An Intelligent Segmented Burst Assembly Mechanism in Optical Burst Switching Networks

We focus on the burst assembly mechanism and propose a new intelligent method in which the burst is assembled from several internet protocol （IP） packets in which the number of IP packets is changed according to the traffic load and the burst is segmented into several parts, called the ISOBS mechanism. The average burst assembly time of the ISOBS mechanism decreases as compared with the fixed-assembly-time and fixed-assembly-time-and- length mechanisms. The loss ratio decreases 50% as compared with the general optical burst switching （OBS） mechanism. The last segment can carry high quality of service （QOS） information. We can achieve that the loss ratio of the last segment is almost zero when the traffic load is less than 0.05. When the traffic load is 0.9, the loss ratio of the last segment is 0.0041. The ISOBS can support to transmit different QOS data.     

Cascaded Optical Buffer Based on Nonlinear Polarization Rotation in Semiconductor Optical Amplifiers

A cascaded buffer based on nonlinear polarization rotation in semiconductor optical amplifiers is proposed, which is suitable for fast reconfiguration of buffering time at picoseconds. With the proposed buffer, sixty different buffer times are demonstrated at 2.5Gb/s.     

Indoor coverage improvement of MB-OFDM UWB signals with radio over POF system

A radio over fiber system using the fluorinated based polymer multimode fibers (PMMF) is presented in this paper for the enhancement of the indoor coverage of the multiband orthogonal frequency division multiplexing ultra-wideband standard (MB-OFDM UWB) inside a building. A preliminary part related the cost analysis owing to glass and polymer multimode fiber deployment inside a fiber network is reported. The study of the physical properties of the polymer optical fibers (core diameter, numerical aperture, differential mode delays, modal bandwidth…) is firstly performed in order to effectively exhibit the potentialities and the robustness of such fibers to be used in a low cost radio over fiber system. The DMD measurements of four fluorinated based polymer optical fiber are reported. The designed system operates at 850 nm with commercial off the shelf (COTS) devices combined to the intensity modulation/direct detection technique. The opportunity of using polymer fibers and COTS components to improve the indoor coverage of the MB-OFDM UWB standard is so reported by the measurement of the Error Vector Magnitude or the Relative Constellation Error variation as a function of the system parameters (RF power, optical attenuation, fiber length…) as well as the compliance of the eye diagram with the mask testing. By the way, the transmission performance of both 200 and 480 Mbps signals is demonstrated over up to 200 m link length of polymer multimode fibers: transmission penalties are quantified by relative constellation error with values under the standard requirements. A comparative study with classical OM2 50 μm based glass multimode fiber having the same bandwidth/length product than the PMMF is done.     

Investigation into the power-law dependence of fibre Bragg grating growth

We have undertaken a detailed experimental and numerical investigation of fibre Bragg grating growth rates over relatively long timescales, in which we consider the influence of zero-order UV irradiation, jitter and drift. In contrast to other studies, our results show that measurements of grating growth dynamics are in good agreement with numerical expressions describing exponential decay of a population of defect sites if the influence of small lateral displacements between the optical fibre and the modulated UV beam (jitter) are accounted for.     

Optical pulse shaping at moderate power using a twisted-fibre NOLM with single output polarisation selection

We demonstrate theoretically and experimentally that efficient signal shaping operation can be obtained at moderate power by using the transmission characteristic of a power-symmetric nonlinear optical loop mirror (NOLM) including highly twisted fibre and operating through nonlinear polarisation rotation, when the circular polarisation state orthogonal to the input polarisation is selected at the NOLM output. By adjusting the angle of the quarter-wave retarder inserted in the loop, the phase bias of the transfer characteristic can be adjusted precisely to enable proper signal shaping for moderate values of input power, remaining well below switching power. The tolerance of the procedure to deviations of the input polarisation from the ideal circular case is investigated numerically. We demonstrate experimentally the capabilities of this setup for both power equalisation and extinction ratio enhancement. Finally, we show that this setup is also useful to shape ultrashort optical pulses from the relaxation oscillations of a DFB semiconductor laser. In comparison with other NOLM-based techniques, the proposed approach allows to reduce by a factor of 8-10 the peak power required for pulse shaping, for the same fibre length and Kerr coefficient.     

