Simulation of DWDM signals using optimum span scheme with cascaded optimized semiconductor optical amplifiers

We numerically simulated the ten channels at 10 Gb/s dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) transmission faithfully over 17,227 km using 70 km span of single mode fiber (SMF) and dispersion compensating fiber (DCF) using optimum span scheme at channel spacing 20 GHz. For this purpose, inline optimized semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs) and DPSK format are used. We optimized the SOA parameters for inline amplifier with minimum crosstalk and amplified spontaneous emission noise with sufficient gain at bias current 400 mA. For this bias current, constant gain 36.5 dB is obtained up to saturation power 21.35 mW. We have also optimized the optical phase modulator bandwidth for 400 mA current which is around 5.5 GHz with crosstalk −14.2 dB between two channels at spacing 20 GHz.We show the 10×10 Gb/s transmission over 70 km distance with inline amplifier has good signal power received as compared to without amplifier, even at equal quality factor. We further investigated the optimum span scheme for 5670 km transmission distance for 10×10 Gb/s with channel spacing 20 at 5.5 GHz optical phase modulator bandwidth. As we increase the transmission distance up to 17,227 km, there is increase in power penalty with reasonable quality.The impact of optical power received and Q factor at 5670 and 17,227 km transmission distance for different span schemes for all channels has been illustrated. For launched optical power less than saturation, all channels are obtained at bit error rate floor of 10⁻¹⁰.     

A label swapping technique using synchronous phase modulation without wavelength conversion

We demonstrate a label swapping technique for differential-phase-shifted-keying (DPSK) encoded labels using synchronous phase modulation (SPM). For the first time label erasure and insertion are performed in a single step without a need for wavelength conversion. The receiver sensitivity penalty of label swapping is limited to 1 dB when the timing mismatch between the new label and old label is kept from −18% to 18%.     

All optical SR and D flip-flop employing XGM effect in semiconductor optical amplifiers

This paper presents a simple and novel scheme for all-optical SR and D flip-flop employing cross gain modulation (XGM) effect in two wideband semiconductor optical amplifiers. The proposed flip-flop has a fast response, with less than 20 ps transition times for both rising and falling edges. The FF speed-limit is mainly determined by the SOA recovery time and the intra-FF coupling length. The simulation results exhibit a contrast ratio of 13 dB between two states with an AM of less than 2.5 dB.The distinctive simplicity of the flip-flop implies reduced footprint and low power consumption which makes it ideal for photonic integration.     

Simulative analysis of soliton-based DPSK transmission system

The effectiveness of the conventional dispersion compensation techniques: DCF, FBG and OPC to use with soliton transmission is presented. The frequency shifts of solitons induced by collisions between different channels in a soliton WDM system can be reduced by dispersion compensation. The reduction mechanism applied is the cancellation of the shifts generated in both normal and anomalous dispersion regimes. It is analyzed that phase jitter can be reduced by the use of midway spectral inversion.     

A SOA-based all-optical regeneration of DPSK signals for satellite application

A semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA)-based regenerative amplification (SORA) of differential phase-shift keying (DPSK) signals for satellite application is presented, which has a simple frame and a large regenerative capacity to the small-power signals. The key mechanism of SORA is the discriminative gain provided by the SOA for the marks and spaces colliding in it. Simulation shows that, by using the SORA, the Q-factor improvement of degraded DPSK signals is about 0.7 dB, but it is significantly influenced by both optical confinement factor and gain relaxation time. Considering the satellite vibration, the bit error rate (BER) for the case of SORA can improve more than one order of magnitude compared with the case of no SORA.     

Analysis of a DPSK soliton transmission system

We present a closed form expression to analyse the error performance of a differential phase-shift keying (DPSK) digital modulation format in an optical soliton communication system. In the analysis we include the effect of Gordon-Haus jitter, which is mainly due to the amplified spontaneous emission noise of the amplifiers. Gordon-Haus jitter is found to be less significant when the bit period is 15 times greater than the jitter variance and becomes more significant when the signal-to-noise ratio is greater than 20 dB. Due to a good bit error rate (BER) performance (BER ≈ 10⁻²⁰at SNR= 21 dB), the DPSK modulation format has a potential application for a high-bit-rate and low-noise soliton communication system.     

