JP3146464B2 - Optical information outlet - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention embeds an optical fiber cable in a wall of a home, office or the like, and transmits and receives signals between various information devices such as a system controller, an AV device, and a personal computer via the optical fiber cable. More particularly, the present invention relates to an optical information outlet provided on a wall or the like for receiving and outputting optical signals.

[0002]

[Prior art] Conventionally, as a network, which is considered a household in the target, there has been a home bus system represented by EIJA HBS. The EIJA HBS embeds a coaxial cable or a twisted pair cable as a bus (signal transmission line) in a wall or the like, and arranges an information outlet as an interface between the bus and various home appliances such as an air conditioner, a telephone, and a VTR in a house on the wall. Then, by transmitting and receiving control signals between various home electric appliances connected to the home bus controller and the information outlet, the operation of various home electric appliances is controlled (see “Transistor Technology SPECIAL No. 30”, p. 75- 92 etc.).

Further, as networks using optical fiber cables, there have been LANs such as an active star type optical LAN, a passive bus type optical LAN, and FDDI. The active star type optical LAN and the passive bus type optical LAN are obtained by expanding Ethernet (Ethernet) using a coaxial cable, and are suitable for a workstation network in an office or the like, similarly to Ethernet. Further, in the passive bus type optical LAN, it is considered that an optical transceiver is connected to an optical outlet provided with an optical coupler, and a workstation or the like is connected to the optical transceiver to drop / insert an optical signal into a signal transmission path. Have been.

The FDDI is a LAN (100 Mbit / s) with a higher speed (100 Mbit / s) than Ethernet, and is currently mainly used as a trunk bus connecting Ethernets in an intelligent building (“Nikkei Electronics 1989.15.15”). P.139-
145, etc.).

[0005]

However, the above E
Since the IAJ HBS home bus system uses a coaxial cable or a twisted pair cable as a signal transmission path, there is a problem that high-speed and large-capacity communication such as transmission and reception of digital video signals cannot be performed.

Also, the active star type optical LAN, passive bus type optical LAN, and FDDI have a problem that the system scale is too large to be introduced into a home. Also, a system such as a passive bus type optical LAN in which an optical transceiver is connected to an optical outlet provided with an optical coupler to drop / insert an optical signal into an optical transmission line becomes a large-scale system. There is a problem that an inexpensive system cannot be constructed.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to solve the above problems and to provide an optical information outlet capable of constructing an inexpensive system for high-speed, large-capacity communication in a home.

[0008]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to solve the above problems, the present invention relates to a method of connecting a plurality of information devices via an optical fiber cable embedded in a wall or the like, and connecting an optical signal between the information devices. In an optical information outlet used for a system that performs transmission and reception of the optical information outlet, it is embedded in a wall or the like, and one end face to which an optical fiber cable is connected, and is exposed on a surface of the wall or the like,
In addition, it is configured to have another end face to which a device connecting optical fiber cable for transmitting an optical signal to and from an information device is connected.

Further, the present invention provides the optical information outlet, further comprising a lid having a built-in terminator for transferring an optical signal on an optical fiber cable embedded in a wall or the like to a next information device or the like. It is.

[0010]

According to the present invention, since the optical information outlet is constructed as described above, the information equipment can be connected to the end face of the optical information outlet exposed on the surface of the wall or the like via the optical fiber cable for device connection. For example, an optical signal can be transmitted and received between a plurality of information devices connected to an optical information outlet via an optical fiber cable embedded in a wall or the like. When a ring-shaped network is formed, if an optical signal is transferred to the next information device within the information device, the configuration of the optical information outlet and each information device is simplified.

Further, according to the present invention, in a ring-shaped network, when the lid of the optical information outlet is closed when the information equipment is not connected, the terminator built in the lid is connected to the optical information outlet. The optical signal on the fiber cable is transferred to the next information device or the like. Therefore, there is no need to connect the terminator to the optical information outlet.

[0012]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a conceptual diagram of a home optical information communication system in which an optical information outlet according to an embodiment of the present invention is preferably used. In a kitchen of a general home, there are provided a system controller 1 for controlling the entire optical information communication system in the home and an entrance monitor device 2 for displaying an image from a monitoring camera 3 provided at the entrance. In the living room, there is provided an AV system 4 including an AV device such as a VTR and a laser disk player and a monitor device.

A mini component 5 is provided in the bedroom, and a personal computer 6 is provided in the children's room. These information devices are connected to an optical information outlet (details will be described later) by a device connection optical fiber cable 7 (details will be described later). Walls, ceilings, floors, etc. (hereinafter referred to as
It is connected by an optical fiber cable (not shown, details will be described later) embedded in a wall or the like. This home optical information communication system can transmit and receive digital video signals, digital audio signals, and the like.