Analysis of a polarisation-maintaining NOLM switch for OTDM applications

We propose a polarisation-maintaining NOLM switch design to be used as optical regenerator or wavelength converter in dense optical time-division multiplexed (OTDM) systems. The Sagnac loop is made of a piece of high birefringence fibre which is cut and cross-spliced in the middle. If pump and probe polarisations are linear and aligned in the co-propagating direction, the cross-splice ensures that the counter-propagating probe beam will be orthogonal to the pump, so that the parasitic cross-phase modulation between counter-propagating beams is minimised. This architecture also allows easy control of the optical phase bias, through squeezing a short section of the fibre, without any other modification of the setup. The performances of the proposed architecture are studied analytically and numerically, and compared with those of conventional schemes. It appears that, although the proposed setup reduces the interaction between counter-propagating beams only by a factor 3, it yields an extinction ratio improvement of a factor 10 or higher in comparison with conventional schemes. If there is substantial walkoff between pump and probe, a 10-fold reduction of the relative intensity noise of the emerging signal is also obtained when the mark ratio of the incoming data is variable.     

Demonstration of sharp switching from a power-symmetric NOLM and a polarizer

We demonstrate theoretically, experimentally and numerically that a steep all-optical transfer characteristic can be obtained from a power-symmetric NOLM, including a quarter wave retarder and highly twisted fibre, followed by a polarizer. We first develop a theoretical analysis to show that, if the input polarisation is chosen linear, then for a correct choice of the wave plate and input polarisation angles the transmission grows from zero with a 4 dB/dB slope as power is increased, two times faster than can be obtained with a NOLM alone. An experimental study is then realised, which supports the theoretical results. Steep switching is demonstrated for reasonably low peak power levels that do not exceed 8 W, less than one third of the NOLM critical power. In addition, using the same setup we demonstrate the possibility to obtain a sinusoidal transmission characteristic that cancels out for a particular nonzero value of input power, which can be easily adjusted simply through rotation of the wave plate and output polarizer. This setup would be very useful in the frame of optical pulse shaping and signal processing applications, among others.     

Generation of 60-GHz Millimetre Wave with 20-GHz DSB Optical

A new scheme to generate a 60-GHz millimetre （mm） wave by tripling the frequency of the 20-GHz DSB optical mm wave is proposed. According to our analysis and numerical simulation of transmission along a fibre, this scheme can not only eliminate code form distortion, but also reduces the influence of fading effect as it transmits along the fibre. Therefore, the radio-over-fibre link based on the generated optical ram-wave signal has better performance.     

Tunable microwave photonic filter based on chirped fiber gratings working with a single optical carrier at constant wavelength

This paper presents a tunable transversal filter working with a single optical carrier at constant wavelength. The filter consists of a set of chirped gratings whose time delay is tuned with respect to the emission wavelength of a fiber laser by a piezoelectric actuator; extra lengths of fiber are inserted in the filter arms in order to avoid interferences between signals reflected in different gratings. Two and three taps filters are experimentally demonstrated, the filters transfer function is electronically tuned within the free spectral range.     

Design and fabrication of an intrinsically gain flattened Erbium doped fiber amplifier

We report design and subsequent fabrication of an intrinsically gain flattened Erbium doped fiber amplifier (EDFA) based on a highly asymmetrical and concentric dual-core fiber, inner core of which was only partially doped. Phase-resonant optical coupling between the two cores was so tailored through optimization of its refractive index profile parameters that the longer wavelengths within the C-band experience relatively higher amplification compared to the shorter wavelengths thereby reducing the difference in the well-known tilt in the gains between the shorter and longer wavelength regions. The fabricated EDFA exhibited a median gain ?28 dB (gain excursion below ±2.2 dB within the C-band) when 16 simultaneous standard signal channels were launched by keeping the I/P level for each at −20 dBm/channel. Such EDFAs should be attractive for deployment in metro networks, where economics is a premium, because it would cut down the cost on gain flattening filter head.     

