Single AWG based clock extraction from WDM signals with mixed formats and mixed bit-rates

A simple and flexible simultaneous clock extraction for WDM signals with mixed modulation formats and bit-rates is proposed and demonstrated using a single commercial arrayed waveguide grating (AWG), which acts both detuned multi-channel filter and demultiplexer for the input signals. By using an AWG with 100 GHz spacing, clock extraction from transmitted multi-channel nonreturn to zero (NRZ) and NRZ differential phase shift keying (NRZ-DPSK) signals at mixed bit-rates from 10 to 40 Gb/s with 200 GHz spacing is achieved simultaneously. By cascading a clock recovery module, clock signal can be easily recovered from the preprocessed signals with enhanced clock tones.