Importance

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Abstract

A communication system includes an optical 'LAN' (50) interconnecting a plurality of information sources (16a) and sinks (22a) with a light-to-electrical converter (36a) associated with an electrical RF transmitters (32a) and an RF-to-light converter (38a) to a receiver (34a). The transmitter is coupled by way of electrical-to-light converter (46a), and the receiver is coupled by way of light-to-electrical converter (44a), and by way of a directional coupler (76a), to an end of an optical bus (74a), so that light signals representing signals to be transmitted flow in one direction, and light signals representing received signals flow in the other direction through the bus. A directional coupler (72a) at the other end of the optical bus routes the transmit light signals to a light-to-RF converter (47a) which feeds a sink or antenna (12a), and received signals from a source or antenna are routed by way of an RF-to-light converter (40a) and the directional coupler (72a) onto the optical bus (74a).

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First Claim