Design and evaluation of an arbitration-free passive optical crossbar for on-chip interconnection networks

With recent advances in silicon nanophotonics, optical crossbars based on CMOS-compatible microring resonators have emerged as viable on-chip optical interconnection networks to deliver high-bandwidth communication at low power dissipation with a small footprint. This paper describes the design, fabrication and evaluation of an arbitration-free passive crossbar based on a microring resonator matrix that can be used to route wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) signals across the chip. The salient feature of the proposed design is the ability to support multicasting and many-to-one communication efficiently (without arbitration), which makes it suitable for implementing cache coherency protocols and on-chip interconnect in future many-core processors.     

Physical layer performance analysis of hybrid and stacked TDM–WDM 40G-PON for next generation PON

Current passive optical networks (PONs) (Gigabit PON (GPON) and Ethernet PON (EPON)) will run out of bandwidth sooner or later due to the ever increasing bandwidth demand. The aforementioned and the new next generation PON stage 1 (NG-PON1) standards (10 Gigabit-PON (XG-PON) and 10 Gigabit Ethernet-PON (10G-EPON)) are based on time division multiplexing (TDM-PON), which has its limitations such as limited bandwidth. In this paper, hybrid TDM–WDM PON and stacked TDM-PON architectures are evaluated and compared as solutions for NG-PON stage 2 (NG-PON2). Both architectures are fully capable of satisfying the requirements of NG-PON2. Stacked TDM-PON has the advantage of being compatible with the currently deployed optical distribution network (ODN). Considering four wavelengths and 10 Gb/s/wavelength, the hybrid TDM–WDM PON does not seem to offer noticeable advantages over stacked TDM-PON.     

新型大规模全光星形耦合器

提出了一种新型大规模全光星形耦合器。这种星形耦合器不但能提供巨大的端口数,而且由其构成的波分复用（WDM）星形网具有极大的组网灵活性,能方便地实现网络在线扩容,升级,满足未来超大规模双向波分复用网络系统的需求,同时也适用于目前广泛应用的单向波分复用网络系统。     

Applications of Nonlinear Effects in Highly Nonlinear Photonic Crystal Fiber to Optical Communications

Unique dispersion characteristics and enhanced nonlinearity make the small-core photonic crystal fiber (PCF) an ideal candidate for nonlinear optical devices to telecommunication applications. Some technical reasons behind great research interest of highly nonlinear PCFs in optical communication components are reviewed. Nonlinear effects in highly nonlinear PCFs and their research progress are presented. Several typical applications including WDM sources, optical amplification, optical switching, wavelength conversion, optical regeneration and all-optical demultiplexing etc are introduced, together with state-of-the art performances. Some new possible applications and future prospects are discussed.     

Modeling of 2.5 Gbps-intersatellite link (ISL) in inter-satellite optical wireless communication (IsOWC) system

Free-space optics (FSO) has the combined features of most dominated telecommunication technologies: wireless and fiber optics. Many of the aspects of FSO are related to fiber optics with an important difference of transmission medium which is air/free space rather than the glass of the fiber-optic cable. Inter-satellite optical wireless communication systems (IsOWC), one of the important applications of FSO/WSO technology, will be deployed in space in the near future as such systems provide a high bandwidth, small size, light weight, low power and low cost alternative to present microwave satellite systems. In this paper, we have designed a model of IsOWC system using OPTI-SYSTEM™ simulator to establish an inter-satellite link (ISL) between two satellites estranged by a distance of 1000 km at data rate of 2.5 Gbps which is not reported in previous investigated works.     

Design and performance evaluation of a metro WDM storage area network with IP datagram support

Storage area networks (SANs) are becoming an important part of optical MANs (metropolitan area networks). Growing storage and business-continuity needs; high-bandwidth, low latency requirements for SANs; storage infrastructure consolidation; and post-9/11 regulatory issues are among the several driving factors to push this trend. We, in this paper, consider a metro wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) SAN that allows the transmission of variable packet size such as Internet protocol (IP) datagram and evaluate its performance by means of discrete-event simulation. The network is based on one fixed transmitter and multiple fixed receivers. Beginning with an introduction and the context of this work, we describe the network and node architectures; and introduce the medium access control (MAC) protocols. Subsequently, using the Poisson and self-similar traffic, we present and discuss performance of the proposed network architecture in terms of throughput and queuing delay under symmetric and asymmetric traffic scenarios. The simulation results suggested that the proposed architecture is suitable for SAN applications which demand low queuing delay and high throughput.     

