Integrated Circuit Packet Receivers for TDM Passive Optical Networks

A form of optical communications with increasing commercial importance requires passive sharing of optical fiber among several optoelectronic sources and detectors. One example is the “Passive Optical Network” ON) illustrated in Figure 1. Here, several terminal units (Optical Network Units - OW) are linked by passively connected optical fibers to a service provider (Optical Subscriber Unit - OSU) that is in tum the gateway to the outside network.