Integrated Optical Bus Interface Module (IOBIM)

Current military platforms operate as integral part of Network Centric Warfare. The type and amount of information that permeates both, tactical and strategic environment demands that all platforms be equipped with high speed distribution networks. Optical networks are best suited to distribute and process this information reliably at high speeds, and are immune to Electro-Magnetic Interference (EMI) and jamming. Networks can take on various forms such as bus or switched topology. The latter exhibits single point failure and a bi-directional broadcast bus topology is more reliable and the recommended one, as it also supports Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM), for the simultaneous transmission of multi-protocol digital and analog RF signals. The critical element of the bus is the access node or optical bus interface module.(OBIM) Each node in the bus can transmit and distribute a wide variety of sensors, control and communication signals with minimum latency. The node is all-glass, passive node with unity gain, to compensate for splitting losses. We propose to develop and demonstrate. The feasibility of a novel integrated optical chip OBIM with significant reduction in size and weight and much greater reliability, that provide military platforms with a high-speed (>40 GHz), low-cost all-optical network, will be demonstrated.