We compare the demodulation performance of an analog OTDM demultiplexing scheme and digitized OTDM demultiplexing with an ultrahigh-speed digital signal processor in a single-channel OTDM coherent Nyquist pulse transmission. We evaluated the demodulation performance for 40, 80, and 160Gbaud OTDM signals with a baseline rate of 10Gbaud. As a result, we clarified that the analog scheme performs significantly better since the bandwidth for handling the demultiplexed signal is as narrow as 10GHz regardless of the symbol rate. This enables us to use a low-speed A/D converter (ADC) with a large effective number of bits (ENOB). On the other hand, in the digital scheme, the higher the symbol rate becomes, the more bandwidth the receiver requires. Therefore, it is necessary to use an ultrahigh-speed ADC with a low ENOB for a 160Gbaud signal. We measured the ENOB of the ultrahigh-speed ADC used in the digital scheme and showed that the measured ENOB was approximately 1.5 bits lower than that of the low-speed ADC used in the analog scheme. This 1.5-bit decrease causes a large degradation in the demodulation performance obtained with the digital demultiplexing scheme.

In this paper, we report an experimental and numerical analysis of ultrahigh-speed coherent Nyquist pulse transmission. First, we describe a low-nonlinearity dispersion compensator for ultrahigh-speed coherent Nyquist pulse transmission; it is composed of a chirped fiber Bragg grating (CFBG) and a liquid crystal on silicon (LCoS) device. By adopting CFBG instead of inverse dispersion fiber, the nonlinearity in a 160km transmission line was more than halved. Furthermore, by eliminating the group delay fluctuation of the CFBG with an LCoS device, the residual group delay was reduced to as low as 1.42ps over an 11nm bandwidth. Then, by using the transmission line with the newly constructed low-nonlinearity dispersion compensator, we succeeded in improving the BER performance of single-channel 15.3Tbit/s-160km transmission by one-third compared with that of a conventional dispersion-managed transmission line and obtained a spectral efficiency of 8.7bit/s/Hz. Furthermore, we numerically analyzed the BER performance of its Nyquist pulse transmission. The numerical results showed that the nonlinear impairment in the transmission line is the main factor limiting the transmission performance in a coherent Nyquist pulse transmission, which becomes more significant at higher baud rates.

Radio on fiber (RoF) – distributed antenna system (DAS) over wavelength division multiplexing – passive optical network (WDM-PON) with multiple – input multiple – output (MIMO) has been proposed as a next generation radio access network (RAN). The system employs optical time division multiplexing (OTDM) over one WDM channel as a backhaul for RAN to flexibly transmit various types of radio air interfaces. To cover a wider wireless service area, the WDM-PON has a combination of double and bus topologies. This paper analyses the channel capacity in the MIMO cell provided by the RoF-DAS over WDM-PON with computer simulation considering noise power added in the RoF link, and discusses the trade-off between losses in RoF and wireless channel appeared in the channel capacity. Then, this paper clarifies a method to derive the optimal cell size to obtain the highest channel capacity.

A nonlinear optical fiber loop mirror (NOLM) adapted for all-optical 2R operation at ultrahigh bit-rates was experimentally and theoretically investigated. The proposed NOLM was created by adding inline/external fiber polarizers and also an inline optical phase-bias compensator (OPBC) to a standard NOLM. A theoretical investigation revealed that the operation of the standard NOLM became unstable due to residual polarization crosstalk of the polarization-maintaining optical components making up the NOLM, and that it could be dramatically improved with the inline/external polarizers. The NOLM with the polarizers ensured stable switching operation with high switching-dynamic-range (>30 dB) against the change of the wavelength of the input clock pulses, and the change of the environment temperature. We also experimentally verified that the OPBC played a dramatic role to ensure excellent dynamic switching performance of the NOLM, and to achieve signal-Q-recovery of the regenerated signals. All optical 2R experiments at 40 Gb/s and 160 Gb/s were performed with the modified NOLM. Signal regeneration with improved extinction ratio and signal Q value was successfully demonstrated. Q-recovery to the input of the control pulses degraded with ASE noise accumulation was also successfully achieved.