All optical logic NAND gate based on two-photon absorption in semiconductor optical amplifiers

We propose a new scheme to realize all optical logic NAND operating at high speeds up to 250 Gb/s utilizing the ultrafast phase response during two-photon absorption (TPA) process in semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOA). NAND gate is important because other Boolean logic elements and circuits can be realized using NAND gates as basic building blocks. Rate equations for semiconductor optical amplifiers (for input data signals with high intensity) configured in the form of a Mach-Zehnder interferometer have been solved. The input intensities are high enough so that the two-photon induced phase change is larger than the regular gain induced phase change. The performance of this scheme is analyzed by calculating the quality factor of the resulting data streams. The results show that both AND and NAND operations at 250 Gb/s with good signal to noise ratio are feasible.     

Cascaded SOA configuration for NRZ-OOK to RZ-QPSK format conversion

We propose and experimentally demonstrate an all-optical format conversion from two independent non-return-to-zero on-off keying (NRZ-OOK) signals to a return-to-zero quadrature phase shift keying (RZ-QPSK) signal using two cascaded SOAs. Within each SOA, the cross phase modulation (XPM) process is properly controlled by an assistant light. After evaluating its effect on XPM, a suitable power range of assistant light is chosen for the NRZ-OOK to RZ-QPSK format conversion. In the experiment, a RZ-QPSK signal is successfully obtained with opened demodulation eye-diagrams.     

All-optical logic gates based on two-photon absorption in semiconductor optical amplifiers

When the two-photon absorption of a high intensity pump beam takes place in a semiconductor optical amplifier there is an associated fast phase change of a weak probe signal. A scheme to realize fast all-optical XOR logic function using two-photon absorption induced phase change has been analyzed. Rate equations for semiconductor optical amplifiers, for input data signals with high intensity, configured in the form of a Mach–Zehnder interferometer has been solved. The input intensities are high enough so that the two-photon induced phase change is larger than the regular gain induced phase change. The model shows that both XOR operation and pseudo-random binary sequence generation at 250 Gb/s with good signal to noise ratio is feasible.     

Power penalty in multitone radio-over-fibre system employing direct and external modulation with optical amplifiers

This paper presents a multitone RoF system employing a central station and a remote antenna station to transmit modulated microwave or mm-wave signals. Two configurations of the system employing direct and external modulation are presented. First, at the central station, the modulating signal is directly and externally modulated at 1549.5 and 1550.5 nm, respectively, and the combined signal is then transmitted using wireless mode. In the second configuration, the combined signal is transmitted over 20 km to the remote antenna station using optical fibre connectivity. At the remote antenna station, both channel wavelengths are separated and amplified with an EDFA and SOA and are detected. The demonstration results show that there exists a small power penalty between the direct and the external modulation. But a large power penalty is reported depending upon the choice of optical amplifier viz. EDFA or SOA. Better performance is recorded in later case. The results also show that power is being distributed among the operating frequency and sidebands adjacent to it after transmission over a fibre link.     

Frequency encoded optical four-bit adder/subtractor with control input using semiconductor optical amplifiers

Optical adder/subtractor for two four-bit frequency encoded binary numbers are proposed and designed based on four wave mixing, add drop multiplexing and frequency conversion in semiconductor optical amplifier. The input bits and the control input are intensity-modulated signal of two specific frequencies suitable for optical communication in the C band of wavelength. The device can distinguish negative and positive results and controlled operation are most promising in this proposal. The use of semiconductor optical amplifiers along with frequency encoding makes the system very fast and useful for future optical communication and computation systems.     