FIG. 2 is a format diagram showing a main configuration of a signal passing through the optical fiber cable of the optical information communication system at home shown in FIG. The signal in the system has a form of a packet including a control bit group and data (audio, video, command, etc.). The control bit group has a source address indicating the information device that has transmitted the data, a destination address indicating the information device to which the data is to be transmitted, and the like.

The data is composed of commands for the system controller 1 to control information devices such as the camera 3 and the AV system 4, audio signals output from the mini component 5, image signals output from the personal computer 6, and the like. It has an appropriate length. FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a star type home optical information communication system, and FIG. 4 is an optical information outlet in the home optical information communication system shown in FIG. FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing a main part of information equipment in the home optical information communication system shown in FIG.

As shown in FIG. 3, optical fiber cables 16a to 19b are connected between the system controller 11 and the optical information outlets 12 to 15. One end of each optical information outlet is embedded in a wall or the like 20, and the other end is exposed on the surface of the wall or the like 20. The optical fiber cables 16a and 16b have a speed of about 100 Mbit / sec, and are actually one two-core optical fiber cable. Of course, a single-core optical fiber cable may be used. Optical fiber cables 17a, 17b, 18a, 18b, 1
The same applies to 9a and 19b.

As shown in FIG. 4A, the optical information outlet has an input terminal 32 and an output terminal 33 at a connection portion 31. As shown in FIG. 4 (b), the optical fiber cable for connecting the equipment is a two-core optical fiber cable 34 containing two optical fibers, an optical information outlet and an optical information outlet for equipment (41 in FIG. 5). Connection parts 35 and 3 to be connected
6. Since the two-core optical fiber cable is used, the information equipment and the optical outlet can be connected by one optical fiber cable.

As shown in FIG. 5, each information device is
The device optical information outlet 4 to which the connection portion 35 or 36 of the device connection optical fiber cable shown in FIG.
Input / output of optical information is performed from 1. The configuration of the device optical information outlet 41 is the same as the optical information outlets 12 to 15. The optical signal input to the input terminal 41 a of the device optical information outlet 41 is converted into an electrical signal by the optical / electrical converter 42, and is input to the control unit 45 via the interface 44. The control unit 45 is configured by a microcomputer or the like, and controls the operation of the entire information device. When an optical signal is transmitted from an information device, the electrical signal is converted into an optical signal by an electrical / optical converter 43 and the optical information outlet 41 for the device is used.
From the output terminal 41b to the optical fiber cable for device connection.

If the information device is, for example, a VTR in the AV system 4 of FIG. 1, the information device includes a receiving unit and a recording / reproducing unit, and the personal computer 6 includes a display and a keyboard. In the star type home optical information communication system shown in FIG. 3, all information devices are connected to the system controller 11, and communication between the information devices is performed via the system controller 11. for that reason,
It is sufficient to perform one-to-one communication between the system controller 11 and the information device, and there is no need to consider communication collision. When the optical information outlets 12 to 15 are not used, they may be left open.

In this home optical information communication system,
For example, the operation when the AV system connected to the optical outlet 12 requests the mini component connected to the optical outlet 14 to transmit an audio signal is as follows. First, in the AV system, a signal in which a control bit group having a source address of the AV system and a destination address of a mini component is added to a command is transmitted from the optical information outlet 12 to the optical fiber cable 16b. The system controller 11 looks at the destination address of the signal and transmits the signal to the optical fiber cable 18a. The mini component receives the signal from the optical information outlet 14, confirms the destination address, and takes in the command. Then, the source address is minicomponent, sends a signal to the destination address is added to the audio signal co cement rolls bit group is an AV system of the optical information outlet 14 to the optical fiber cable 18b. The system controller 11 looks at the destination address of the signal and sends the signal to the optical fiber cable 16a. The AV system receives the signal from the optical information outlet 12, confirms the destination address, and takes in the audio signal.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of a ring type home optical information communication system, FIG. 7 is a conceptual diagram of an optical information outlet and an optical fiber cable for device connection in the home optical information communication system shown in FIG. 6, and FIG. FIG. 7 is a block diagram illustrating a main part of an information device and a terminator in the home optical information communication system illustrated in FIG. 6. As shown in FIG. 6, optical fiber cables 56a to 60 are connected between the system controller 51 and the optical information outlets 52 to 55. FIG.
Similarly, one end of each optical information outlet and the optical fiber cable are embedded in a wall 61 or the like.

As shown in FIG. 7A, the optical information outlet has a total of four terminals at the connection part 71, namely, two input terminals 72 and 73 and two output terminals 74 and 75. FIG.
As shown in (b), the optical fiber cable for device connection is a four-core optical fiber cable 7 containing four optical fibers.
6 and connection parts 77 and 78 connected to the optical information outlet and the device optical information outlet (81 in FIG. 8).

