Fail-Safe Nodes for Lightguide Digital Networks

Lightguide digital networks that use fail-safe nodes made of an optical regenerator and optical couplers are described and analyzed. Every node in the network can regenerate or overwrite information traveling in a ring or bus network, and in the case of a power failure at one of the nodes, the network continues to function because the coupler keeps the continuity at the fatting node. Fail-safe nodes that operate at 16 Mb/s were built to implement a digital network of ring architecture. A description of the components is presented, together with an analysis of the design constraints of the different parts of the fail-safe nodes.