over the first fiber span, and transfer
18 the second portion of the first light beam onto the second fiber span to
19 forward propagate over the second fiber span;
20 a second pump system configured to generate and transmit a second
21 light beam; and
22 a second splitter configured to receive the second light beam, split the
23 second light beam into a first portion of the second light beam and a second
24 portion of the second light beam, transfer the first portion of the second light
25 beam onto the second fiber span to backward propagate over the second
26 fiber span, and transfer the second portion of the second light beam onto the
27 third fiber span to forward propagate over the third fiber span;
28 wherein a power of the first portion of the first light beam is not equal
29 to a power of the second portion of the first light beam; and
30 wherein a power of the first portion of the second light beam is not
31 equal to a power of the second portion of the second light beam.
32
33 REFERENCES
34
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Last modified: September 9, 2013