Optical fiber-based wireless systems and related components and methods are disclosed. The systems support radio frequency (RF) communications with clients over optical fiber, including Radio-over-Fiber (RoF) communications. The systems may be provided as part of an indoor distributed antenna system (IDAS) to provide wireless communication services to clients inside a building or other facility. The systems incorporate various functions, such as optical network terminal (ONT), splitter, and local powering, in antenna coverage areas.

A multi-channel receiver optical subassembly (ROSA) such as an arrayed waveguide grating (AWG), with outputs directly optically coupled to respective photodetectors such as photodiodes. In one embodiment, an AWG may be configured such that optical components of the AWG do not interfere with direct optical coupling, and the wire bonding points on the photodiodes may also be configured such that wire bonding does not interfere with direct optical coupling. The photodetectors may also be mounted on a photodetector mounting bar with a pitch sufficiently spaced to allow connection to floating grounds. A passive alignment technique may be used to determine the mounting locations on the photodetector mounting bar such that the photodetectors are aligned with the optical outputs.

A wavelength-selectable laser device providing spatially-selectable wavelength(s) may be used to select one or more wavelengths for lasing in a tunable transmitter or transceiver, for example, in a wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) optical system such as a WDM passive optical network (PON). The wavelength-selectable laser device uses a dispersive optical element, such as a diffraction grating, to disperse light emitted from a laser emitter and to direct different wavelengths of the light toward a reflector at different spatial positions such that the wavelengths may be selected by allowing light to be reflected from selected spatial position(s) back into the laser emitter. Thus, the reflected light with a wavelength at the selected spatial position(s) is allowed to complete the laser cavity.

A method of processing optical signals in a passive optical network includes receiving a first signal in a first optical spectrum, and receiving a second signal in a second optical spectrum. The second optical spectrum is different from the first optical spectrum. The method also includes multiplexing the first and second signals into a first multiplexed signal and outputting the first multiplexed signal. The method also includes receiving a second multiplexed signal, and demultiplexing the second multiplexed signal into a third signal and a fourth signal. The third signal is in the second optical spectrum and the fourth signal is in the first optical spectrum. The method also includes outputting the third and fourth signals.

A system includes an optical fiber cross-connect module with upstream ports and downstream ports, a first set of optical fibers connected from optical line terminals to the upstream ports, and a second set of optical fibers connected to the downstream ports and a customer optical network unit. The optical line terminals provide multiple wavelengths carrying optical signals at different bitrates over the first set of optical fibers. The customer optical network unit includes a tunable filter configured to receive any one of the multiple wavelengths. The optical fiber cross-connect module divides the optical signals received at each of the upstream ports into each of the downstream ports, and the customer optical network unit may be tuned to pass through a particular wavelength from the multiple wavelengths.

The present invention discloses a passive optical network communications method: reporting, by an optical network unit, ONU, a calibration record of the ONU, where the calibration record includes an ID of a calibrated wavelength channel; sending a first message to the ONU when the OLT determines, according to the calibration record, that a target wavelength channel ID corresponding to a target wavelength channel to which the ONU needs to switch is not in the calibration record, where the first message includes a forced wavelength switching flag; and instructing the ONU to switch to the calibrated target wavelength channel. In this way, the ONU can implement wavelength switching quickly after calibrating a new wavelength channel so as to perform data communication over the calibrated new wavelength channel.

The present application provides a wavelength configuration method for a multi-wavelength passive optical network, which includes: scanning, by an ONU, a downstream receiving wavelength, and receiving, downstream wavelength information of each downstream wavelength channel that is broadcast by an OLT separately through each downstream wavelength channel of a multi-wavelength PON system; establishing, by the ONU, a downstream receiving wavelength mapping table, where an entry of the downstream receiving wavelength mapping table includes downstream receiving wavelength information, drive current information of a downstream optical receiver and receiving optical physical parameter information of the ONU; selecting, by the ONU, one downstream wavelength from the downstream wavelength information broadcast by the OLT, and setting, according to the drive current information of the downstream optical receiver recorded in a related entry of the downstream receiving wavelength mapping table, an operating wavelength of the downstream optical receiver to the selected downstream wavelength.

Systems and methods for optical modulation index calibration in a CATV network.

Methods, systems, and apparatus, for an external cavity FP laser. In one aspect, an apparatus is provided that includes a FP laser diode; a Faraday rotator (FR) coupled to receive an optical output of the FP laser diode and that rotates a polarization of the optical output; an optical fiber coupled at a first end to receive the output of the FR; a WDM filter coupled to a second end of the optical fiber to receive the optical signal from the optical fiber; and a FRM coupled directly or indirectly to an output of the WDM filter, wherein an optical output of the WDM filter is partially reflected by the FRM such that the polarization of a reflected beam is rotated, and wherein the reflected optical signal then passes through the FR with its polarization being rotated by the FR before it is injected back into the FP laser diode.

Techniques are described for indicating a wavelength at which a network interface device is configured to operate. A first controller circuit may determine a wavelength at which the network interface device is operating. The wavelength at which the network interface device is operating includes at least one of an optical wavelength at which a laser of the network interface device is transmitting optical data or an optical wavelength at which a photodiode of the network interface device is receiving optical data. A second controller circuit may cause the network interface device to output a sensory output that indicates the wavelength at which the network interface device is operating.