As shown in FIG. 8A, each information device is connected to an optical information outlet 81 for the device to which the connection portion 77 or 78 of the optical fiber cable for device connection shown in FIG. 7B is connected. Input and output are performed. The configuration of the device optical information outlet 81 is the same as that of the optical information outlet of FIG. The optical signal input to the first input terminal 81 a of the device optical information outlet 81 is converted into an electrical signal by the optical / electrical converter 82 and input to the control unit 87 via the interface 86. The control unit 87 is configured by a microcomputer or the like, and controls the operation of the entire information device. When an optical signal is transmitted from an information device, the electric signal is converted into an optical signal by an electric / optical converter 83 and transmitted from the first output terminal 81b of the optical information outlet 81 for the device to the optical fiber cable for device connection. .

Also, the second optical information outlet 81 for the device
The optical signal input to the input terminal 81c is the optical / electrical converter 8
The signal is converted into an electric signal by an optical signal converter 4, converted into an optical signal by an electric / optical converter 85, and transmitted from the second output terminal 81 d of the optical information outlet 81 for the device to the optical fiber cable for device connection. This operation is performed, for example, when an information device is connected to the optical information outlet 52 of FIG. 6, the optical signal on the optical fiber cable 57b is transmitted to the second input via the optical information outlet 52 and the device connecting optical fiber cable. Input to terminal 81c. Then, this is equivalent to outputting from the second output terminal 81d and sending it out again to the optical fiber cable 56b via the optical fiber cable for device connection and the optical information outlet 52. That is, a ring is formed by forming a return path in the information device.

As shown in FIG. 8B, the first input terminal 9 of the optical information outlet 91 for the device is used in the terminator.
The optical signal input to 1a is converted to an electrical signal by an optical / electrical converter 92, converted to an optical signal by an electrical / optical converter 93, and transmitted from a first output terminal 91b to an optical fiber cable for device connection. Is done. Also, the second input terminal 9
The optical signal input to 1c is converted into an electrical signal by an optical / electrical converter 94, converted into an optical signal by an electrical / optical converter 95, and sent out from a second output terminal 91d to an optical fiber cable for device connection. You. In this way, the terminator functions to transfer an optical signal to the next optical information outlet when an information device is not connected to the optical information outlet, thereby forming a ring.

In this home optical information communication system,
For example, the operation when the AV system connected to the optical information outlet 52 requests transmission of an audio signal from the mini component connected to the optical information outlet 54 is as follows. First, in the AV system, a signal obtained by adding a control bit group having a source address of an AV system and a destination address of a mini component to a command from an optical information outlet 52 to an optical fiber cable 57 is used.
a. The signal transmitted to the optical fiber cable 57a passes through the optical information outlet 53, and is input to the optical information outlet 54 through the optical fiber cable 58a. The mini component receives the signal from the optical information outlet 54, confirms the destination address, and takes in the command. Then, a signal in which a control bit group whose source address is the mini component and whose destination address is the AV system is added to the audio signal is transmitted from the optical information outlet 54 to the optical fiber cable 59a. The signal transmitted to the optical fiber cable 59a is transmitted to an optical information outlet 55, an optical fiber cable 59b, an optical information outlet 54, an optical information cable 58b, an optical information outlet 53, an optical information cable 57b, an optical information outlet 52, and an optical information cable 56.
b, system controller 51, optical information cable 56a
Through the optical information outlet 52 to the AV system. The AV system receives the signal from the optical information outlet 52, confirms the destination address, and takes in the audio signal.

As described above, the home optical information communication system shown in FIG. 6 is configured to transfer an optical signal to the next information device in the information device or the terminator.
The optical information outlet and the interface of each information device have a simple configuration. FIG. 9 is a configuration diagram of another ring type home optical information communication system, and FIG. 10 is a block diagram showing a terminator in the home optical information communication system shown in FIG.

As shown in FIG. 9, optical fiber cables 106 to 110 are connected between a system controller 101 and optical information outlets 102 to 105. FIG.
Similarly to the above, one end of each optical information outlet and the optical fiber cable are embedded in a wall 111 or the like. However, in FIG. 9, the flow of the optical signal in each of the optical information outlets 102 to 105 is only one line (right to left in the figure), and the optical signal transmitted from the optical information outlet 105 is directly transmitted by the optical fiber cable 110. It is sent to the system controller 101.

The optical information outlet and the optical fiber cable for connecting the equipment in the home optical information communication system are as follows.
Since it has basically the same configuration as that shown in FIG. 4, illustration and description are omitted. Also, the information equipment basically has the same configuration as the information equipment shown in FIG. 5 (of course, the operation of the control unit is different in accordance with the difference in the network topology), so that the illustration and description are omitted.