Fabrication of gradient refractive index ball lenses using the method of combination of ion exchanging and sagging

Based on the Fick’s diffusion equations, the distribution function of refractive index of a gradient refractive index ball lens (GRIN ball lens/GBL) is derived. Lithium containing silicate glass is fabricated and GRIN ball lenses (GBLs) which diameters are from 0.3 mm to 3.0 mm are made by the method of combination of Ion exchanging and sagging in sodium nitrate. Refractive index profiles of these GBLs are measured by interferometer, and the performances such as effective focal length (EFL), back focal length (BFL) and numerical aperture (NA) between GBLs and homogeneous ball lenses (HBLs) are compared. Results show that the distribution of the index of refraction is parabolic curve and its Δn is about 0.0002, the performances of the former are super to the latter.     

Gain-clamped semiconductor optical amplifiers based on compensating light: Theoretical model and performance analysis

It is well known that the gain-clamped semiconductor optical amplifier (GC-SOA) based on lasing effect is subject to transmission rate restriction because of relaxation oscillation. The GC-SOA based on compensating effect between signal light and amplified spontaneous emission by combined SOA and fiber Bragg grating (FBG) can be used to overcome this problem. In this paper, the theoretical model on GC-SOA based on compensating light has been constructed. The numerical simulations demonstrate that good gain and noise figure characteristics can be realized by selecting reasonably the FBG insertion position, the peak reflectivity of FBG and the biasing current of GC-SOA.     

High-Order Ultrawideband Pulse Generation from NRZ-DPSK Signals

A simple method to generate ultrawideband （UWB） doublet and triplet from nonreturn-to-zero （NRZ） differential phase shift keying （DPSK） signals is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. The proposed configuration consists of a Mach-Zehnder modulator （MZM） to generate NRZ-DPSK signals, a section of single-mode fibre to form a microwave bandpass filter, which is used to generate doublet pulses, and a Gaussian optical bandpass filter （OBF）, which serves as a frequency discriminator to generate higher-order UWB pulses. A pair of polarity- reversed triplet pulses is achieved by locating the optical carrier at the positive and negative linear Mopes of the OBF, where the OBF detuning is 0.12nm and -0.2 nm, respectively. The spectra of the pair of UWB triplets have a central frequency of 5 GHz and 5.6 GHz, and have a -10 dB bandwidth of 6.9 GHz and 8.1 GHz, respectively. The UWB pulses remain doublet shape when the light wavelength is located at the peak of the OBF. The spectrum of the doublet has a central frequency of 5.6 GHz and a -10 dB bandwidth of 6.9 GHz.     

Broadband Er-Yb co-doped superfluorescent fiber source

In this paper, extensive experimental results on broad-band double cladding Er³⁺-Yb³⁺ co-doped superfluorescent fiber sources (SFSs), characterizing their output power, mean wavelength, and bandwidth (BW) stability with variations of pump power, pump wavelength, and fiber temperature, have been reported. For a 55-cm fiber, SFS power from 3.7755 (maximum BW condition of more than 80 nm) to 9.1837 mW (maximum power condition, BW is about 34 nm) has been achieved. The SFS mean wavelength dependence on pump wavelength is highly pump temperature sensitive, and can be reduced to zero in a chosen pump temperature field. The intrinsic variation of the SFS mean wavelength λ_m with fiber temperature is also measured, and a linear variation from 15 to 45 °C with a slop of −0.053 nm/°C for L_f = 100 cm and −0.04 nm/°C for L_f = 55 cm is found.     