Analysis and minimization of cross phase modulation in semiconductor optical amplifiers for multichannel WDM optical communication systems

A theoretical model for crosstalk in multichannel wavelength division multiplexing communication systems due to cross phase saturation in semiconductor optical amplifier structure is developed. This theoretical model is used to analyze the impact of the cross phase noise on the performance of semiconductor optical amplifiers in saturation region for WDM communication system by using differential phase shift modulation format. It is shown that by increasing the carrier life time, width and thickness while reducing the confinement factor, differential gain and bias current in the SOA structure mitigates the cross talk due to cross phase saturation. The impact of penalty and cross phase noise imposed on multichannel WDM links have been investigated for different parameters of the SOA with the variation in transmission distance. With the slight increase in differential gain of 200.2 × 10⁻¹⁸ cm² and confinement factor 0.41, the maximum transmission distance observed is 5220 km with good quality and nil power penalty for 10 × 40 Gb/s soliton RZ-DPSK WDM signals for the first time.     

Phase noise suppression in a DPSK transmission system by the use of an attenuation-imbalanced NOLM

A nonlinear optical loop mirror (NOLM) imbalanced by attenuation has been used for the suppression of nonlinear phase noise in a DPSK transmission system. It has been experimentally shown that such a passive, NOLM-based regenerator can significantly improve the performance of a phase-encoded transmission when it is limited by nonlinear phase noise. A brief overview over the advantages und limitations of different NOLM-based phase-preserving amplitude regenerators is also given.     

Method of implementing frequency encoded multiplexer and demultiplexer systems using nonlinear semiconductor optical amplifiers

Multiplexing and demultiplexing are the essential parts of any communication network. In case of optical multiplexing and demultiplexing the coding of the data as well as the coding of control signals are most important issues. Many encoding/decoding mechanisms have already been developed in optical communication technology. Recently frequency encoding technique has drawn some special interest to the scientific communities. The advantage of frequency encoding technique over any other techniques is that as the frequency is fundamental character of any signal so it remains unaltered in reflection, refraction, absorption, etc. during transmission of the signal and therefore the system will execute the operation with reliability. On the other hand, the switching speed of semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOA) is sufficiently high with property of best on/off contrast ratio. In our present communication we propose a method of implementing a ‘4-to-1’ multiplexer (MUX) and a ‘1-to-4’ demultiplexer (DEMUX) exploiting the switching character of nonlinear SOA with the use of frequency encoded control signals. To implement the ‘4-to-1’ MUX and ‘1-to-4’ DEMUX system, the frequency selection by multiquantum well (MQW)-grating filter-based SOA has been used for frequency routing purpose. At the same time, the polarization rotation character of SOA has also been exploited to get the desired purpose. Here the fast switching action of SOA with reliable frequency encoded control input signals, it is possible to achieve a faithful MUX/DEMUX service at tera-Hz operational speed.     

Theoretical analysis of pattern effect suppression in semiconductor optical amplifier utilizing optical delay interferometer

The ability of an optical delay interferometer (ODI) to suppress the pattern effect that is inherently present in a straightforward, solitary semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) whose dynamic response is slower than the period of its driving high-speed return-to-zero (RZ) data signal is theoretically investigated. For this purpose an existing comprehensive model that simulates and links the operation of these two elements is methodically applied to their concatenated configuration. In this manner an extensive set of curves is numerically obtained, which allow to analyze and assess the impact of the input pulse energy and width as well as of the SOA carrier lifetime, linewidth enhancement factor and small signal gain on the amplitude modulation of the transmitted sequence at the output of each one of these block units. Their thorough study and interpretation reveals that the employment of the ODI can significantly reduce the value of this quality metric resulting from a single SOA only. The main offered benefit, however, is that any technical restrictions regarding the involved critical parameters can be considerably relaxed while at the same time their useful operational range can be extended. These important findings highlight the necessity of placing this passive device after the SOA and exploiting it in order to effectively alleviate the detrimental pattern-dependent degradation. This fact in conjunction with its overall practicality renders it a promising candidate for enhancing, within the frame of the proposed scheme, the performance of SOAs that are employed as pure amplification elements in fiber-optic communication systems and networking applications.     

On the amplified spontaneous emission noise modeling of semiconductor optical amplifiers

We perform a theoretical investigation of two modeling approaches for the amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) noise of a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA), namely a stochastic time-domain and a deterministic frequency-domain approach. The theoretical results are compared to one another having as reference experimental measurements obtained from a commercial device. Special emphasis is placed on the modeling of the material gain as it is a key parameter in determining the ASE spectral characteristics. A comprehensive set of equations for both modeling approaches is developed and their numerical solution is analyzed in detail.     