Survivable routing and spectrum allocation algorithm based on p-cycle protection in elastic optical networks

With the number of large capacity applications in core network increasing, the bandwidth requirement of optical connections in conventional Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) networks keeps enhancing, so that the Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) technology is adopted to provide higher spectrum efficiency and flexibility in the future elastic optical networks. Meanwhile, survivability in the conventional WDM optical networks has been widely studied as an important issue to ensure the service continuity. However, survivability in OFDM-based elastic optical networks is more challenging than that in conventional WDM optical networks because each fiber usually carries even more connections. Therefore, it is necessary to study the new lightpath protection algorithm in elastic optical networks. Since p-cycle protection scheme has short restoration time and simple protection switching procedure, in this paper, we study the static Survivable p-Cycle Routing and Spectrum Allocation (SC-RSA) problem with providing an Integer Linear Programming (ILP) formulation. Since RSA is a NP-hard problem, we propose a new heuristic algorithm called Elastic p-Cycle Protection (ECP) to tolerate the single-fiber link failure. For each demand, ECP scheme can compute highly-efficient p-cycles to provide protection for all of the on-cycle links and the straddling links. We also consider the load balancing and choose the proper working path for each demand. Simulation results show that the proposed ECP scheme achieves better performances than traditional single-line-rate survivable schemes.     

Next Generation Access Network Deployment in Croatia: Optical Access Networks and Current IoT/5G Status

This paper gives an overview and background of optical access network deployment in Croatia. Optical access network development in Croatia has been put into a global as well as in the European Union context. All the challenges and the driving factors for optical access networks deployment are considered. Optical access network architectures that have been deployed by most of the investors in Croatian telecommunication market are presented, as well as the architectures that are in early phase of deployment. Finally, an overview on current status of mobile networks of the fifth generation and Internet of Things is given.     

Interferometric ultrafast SOA-based optical switches: From devices to applications

All-optical switches are fundamental building blocks for future, high-speed optical networks that utilize optical time division multiplexing (OTDM) techniques to achieve single channel data rates exceeding 100 Gb/s. Interferometric optical switches using semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) non-linearities perform efficient optical switching with < 500 fJ of control energy and are approaching optical sampling bandwidths of nearly 1 THz. In this paper, we review work underway at Princeton University to characterize and demonstrate these optical switches as processing elements in practical networks and systems. Three interferometric optical switch geometries are presented and characterized. We discuss limitations on the minimum temporal width of the switching window and prospects for integrating the devices. Using these optical switches as demultiplexers, we demonstrate two 100-Gb/s testbeds for photonic packet switching. In addition to the optical networking applications, we have explored simultaneous wavelength conversion and pulse width management. We have also designed high bandwidth sampling systems using SOA-based optical switches as analog optical sampling gates capable of analyzing optical waveforms with bandwidths exceeding 100 GHz. We believe these devices represent a versatile approach to all-optical processing as a variety of applications can be performed without significantly changing the device architecture.     

Determination of the optimum electrical bandwidth for spectral slicing

The implementation of wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) in communication access networks is dependent upon the availability of low cost optical sources. One possible alternative to lasers is to employ slices of a broadband optical source obtained via optical filters, which may be tuneable. This paper considers the behaviour of such a spectrally sliced optical transmission system as a function of the bandwidth of a realistic receiver electrical filter for the first time. The treatment includes distortion from optical fibre dispersion over several kilometres of fibre. The optimum ratio between the electrical bandwidth and the optical bit rate is found to be ~0.6 for a fifth-order Bessel filter     

LEDs and photodetectors for wavelength-division-multiplexed light-wave systems

The very wide transmission window, from 0.8 to 1.6 μm wavelength, in present low-loss optical fibres offers opportunities for wavelength-division-multiplexing (WDM) in light-wave systems. This paper reviews light emitting diode (LED) light sources and photodetectors capable of meeting the power (distance) and bandwidth (bit rate) requirements of such systems. Particular attention will be paid to the new multiplexing dual wavelength LEDs and demultiplexing photodetectors which point a way toward simpler, perhaps more economical, WDM light-wave systems in wide-band loop and inter-office trunking applications.     

