A 1.55-µm hybrid integrated wavelength-converter module was fabricated using a two-channel spot-size converter integrated semiconductor optical amplifier (SS-SOA) on a planar-lightwave-circuit (PLC) platform. Clear eye opening and penalty-free wavelength conversion were obtained at 2.5-Gb/s modulation with a wide wavelength difference of 46 nm. The module showed good characteristics including low insertion loss (0.1 dB), and high conversion efficiency (-0.2 dB). It also showed stable wavelength conversion for as wide as a 13 temperature range.

An optical add-drop multiplexer with a grating-loaded directional coupler in silica waveguides is demonstrated. The device for this configuration has a large fabrication tolerance and is small in size. A new scheme, in which the coupling length of the directional coupler is twice the complete coupling length, enables low cross-talk for both add and drop operations. This device is polarization-independent due to its relatively low-temperature process.

We have developed an InP-based monolithic optical frequency discriminator consisting of a temperature-insensitive optical filter and dual photodiodes. This integrated device detects the optical frequency deviation of the input light as differential photocurrent from the dual photodiodes, and the photocurrent is fedback to the light source for frequency stabilization through a differential amplifier. The FSR and extinction ratio of the filter are 50 GHz and 20 dB. The total opto-electronic conversion efficiency is 40%. In a frequency stabilization experiment using the developed discriminator, the frequency fluctuation of a DFB laser was reduced to less than 10 MHz.

We analyze the dispersion-managed optical transmission system for the non-return-to-zero (NRZ) pulse format. First, we investigate the physical image of dispersion management by computing small-signal-based transfer functions, and summarize the dependence of transmission performance on system parameters. Next, the Q-map is computed numerically to design long-distance large-capacity dispersion-managed transmission systems for a single channel in a more detailed manner. It is shown that the third-order dispersion of fibers negatively influences transmission performance, and third-order dispersion compensation is proved to be an effective method for extending the transmission distance of high bit-rate systems. Utilizing these results, guidelines can be derived for the optimal design of long-distance large-capacity NRZ transmission systems.

This paper reports on time-space conversion-based differential processing of optical signals using a high-resolution arrayed-waveguide grating (AWG) and a spatial filter at a wavelength of 1.55 µm. We clarify the advantages of the AWG device and show where it is applicable. In order to reduce loss at the spatial filter, we propose a new phase-only filter that functions as a differential filter. The difference between the exact differential filter and the proposed phase-only filter is calculated theoretically. We confirm experimentally that the optical pulse can be differentiated by the proposed filter. For application of differential processing, we also proposed a phase modulation to amplitude modulation (PM-AM) conversion and demonstrated the PM-AM conversion at 10 Gbit/s signals using a PSK-non-return-to-zero (NRZ) format.

It is an important problem in signal processing, system realization and system identification to find linear discrete-time systems which are consistent with given covariance parameters. This problem is formulated as a problem of finding discrete-time positive real functions which interpolate given covariance parameters. Various investigations have yielded several significant solutions to the problem, while there remains an important open problem concerning the McMillan degree. In this paper, we use more general input-output characteristics than covariance parameters and consider finding discrete-time positive real matrix functions which interpolate such characteristics. The input-output characteristics are given by the coefficients of the Taylor series at some complex points in the open unit disk. Thus our problem is a generalization of the interpolation problem of covariance parameters. We reduce the problem to a directional interpolation problem with a constraint and develop the solution by a state-space based new approach. The main results consist of the necessary and sufficient condition for the existence of the discrete-time positive real matrix function which interpolates the given characteristics and has a limited McMillan degree, and a parameterization of all such functions. These are a contribution to the open problem and a generalization of the previous result.

In this paper, we propose a new structure of blind equalizer and its cost function. The proposed cost function is a quadratic form and has the unique solution. In addition, the proposed scheme can employ iterative algorithms which achieve less computational complexity and can be easily realized in real time processing. In order to verify the effectiveness of the proposed schemes, several computer simulations including a 64-QAM signal equalization have been shown.

We have proposed and demonstrated a novel optical regenerator architecture employing electroabsorption modulators as wavelength converters. The employment of EA modulators is advantageous for high-speed operation and flexibility in the bit-rate for the pulse regeneration. In addition, the EA modulator-wavelength-converter acts also as a photo diode for clock extraction. Compensation of the optical SNR and Q-factor has been demonstrated, even in cascaded noise load. Furthermore, against dispersion loading, we have confirmed that waveform recovery and Q-factor improvement is obtained by midway insertion of the optical regenerator. The proposed architecture will offer a wide-band-electronics-free optical regenerator in multi-tens of gigabit per second WDM networks.

Recent status of the polymer optical fiber (POF) for high speed data communication and telecommunication is reviewed. The GI POF was proposed for the first time 20 years ago at Keio University, and several methodologies to fabricate GI POF have been currently proposed worldwide. In this paper, we both theoretically and experimentally verify that the most transparent GI POF can be obtained by the polymer-dopant system. The relation between the refractive index profile and the dispersion characteristics of the GI POF was quantitatively clarified. The refractive index profile of the GI POF obtained by the interfacial-gel polymerization process was controlled to enable to transmit the order of gigabit per second bit rate. Furthermore, the accurate approximation of the refractive index profile and consideration of mode dependent attenuation enabled to precisely predict the dispersion characteristics of the GI POF.