Effects of frequency/polarization allocations and the zero-dispersion frequency on FDM lightwave transmission systems

In long-haul frequency-division-multiplexing lightwave transmission systems, transmission characteristics are degraded by four-wave mixing (FWM) generated in optical fibers. To overcome this problem, several FWM suppression techniques have been reported. In this paper, dependence of FWM noises on frequency allocations, polarization allocations, and the zero-dispersion frequency is investigated. It is revealed that FWM noises are drastically decreased in frequency allocations such as equally spaced, repeated unequally spaced (RUS), equally spaced RUS, and unequally spaced RUS allocations by arranging polarization allocations of the channels with an increase in a separation between the channel frequencies and the zero-dispersion frequency.     

Transmission system over 3000 km with dispersion compensated by chirped fiber Bragg gratings

The limitation of the system with dispersion compensation by chirped fiber Bragg gratings is investigated in this paper. The transmission distance of the system based on chirped fiber Bragg gratings surpasses 3000 km. The bit error rate (BER) of the system is below 10⁻⁹ for as long as 2000 km. The BER is about 10⁻⁷ at 3000 km and, when forward error correction (FEC) is added, zero BER can be achieved. It is the longest transmission system with dispersion compensation by chirped fiber Bragg gratings.     

Feasibility of Non-Collinear TeO2 Acoustic-Optic Tunable Filters Used in the Optical Communication

The characteristics and the structure of TeO2 acoustic-optic tunable filter used in communication are discussed briefly based on the acoustic-optic theory and it is shown that a large optical incident angle and a long interaction length are suitable for the optical add/drop multiplexer based on the TeO2 acoustic-optic tunable filter. The distribution of acoustic energy flow in the device supports the large optical incident angle. The long interaction length depends on the change of the device structure to some degree. The measured results of the samples show that the diffraction efficiency reaches at 96% in the tuning range larger than lOOnm and the bandwidth is about 2nm. It can be found that there is a good consistency with the basic theoretical mode. The optimized design result shows that the diffraction efficiency can arrive at 100%, and the bandwidth can be less than 0.4nm. Thus, the non-collinear TeO2 acoustic-optic tunable filter can play an important role in the coming general optical network.     

Characteristics of side-polished thermally expanded core fiber and its application as a band-edge filter with a high cut-off property

Characteristics of the side-polished thermally expanded core (TEC) fiber have been investigated theoretically and experimentally. The effect of core expanding on the transmission of the side-polished TEC fiber is predicted theoretically and demonstrated experimentally. The side-polished TEC fiber covered with an external medium whose chromatic dispersion is much different from the fiber materials, is applied to a band-edge filter with a high cut-off. The relationship between the expanded core diameter and the performance of the band-edge filter was measured and discussed.     

Differential group delay monitoring using an all-optical signal spectrum-analyser

We demonstrate an all-optical device that monitors differential group delay (DGD) degradation of picosecond optical pulses. This device is based on an ultrafast all-optical signal analyser that uses nonlinear effects (cross-phase modulation) to transfer rapid temporal fluctuations into frequency domain effects that can be measured on an conventional optical spectrum analyser (incorporating a slow-detector). This monitoring scheme will enable rapid dynamic monitoring and compensation of DGD in ultrafast optical networks, at 160 Gb/s data rates and beyond, where electronic monitoring techniques cannot operate. We discuss the required signal polarisation condition.     

Effects of frequency and polarization allocations on FDM lightwave transmission systems

In long-haul frequency-division-multiplexing (FDM) lightwave transmission systems, transmission characteristics are degraded by four-wave mixing (FWM) generated in optical fibers. To overcome this problem in equally spaced (ES) allocation, modified repeated unequally spaced (RUS) allocations such as equally spaced RUS (ERUS) and unequally spaced RUS (URUS) allocations have been already examined. Also, it has been shown that FWM noises are decreased by arranging the polarization states of the channels. In this paper, dependence of FWM noises on frequency allocations and polarization allocations is investigated. It is revealed that FWM noises are decreased in ES, RUS, ERUS, and URUS with alternating polarization allocations of the channels, and FWM noises are drastically reduced when light polarizations are perpendicularly crossed at both sides of the zero dispersion frequency.