All-optical NRZ-OOK-to-RZ-OOK format conversions with tunable duty cycles using nonlinear polarization rotation of a semiconductor optical amplifier

We experimentally demonstrate an all-optical 10 Gb/s format conversion from non-return-to-zero (NRZ) on-off-keying (OOK) to return-to-zero (RZ)-OOK with tunable duty cycle in the whole C-band using nonlinear polarization rotation (NPR) arising in an semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA). The experimental results show that, by tuning the polarizer at the SOA output, an RZ signal with tunable duty cycle from 33% to 66% could be obtained with an extinction ratio(ER) over 10 dB. In addition, we show that the NRZ-to-RZ conversion with duty cycle of 33-66% can be obtained with less than 1 dB power penalty at the bit error ratio (BER) of 10⁻⁹. The device can facilitate the cross-connection between optical transmission networks employing different modulation formats.     

Small-signal analysis of two cascaded semiconductor optical amplifiers in a counterpropagating configuration

In this work, we present a small-signal analysis which reveals its usefulness to explain the evolution of the optical frequency responses obtained at the outputs of two-cascaded semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs) used in a counterpropagating configuration (TC-SOA-CC). To obtained these responses, the TC-SOA-CC configuration has been implemented on an electric simulator and we have used for each SOA a multisection rate equation based model. This model permits us to study both the static and dynamic behavior of the TC-SOA-CC optical outputs in the context of bidirectional transmission. Thanks to this model, we can also obtain the evolution of the carrier lifetimes in each SOA in order to determinate their influence on the optical frequency responses. The small-signal responses derived from our small-signal analysis are given as a function of the intrinsic parameters and for each specific situation for the value of the average injected optical power. This small-signal analysis is used to comment the behavior of the frequency responses obtained by simulation at the TC-SOA-CC optical outputs. Thanks to our small-signal analysis, we explain why for such a configuration, the features of the frequency responses obtained at the SOAs optical outputs can change from a low-pass, to a high-pass, and/or to a band-pass form by varying the average injected optical powers in the SOAs.     

All optical frequency encoding method for converting a decimal number to its equivalent binary number using tree architecture

In any kind of computing and data processing system the use of binary numbers are found very much suitable and reliable. On the other hand several natural representations have been realized using decimal numbers. So conversion of a decimal number to its binary equivalent and vise-versa are of great importance in the field of computation technology. There lie already a number of established methods regarding such conversion processes. Again optical tree architecture is one of the most promising systems for realizing the optical conversion of any decimal number to its equivalent binary. Here in this communication the authors propose a new method for optical conversion of a decimal number to its binary equivalent using tree architecture based system and frequency encoding principle. In frequency encoding system, frequency of light is used for encoding of decimal digits or binary bits instead of intensity variation. For example 0 and 1 bits of binary number are coded by two different frequencies of light signal, instead of representing the presence of light as 1 and absence by 0. The proposed conversion process has multifaceted advantages in communication, as well as in data processing. To implement the above conversion some characteristic features of semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) have been used massively. The wavelength conversion property, cross gain modulation and some nonlinear properties of SOA are exploited to get the frequency encoded response. The proposed system carries all the basic advantages of optical processing as well as those of frequency encoding also.     

Analysis of format conversion from optical 16QAM to QPSK based on cascaded four-wave mixing in semiconductor optical amplifier

A scheme of format conversion from optical 16-ary quadrature amplitude modulation (16QAM) to quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) signal based on cascaded four-wave mixing (FWM) in semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs) is proposed. Theoretical analysis and simulations of the format conversion scheme are conducted to validate the feasibility of the proposal. In this proposal, the phase conjugated of 16QAM signal is generated after the first FWM process in an SOA, and then the QPSK signal is converted due to the second non-degenerate FWM (ND-FWM) process in another SOA. The performance and the optimal design of the 10 Gbit/s format conversion system under various key parameters of SOAs are evaluated and discussed. Simulation results present useful to enable interconnection between backbone network and access network.