In the terminator shown in FIG. 10A, an optical signal input to an input terminal 121a of an optical information outlet 121 for a device is converted into an electric signal by an optical / electrical converter 122, and is converted by an electric / optical converter 123. The signal is converted into an optical signal and transmitted from the output terminal 121b to the optical fiber cable for device connection. On the other hand, in the terminator shown in FIG.
The optical signal input to a passes through the optical fiber 132 and is transmitted from the output terminal 131b to the optical fiber cable for device connection.

As described above, in the home optical information communication system shown in FIG. 9, since the flow of the optical signal is one-way, if the transfer to the next information device is performed within the information device,
A ring-shaped network can be configured with a two-core optical fiber cable. FIG. 11 is an explanatory diagram showing a configuration of an optical information outlet according to another embodiment of the present invention, and (a).
Is a front view in a state where a lid is opened, (b) is a front view in a state where the lid is closed, and (c) is a cross-sectional view.

This optical information outlet is provided with a lid storage section 143 for storing the lid 142 at the upper part. The terminator 145 as shown in FIGS. 8B and 10 is housed inside the lid 142 (here, FIG. 8B).
(The terminator of (b) is shown). The lid 142 slides up and down to enter and exit the lid storage section 143. When an information device is connected to the optical information outlet, the lid 142 is slid upward and stored in the lid storage portion 143 as shown in FIG. 7A, so that the connection portion 141 of the optical information outlet is exposed. On the other hand, when the information device is not connected to the optical information outlet, when the information device is slid downward as shown in (b) and (c), the connection portion 141 of the optical information outlet is covered, and
Since the terminator 145 is pushed in the direction of the connection part 141 by a spring or the like (not shown), the plug 146 is connected to the connection part 14.
1 and the optical fiber cables 147 and 148 are connected. The sliding operation of the lid 142 is performed by holding the pawl 144. Note that the lid 142 may be configured to rotate 180 degrees about one end (for example, the upper end) instead of sliding in the vertical direction.

As described above, in the optical information outlet according to the present embodiment, it is not necessary to connect the terminator to the optical information outlet to which no information device is connected. When the optical information outlet is not used, the optical information outlet can be protected by covering the optical information outlet. It should be noted that the present invention is not limited to the above embodiments, and various modifications are possible based on the spirit of the present invention, and they are not excluded from the scope of the present invention. For example, the present invention can be applied not only to a home but also to an optical information communication system in an office.

[0034]

As described above, according to the present invention, the following effects can be obtained. (1) Video signal with the same feeling as a power outlet,
Since all signals such as audio signals and command signals are obtained from the optical information outlet, general users can easily use them. (2) The terminator can play the role of a simple operation of closing the lid of the optical information outlet, so that there is no need to connect the terminator, and it can be easily used by general users without specialized knowledge. it can. (3) When a ring-shaped network is formed, if an optical signal is transferred to the next information device within the information device, the configuration of the optical information outlet and each information device is simplified. Therefore, an inexpensive optical information communication system can be constructed in a home.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a conceptual diagram of a home optical information communication system in which an optical information outlet according to an embodiment of the present invention is preferably used.

FIG. 2 is a format diagram showing a main configuration of a signal passing through an optical fiber cable of the home optical information communication system shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram of a star-type home optical information communication system.

FIG. 4 is a conceptual diagram of an optical outlet and a device-connecting optical fiber cable in the home optical information communication system shown in FIG.

5 is a block diagram showing a main part of an information device in the home optical information communication system shown in FIG.

FIG. 6 is a configuration diagram of a ring type home optical information communication system.

7 is a conceptual diagram of an optical information outlet and an optical fiber cable for connecting devices in the home optical information communication system shown in FIG.

8 is a block diagram showing a main part of an information device and a terminator in the optical information communication system at home shown in FIG. 6;

FIG. 9 is a configuration diagram of another ring type home optical information communication system.

FIG. 10 is a block diagram showing a terminator in the home optical information communication system shown in FIG.

FIG. 11 is an explanatory diagram showing a configuration of an optical information outlet according to another embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

12-15 Optical information outlet 16a-19b Optical fiber cable 20 Wall etc. 34 Optical fiber cable for device connection 52-55 Optical information outlet 56a-59b Optical fiber cable 60 Wall etc. 102-105 Optical information outlet 106-110 Optical fiber cable 111 143 Optical information outlet lid 145 Terminator built into optical information outlet lid

Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification code FI H04B 10/14 10/22

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] An optical information outlet used in a system for connecting a plurality of information devices via an optical fiber cable embedded in a wall or the like and transmitting and receiving an optical signal between the information devices, wherein the optical information outlet is , (a) embedded in the wall or the like, and one end face of the optical fiber cable is connected, and exposed on the surface, such as (b) the wall, and transmission of optical signals between the information device And (c) an optical fiber cable embedded in the wall or the like.
To transfer the optical signal on the Ethernet cable to the next information device.
An optical information outlet having a lid with a built-in terminator .