Optical networks, last mile access and applications

Free Space Optical (FSO) links can be used to setup FSO communication networks or to supplement radio and optical fiber networks. Hence, it is the broadband wireless solution for closing the “last mile” connectivity gap throughout metropolitan networks. Optical wireless fits well into dense urban areas and is ideally suited for urban applications. This paper gives an overview of free-space laser communications. Different network architectures will be described and investigated regarding reliability. The usage of “Optical Repeaters”, Point-to-Point and Point-to-Multipoint solutions will be explained for setting up different network architectures. After having explained the different networking topologies and technologies, FSO applications will be discussed in section 2, including terrestrial applications for short and long ranges, and space applications. Terrestrial applications for short ranges cover the links between buildings on campus or different buildings of a company, which can be established with low-cost technology. For using FSO for long-range applications, more sophisticated systems have to be used. Hence, different techniques regarding emitted optical power, beam divergence, number of beams and tracking will be examined. Space applications have to be divided into FSO links through the troposphere, for example up- and downlinks between the Earth and satellites, and FSO links above the troposphere (e.g., optical inter-satellite links). The difference is that links through the troposphere are mainly influenced by weather conditions similar but not equal to terrestrial FSO links. Satellite orbits are above the atmosphere and therefore, optical inter-satellite links are not influenced by weather conditions. In section 3 the use of optical wireless for the last mile will be investigated and described in more detail. Therefore important design criteria for connecting the user to the “backbone” by FSO techniques will be covered, e.g., line of sight, network topology, reliability and availability. The advantages and disadvantages of different FSO technologies, as well as the backbone technology are discussed in this respect. Furthermore, the last mile access using FSO will be investigated for different environment areas (e.g., urban, rural, mountain) and climate zones. The availability of the FSO link is mainly determined by the local atmospheric conditions and distance and will be examined for the last mile. Results of various studies will complete these investigations. Finally, an example for realizing a FSO network for the last mile will be shown. In this example FSO transmitters with light emitting diodes (LED) instead of laser diodes will be described. By using LEDs, problems with laser- and eye safety are minimized. Some multimedia applications (like video-conferences, live TV-transmissions, etc.) will illustrate the range of applications for FSO last mile networks.     

Toward an optimum use of the optical channel capacity

Abstract

In recent decades, in addition to long-haul, high-capacity links, research activity in optical fiber communication systems has addressed possible advantageous applications in distribution networks, local and metropolitan area networks, CATV backbones and distribution, and high-speed computer networks. As a consequence, new possibilities in optical transmission systems have been explored to face the new requirements in terms of capacity, spectral efficiency, and receiver sensitivity. Among the possible solutions capable to exploit effectively the potentials offered by the optical channel, novel multilevel modulation formats have been proposed for future communication environment. This paper reviews multilevel modulation techniques for optical transmission: a comparative analysis is performed between conventional modulations, such as N-PSK and N-QAM, and new modulation/demodulation techniques, such as N-4QSK, N-SPSK, and PM-DD, taking into account both system performance and technological constraints.     

GMPLS: IP-Centric Control Protocols for Optical Networks(Tutorial)

Recent advances in optical networking technologies, particularly DWDM and MEMS, promise the transmission and switching of huge bandwidth capacity. The carriers have convinced of that their revenue must be earned from efficient bandwidth management instead of unsophisticated increase in capacity. The distributed control plane can offer more flexibility, reliability and scalability, whose functions include addressing, resource and topology discovery, route computation, provisioning and restoration. Generalized Multi-Protocol Label Switching (GMPLS), an IP-centric control plane, inherit the best features of IP and ATM technologies in terms of QoS and traffic engineering. Besides,GMPLS introduces enhancements to the existing IP routing and signaling protocols by supporting not only packet switching networks (IP) and frame/cell switching networks (ATM), but also networks that perform switching in time (e.g. SDH/SONET, PDH, G.709), wavelength (lambdas), and space (fiber) domain.     

