Information transmission using dispersive optical fibers

Claim 2

An optical fiber cable comprising a central clad fiber situated at the center of the cable, and a plurality of clad fibers arranged around the periphery of the central fiber with the plurality of clad fibers having different fiber diameters and twisted about the center of the cable so that the length of the fibers differs over a given cable length.

Claim 3

The cable of claim 1 in which the fibers have plastic coatings of unequal thickness.

Claim 4

The cable of claim 1 in which the fibers have glass cladding of unequal thickness.

Claim 5

A transmission cable comprising a plurality of fiber waveguides arranged side-by-side in a retaining tape the cable characterized in that the tape is twisted over at least a substantial portion of its length about an axis corresponding to one of the edges of the tape so that the individual fiber waveguides have different lengths when unstrained.

Claim 6

A transmission cable comprising a plurality of fiber waveguides arranged side-by-side in a retaining tape the cable characterized in that the tape is twisted over at least a substantial portion of its length about an axis corresponding to one of the edges of the tape so that the individual fiber waveguides have different lengths when unstrained.

Claim 7

A transmission cable comprising two cable sections the first comprising a plurality of fiber waveguides arranged side-by-side in a retaining tape with the tape twisted about an axis corresponding to one of the edges of the tape and the fiber waveguides having different lengths when unstrained and the second section comprising a plurality of fiber waveguides of essentially equal lengths.

Claim 8

A transmission cable comprising two cable sections the first comprising a plurality of fiber waveguides arranged side-by-side in a retaining tape with the tape twisted about an axis corresponding to one of the edges of the tape and the fiber waveguides having different lengths when unstrained and the second section comprising a plurality of fiber waveguides of essentially equal lengths.

Claim 9

The cable of claim 5 including a third section having the characteristics of the first section with the fiber waveguide situated closest to the said axis of the third section connected through the second section to the fiber waveguide in the first section located remote from the axis of the first section.

Claim 10

A multiwaveguide fiber comprising an elongated optical fiber having a cladding of refractive index n 1 and a plurality of cores within the fiber, wherein at least some of the cores have different refractive indexes that are greater than n 1 .

Claim 11

A multiwaveguide fiber comprising an elongated optical fiber having a cladding of refractive index n 1 and a plurality of cores within the fiber, wherein at least some of the cores have different refractive indexes that are greater than n 1 .

Claim 12

A lightwave transmission system comprising means for producing a multiplicity of separate lightwave transmission channels at least some of which have controllably different lightwave transit times, said means comprising a dispersive optical cable having a bundle of individual fiber waveguides arranged at varying distances from the center of the cable and twisted about the center of the cable so that over the length of the cable individual fiber waveguides have different lengths and therefore provide different lightwave transit times, and with said system further comprising a single lightwave channel connected to said dispersive optical cable.

Claim 13

A lightwave transmission system comprising means for producing a multiplicity of separate lightwave transmission channels at least some of which have controllably different lightwave transit times, said means comprising a dispersive optical cable having a bundle of individual fiber waveguides arranged at varying distances from the center of the cable and twisted about the center of the cable so that over the length of the cable individual fiber waveguides have different lengths and therefore provide different lightwave transit times, and with said system further comprising a single lightwave channel connected to said dispersive optical cable.

Claim 14

A lightwave transmission system comprising means for producing a multiplicity of separate lightwave transmission channels at least some of which have controllably different lightwave transit times, said means comprising a dispersive multicore optical fiber having a cladding surrounding a plurality of cores, wherein at least some of the cores have different refractive indexes and therefore provide different lightwave transit times, and with said system further comprising a single lightwave channel connected to said dispersive multicore optical fiber.

Claim 15

A lightwave transmission system comprising means for producing a multiplicity of separate lightwave transmission channels at least some of which have controllably different lightwave transit times, said means comprising a dispersive multicore optical fiber having a cladding surrounding a plurality of cores, wherein at least some of the cores have different refractive indexes and therefore provide different lightwave transit times, and with said system further comprising a single lightwave channel connected to said dispersive multicore optical fiber.

Claim 16

A lightwave transmission system comprising means for producing a multiplicity of seperate lightwave transmission channels at least some of which have controllably different lightwave transit times, said means comprising a dispersive multicore optical fiber having a cladding surrounding at least two cores, wherein the two cores are in the form of helical paths of unequal length and therefore provide different lightwave transit times, and with said system further comprising a single lightwave channel connected to said dispersive multicore optical fiber.

Claim 17

A lightwave transmission system comprising means for producing a multiplicity of seperate lightwave transmission channels at least some of which have controllably different lightwave transit times, said means comprising a dispersive multicore optical fiber having a cladding surrounding at least two cores, wherein the two cores are in the form of helical paths of unequal length and therefore provide different lightwave transit times, and with said system further comprising a single lightwave channel connected to said dispersive multicore optical fiber.

Claim 19

The system of claim 11 in which the first timed sequence includes a pulse launched simultaneously into each channel and the second timed sequence includes a sequential pulse train representative of the simultaneous pulse dispersed as the result of the different transit times of the multiplicity of channels.

Claim 20

The system of claim 11 in which the first timed sequence includes a series of pulses each launched into one of the multiplicity of channels at different times and the second timed sequence includes a simultaneous pulse from each channel corresponding to the time divided pulses compressed by the different lightwave transit times of the multiplicity of channels.