Liquid crystal (LC) beam modulation devices are applied to lighting control or to optical wireless communications to improve performance of lighting or communications. A flexible optical network using LC beam modulation and common control of beam intensity and solid angle of beams are also described.

A communications network includes a central communication unit, an optical transport medium, and a plurality of remote radio base stations. The central communication unit generates, within a selected millimeter-wave frequency band, a plurality of adjacent two-tone optical frequency conjugate pairs. Each conjugate pair includes a first optical tone carrying a modulated data signal, and a second optical tone carrying a reference local oscillator signal. The optical transport medium transports the plurality of two-tone conjugate pairs to the plurality of radio base stations, and each base station receives at least one conjugate pair at an optical front end thereof. The optical front end separates the first optical tone from the second optical tone, and converts the first optical tone into a millimeter-wave radio frequency electrical signal. The base station further includes a radio antenna system for wirelessly transmitting the millimeter-wave radio frequency electrical signal to at least one wireless receiving device.

A communications network includes a central communication unit, an optical transport medium, and a plurality of remote radio base stations. The central communication unit generates, within a selected millimeter-wave frequency band, a plurality of adjacent two-tone optical frequency conjugate pairs. Each conjugate pair includes a first optical tone carrying a modulated data signal, and a second optical tone carrying a reference local oscillator signal. The optical transport medium transports the plurality of two-tone conjugate pairs to the plurality of radio base stations, and each base station receives at least one conjugate pair at an optical front end thereof. The optical front end separates the first optical tone from the second optical tone, and converts the first optical tone into a millimeter-wave radio frequency electrical signal. The base station further includes a radio antenna system for wirelessly transmitting the millimeter-wave radio frequency electrical signal to at least one wireless receiving device.

A radio frequency (RF) beam transmission component having optical inputs and electrical outputs may include a wavelength selective switch (WSS) that has a plurality of optical WSS outputs. Each optical WSS output may be configured to transmit one or more wavelengths of the incoming optical signals. The RF beam transmission component may include a plurality of photodetectors (PD), each photodetector having an optical PD input coupled to one or more of said plurality of optical WSS outputs and a corresponding electrical output of a plurality of PD electrical outputs. The RF beam transmission component may further include a lens that has a plurality of electrical inputs and each electrical input may be electrically coupled to at least one of the plurality of electrical PD outputs. The lens may further have a plurality of electrical lens output ports.

A radio frequency (RF) beam transmission component having optical inputs and electrical outputs may include a wavelength selective switch (WSS) that has a plurality of optical WSS outputs. Each optical WSS output may be configured to transmit one or more wavelengths of the incoming optical signals. The RF beam transmission component may include a plurality of photodetectors (PD), each photodetector having an optical PD input coupled to one or more of said plurality of optical WSS outputs and a corresponding electrical output of a plurality of PD electrical outputs. The RF beam transmission component may further include a lens that has a plurality of electrical inputs and each electrical input may be electrically coupled to at least one of the plurality of electrical PD outputs. The lens may further have a plurality of electrical lens output ports.

A receiver is configured to extract a clock signal superimposed on a detection signal of light propagated to determine whether or not SNR of the detection signal is lower than SNR at which the detection signal can be demodulated; compensate a signal value of the detection signal by using a filter coefficient and output a detection signal after signal value compensation; and calculate, as the filter coefficient, a filter coefficient in which a signal value of a detection signal output from the adaptive filter is a reference value when it is determined that there is no SNR degradation, and changes the filter coefficient to a stored filter coefficient when it is determined that SNR degradation occurs.

An optical space communication transmitting terminal includes: a plurality of transmitters that form a plurality of groups and transmit optical signals having wavelengths different from each other; multiplexers that are provided to each of the groups and outputs optical signals wavelength-multiplexed by multiplexing the optical signals transmitted from the transmitters belonging to the group; optical amplifiers that are provided to each of the groups and amplifies the wavelength-multiplexed optical signals; and optical antennas that are provided to each of the groups and transmits the amplified optical signals into space, in which the optical antennas of the groups transmit the optical signals in the same direction.

An optical space communication transmitting terminal includes: a plurality of transmitters that form a plurality of groups and transmit optical signals having wavelengths different from each other; multiplexers that are provided to each of the groups and outputs optical signals wavelength-multiplexed by multiplexing the optical signals transmitted from the transmitters belonging to the group; optical amplifiers that are provided to each of the groups and amplifies the wavelength-multiplexed optical signals; and optical antennas that are provided to each of the groups and transmits the amplified optical signals into space, in which the optical antennas of the groups transmit the optical signals in the same direction.

This application provides example signal processing apparatus and example signal processing method. One example signal processing apparatus includes a sampling unit, a beam combiner, and an optical resonator. The sampling unit is connected to the beam combiner, and the beam combiner is connected to the optical resonator. The sampling unit is configured to sample an analog signal by using an optical pulse signal to output a sampled optical pulse signal. The beam combiner is configured to combine the sampled optical pulse signal and a multi-wavelength optical signal into a first optical signal. The optical resonator is configured to perform resonance based on the first optical signal to output a second optical signal in the first optical signal, where a wavelength of the second optical signal is equal to a resonant wavelength of the optical resonator.

Laser systems are provided with a semiconductor laser having an emission face, a drive circuit adapted to supply electric energy to the semiconductor laser to cause the semiconductor laser to emit a beam; a user input system adapted to sense a user input action; a controller adapted to control the drive circuit based upon the sensed user input action; a housing within which the laser is positioned and having an opening with a window through which the semiconductor laser can emit the beam. The semiconductor laser is positioned to emit the beam through the window and the emission face of the semiconductor laser is sized to cause a divergence in the beam to create a patterned emission with a predetermined shape without passing the beam through beam shaping optics.