160 Gbit/s optical-time-division-multiplexing (OTDM) transmitter/receiver employing electroabsorption (EA) modulators are described. In the 160 Gbit/s OTDM transmitter, the optical multiplexer, which implemented four EA modulators, is used and the generation of authentic 160 Gbit/s OTDM signal is realized. The optical multiplexer also enables to generate the phase-coded OTDM signal such as carrier-suppressed return-to-zero (CS-RZ) signal at 160 Gbit/s by changing driving temperatures of the EA modulators. In the 160 Gbit/s receiver, the EA modulator is also used in an optical demultiplexer and a phase-locked-loop (PLL) for clock extraction. As both optical demultiplexer and PLL are insensitive to polarization state of incoming signal, highly stable operation is achieved. We also show some results of transmission experiment using the developed OTDM transmitter/receiver and discuss the advantage of a switching capability of modulation format in the 160 Gbit/s signal transmission.

A one-dimensional finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulator for ultrafast optical switches based on intersubband transition (ISBT) in GaN/AlN waveguide is described. Influences of the inhomogeneous broadening and the 2D mode profile have been taken into consideration. The ultrafast optical response (τ 185 fs) measured in a GaN/AlN waveguide was successfully reproduced by the simulator. At present, however, the saturation characteristics of the fabricated device are mainly limited by the excess TM loss caused by the dislocation in MBE-grown nitride layers. When the dislocation density is reduced and the structure is optimized, the switching pulse energy will be improved to about 10 pJ. Further reduction ( 1 pJ) will be possible when low-loss submicron waveguides with spot-size converters are developed.

Ultrafast all-optical switching was experimentally demonstrated using four-wave mixing in an SOA. Two pump pulses with different wavelengths and timings were used for 12 switching. The cross-correlation measurements of FWM signals using a short reference pulse show the high-speed switching capability for wavelength routing in OTDM networks.

A simple nation-wide core network architecture based on the optimized combination of WDM and OTDM technologies in a two-tier structure network is proposed. The dynamic timeslot allocation in a fixed length frame structure associated with the wavelength routing scheme creates a virtual path with variable bandwidth for edge-to-edge transport of any type of packet protocol without O-E-O conversion. The simulation results show that dynamic timeslot assignment with bandwidth reservation is the best alternative for the network bandwidth utilization efficiency. The influence of the delay caused by the physical size of the network during the request-acknowledgement process is also discussed.

The initial phase alternation of RZ pulses having duty cycle beyond 50% in dispersion-managed-link is found to help stabilize DM solitons transmissions. The stable soliton propagation of such wide RZ pulses should ease the difficulties designing soliton-based DWDM systems due to less spectral occupancy/channel. For the proof of concept, 40 Gbit/s WDM transmissions are numerically investigated and the initial phase alternation improved the transmission distance by the factor of 2 in the soliton-soliton interaction limited regime. The advantage of this concept has also been verified by conducting 40 Gbit/s single and 8 channels WDM transmission experiments using OTDM techniques with initial phase alternation.

We achieved a dispersion tolerance of 25-ps/nm at 80-Gbit/s using novel carrier-suppressed return-to-zero (CS-RZ) coding realized by duty ratio and optical multiplexing phase control. We also show that the dispersion tolerance strongly depends on the relative optical phase difference between adjacent time slots, and demonstrate 80-Gbit/s 60-km DSF transmission without dispersion compensation by using a newly-fabricated stable 80-Gbit/s OTDM transmitter.