Laser communication transmitter and receiver design

Free-space laser communication systems have the potential to provide flexible, high-speed connectivity suitable for long-haul intersatellite and deep-space links. For these applications, power-efficient transmitter and receiver designs are essential for cost-effective implementation. State-of-the-art designs can leverage many of the recent advances in optical communication technologies that have led to global wide-band fiber-optic networks with multiple Tbit/s capacities. While spectral efficiency has long been a key design parameter in the telecommunications industry, the many THz of excess channel bandwidth in the optical regime can be used to improve receiver sensitivities where photon efficiency is a design driver. Furthermore, the combination of excess bandwidth and average-power-limited optical transmitters has led to a new paradigm in transmitter and receiver design that can extend optimized performance of a single receiver to accommodate multiple data rates. This paper discusses state-of-the-art optical transmitter and receiver designs that are particularly well suited for average-power-limited photon-starved links where channel bandwidth is readily available. For comparison, relatively simple direct-detection systems used in short terrestrial or fiber optic links are discussed, but emphasis is placed on mature high-performance photon-efficient systems and commercially available technologies suitable for operation in space. The fundamental characteristics of optical sources, modulators, amplifiers, detectors, and associated noise sources are reviewed along with some of the unique properties that distinguish laser communication systems and components from their RF counterparts. Also addressed is the interplay between modulation format, transmitter waveform, and receiver design, as well as practical tradeoffs and implementation considerations that arise from using various technologies.     

Low crosstalk monolithic wavelength demultiplexing switch arrays

Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) is a key enabling technology for increasing the transmission capacity of optical fiber communication systems. Recently, a new family of optoelectronic devices, including detectors, switches, and emitters, that is based on resonant cavity enhancement, has emerged. Wavelength selective optoelectronic switching is achieved by placing a photothyristor in an asymmetric Fabry-Perot cavity, which provides a highly selective response at a wavelength determined during device fabrication. These WDM optoelectronic devices haue promising applications in optical COmmunications and optical logic circuits. Results on a N-p-n-p optoelectronic switch with a ten wavelength channel capability are presented.     

Robust wavelength division multiplexed local area networks

The wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) network architectures, in general, are based on transmitters and/or receivers that can be precisely and speedily tuned to predetermined, fixed wavelengths. These requirements are not easy to meet in practice. Robust WDM, the subject of this paper, has been introduced as a technique to implement WDM in the local area. The strength of this novel approach is that it does not rely on wavelength-sensitive devices that are required to perform with extreme stability. This paper describes the basis of this approach and presents two types of medium access control (MAC) protocols that are suitable for Robust WDM local area networks (LANs). The performance of networks based on these protocols is discussed in detail. It is shown that the new approach has considerable promise for WDM networks in the local area.     

连续变量纠缠态光场在光纤中传输特性的实验研究

连续变量纠缠态由于其确定性产生、高效率的特点而被广泛应用于连续变量量子信息处理.在量子信息处理过程中纠缠态与量子信道发生相互作用而退相干,这是限制长距离量子信息发展的重要因素之一.光纤信道作为理想的量子信道,是目前连续变量量子信息研究关注的热点.本文利用Ⅱ类匹配的楔角极化磷酸氧钛钾晶体构成了三共振的非简并光学参量放大器,获得了8.3 dB的光通信波段1.5μm连续变量纠缠态光场.将产生的纠缠态光场注入单模光纤,其量子特性在传输距离达50 km后仍得到保持,纠缠度为0.21dB.该研究可为基于光纤的长距离连续变量量子信息研究提供有效的依据.     

Analysis of telescope array receivers for deep-space inter-planetary optical communication link between Earth and Mars

Optical communication technology shows promising prospects to fulfill the large bandwidth communication requirements of future deep-space exploration missions that are launched by NASA and various other international space agencies. At Earth, a telescope with a large aperture diameter is required to capture very weak optical signals that are transmitted from distant planets and to support large bandwidth communication link. A single large telescope has the limitations of cost, single point failure in case of malfunction, difficulty in manufacturing high quality optics, maintenance, and trouble in providing communication operations when transmitting spacecraft is close to the Sun. An array of relatively smaller-sized telescopes electrically connected to form an aggregate aperture area equivalent to a single large telescope is a viable alternative to a monolithic gigantic aperture. In this paper, we present the design concept and analysis of telescope array receivers for an optical communication link between Earth and Mars. Pulse-position modulation (PPM) is used at the transmitter end and photon-counting detectors along with the direct-detection technique are employed at each telescope element in the array. We also present the optimization of various system parameters, such as detector size (i.e., receiver field of view), PPM slot width, and the PPM order M, to mitigate the atmospheric turbulence and background noise effects, and to maximize the communication system performance. The performance of different array architectures is evaluated through analytical techniques and Monte-Carlo simulations for a broad range of operational scenarios, such as, Earth-Mars conjunction, Earth-Mars opposition, and different background and turbulence conditions. It is shown that the performance of the telescope array-based receiver is equivalent to a single large telescope; and as compared to current RF technology, telescope array-based optical receivers can provide several orders of magnitude greater data rates for deep-space communication with Mars.