Progress on a single wavelength channel OTDM terabit/s transmission is described. In particular, we focus on 1.28 Tbit/s OTDM transmission over 70 km which we realized recently. A pre-chirping technique using a high speed phase modulator is emphasized to simultaneously compensate for third- and fourth-order dispersion. The input pulse width was 380 fs, and the pulse broadening after a 70 km transmission was as small as 20 fs. All 128 channels time-division-demultiplexed to 10 Gbit/s had a bit error rate of less than 110-9, in which we employed a lot of new technique for pulse generation, dispersion compensation and demultiplexing. These techniques help pave the path for OTDM technology of the 21 century.

Recent work in the area of ultrafast optical time-division multiplexed (OTDM) networking at MIT Lincoln Laboratory is presented. A scalable helical local area network or HLAN architecture, presented elsewhere as an architecture well-suited to ultrafast OTDM LANs and MANs, is considered in the context of wide area networking. Two issues arise in scaling HLAN to the wide area. The first is protocol extension, and the second is supporting the required bandwidth on the long-haul links. In this paper we discuss these challenges and describe progress made in both architecture and technologies required for scaling HLAN to the wide area.

This paper presents large capacity switching systems for a local network using the broadcast-and-select (B&S) architecture. The B&S switching system, based on optical time-division multiplexing (OTDM), can provide several hundreds of Gbit/s by using a nonlinear optical switch as the time-channel selector. Moreover, the combination of OTDM and wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) can realize throughputs over Tbit/s. In experiments, first, all-optical selection from a 51.2-Gbit/s data-stream to yield a 160-Mbit/s data-channel is demonstrated for a B&S OTDM switching system. Second, all-optical selection from a 25.6-Gbit/s 2 (51.2-Gbit/s) WDM data-stream to yield a 160-Mbit/s data-channel is demonstrated for a B&S OTDM and WDM switching system. Finally, the number of optical amplifiers that one user has to share in the B&S OTDM switching system is discussed.

Recent work in the area of ultrafast optical time-division multiplexed (OTDM) networking at MIT Lincoln Laboratory is presented. A scalable helical local area network or HLAN architecture, presented elsewhere as an architecture well-suited to ultrafast OTDM LANs and MANs, is considered in the context of wide area networking. Two issues arise in scaling HLAN to the wide area. The first is protocol extension, and the second is supporting the required bandwidth on the long-haul links. In this paper we discuss these challenges and describe progress made in both architecture and technologies required for scaling HLAN to the wide area.

This paper presents large capacity switching systems for a local network using the broadcast-and-select (B&S) architecture. The B&S switching system, based on optical time-division multiplexing (OTDM), can provide several hundreds of Gbit/s by using a nonlinear optical switch as the time-channel selector. Moreover, the combination of OTDM and wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) can realize throughputs over Tbit/s. In experiments, first, all-optical selection from a 51.2-Gbit/s data-stream to yield a 160-Mbit/s data-channel is demonstrated for a B&S OTDM switching system. Second, all-optical selection from a 25.6-Gbit/s 2 (51.2-Gbit/s) WDM data-stream to yield a 160-Mbit/s data-channel is demonstrated for a B&S OTDM and WDM switching system. Finally, the number of optical amplifiers that one user has to share in the B&S OTDM switching system is discussed.

Optical networking is likely to result in substantial cost savings in future telecommunications networks. The scalability and design flexibility of these networks are critical features which may influence the nature of future networking products. In this paper, we experimentally investigate networking technologies for optically time division multiplexed systems. We demonstrate significant advantages in terms of scalability, design flexibility and technology interoperability over the traditional wavelength division multiplexing approach.

An optical communications technology roadmap leading up to the second decade of the 21st century has been investigated to provide a future vision of the optoelectronic technology in 15 to 20 years. The process whereby technology may progress toward the realization of the vision is indicated. A transmission rate of 100 Mbps for homes and a rate of 5 Tbps for the backbone network will be required in the first decade of the 21 century. Two technology roadmaps for public and business communications networks are discussed. It is concluded both WDM and TDM technology will be required to realize such an ultra-high capacity transmission. Technical tasks for various optical devices are investigated in detail.