We have proposed and demonstrated a novel optical regenerator architecture employing electroabsorption modulators as wavelength converters. The employment of EA modulators is advantageous for high-speed operation and flexibility in the bit-rate for the pulse regeneration. In addition, the EA modulator-wavelength-converter acts also as a photo diode for clock extraction. Compensation of the optical SNR and Q-factor has been demonstrated, even in cascaded noise load. Furthermore, against dispersion loading, we have confirmed that waveform recovery and Q-factor improvement is obtained by midway insertion of the optical regenerator. The proposed architecture will offer a wide-band-electronics-free optical regenerator in multi-tens of gigabit per second WDM networks.

We have developed an InP-based monolithic optical frequency discriminator consisting of a temperature-insensitive optical filter and dual photodiodes. This integrated device detects the optical frequency deviation of the input light as differential photocurrent from the dual photodiodes, and the photocurrent is fedback to the light source for frequency stabilization through a differential amplifier. The FSR and extinction ratio of the filter are 50 GHz and 20 dB. The total opto-electronic conversion efficiency is 40%. In a frequency stabilization experiment using the developed discriminator, the frequency fluctuation of a DFB laser was reduced to less than 10 MHz.

WDM transmission experiments over cascaded sections of optical links including wavelength converting 2R-transponders have been carried out in a loop testbed. Using dispersion compensated links and simple direct modulated transponder lasers, up to 11 cascaded crossconnects and 1750 km trunk lines have been bridged with 2.5 Gbit/s NRZ signals. The limitations are given mainly due to the accumulated jitter as it is shown by numerical simulations. The results indicate, that 2R-transponders are a useful approach to a flexible WDM network design using bitrate-transparent wavelength conversion.

This paper proposes a fast encoding algorithm for iterated function system (IFS) coding of gray-level homogeneous fractal images. In order to realize IFS coding of high order fractal images, it is necessary to solve a set of simultaneous equations with many unknowns. Solving the simultaneous equations using a multi-dimensional, numerical root-finding method is however very time consuming. As preprocessing of numerical computation, the proposed algorithm employs univariate polynomial manipulation, which requires less computation time than multivariate polynomial manipulation. Moreover, the symmetry of the simultaneous equations with respect to the displacement coefficients enables us to derive an equation with a single unknown from the simultaneous equations using univariate polynomial manipulation. An experimental result is presented to illustrate that the encoding time of the proposed algorithm is about 5 seconds on a personal computer with a 400 MHz Pentium II processor.

Aiming at wideband and flat supercontinuum generation (SC) from optical fibers in the 1.55-µm wavelength region, we study both experimentally and theoretically how SC spectra are influenced by group-velocity dispersion (GVD) of fibers. In the anomalous GVD region, since the peak power of pump pulses is kept high during propagation through the fiber by the higher-order soliton effect, the Raman effect has an adverse effect to flat and wideband SC generation. In the zero GVD region, the interplay of the third-order dispersion (TOD) and the self-phase modulation splits the SC spectrum into two main components. On the other hand, in the normal GVD region, nevertheless the SC spectrum broadens wider and smoother than those in anomalous and zero GVD regions, it is still asymmetric when TOD of the fiber can not be ignored. From these results, we find that a dispersion-flattened fiber with normal GVD is the most suitable for flat and wideband SC generation. A 280-nm wide SC spectrum with the spectral-density fluctuation less than 10 dB is actually generated from such a fiber.

The problem of transient scattering caused by abrupt extinction of a terminative conducting screen in a waveguide is considered. First, a boundary-value problem is formulated to describe the transient phenomena, the problem in which the boundary condition depends on time. Then, application of the Fourier transformation with respect to time derives a Wiener-Hopf-type equation, which is solved by a commonly known decomposition procedure. The transient fields are obtained through the deformation of the integration path for the inverse transformation and the results are represented in terms of the incomplete Lipschitz-Hankel integrals. Numerical examples showing typical transient phenomena are attached.

WDM transmission experiments over cascaded sections of optical links including wavelength converting 2R-transponders have been carried out in a loop testbed. Using dispersion compensated links and simple direct modulated transponder lasers, up to 11 cascaded crossconnects and 1750 km trunk lines have been bridged with 2.5 Gbit/s NRZ signals. The limitations are given mainly due to the accumulated jitter as it is shown by numerical simulations. The results indicate, that 2R-transponders are a useful approach to a flexible WDM network design using bitrate-transparent wavelength conversion.

In this paper, we study a new hybrid speech coder which employs a modified version of the harmonic sinusoidal analysis to encode the periodic contents of speech waveform and to split the speech spectrum into two frequency regions of harmonic and random components. A reliable fundamental frequency is estimated for the harmonic region using both speech and its linear predictive (LP) residual spectrum. The peak envelope of speech spectrum is encoded in terms of the coefficients of an all-pole spectrum. A harmonic tracking algorithm appropriately interpolates the sinusoidal parameters to achieve a smooth transition between the parameter update points and to reconstruct an essential level of periodicity in the synthetic voiced speech. The random part of spectrum and unvoiced speech are coded using the conventional CELP algorithm. The individual components are then combined at the decoder to obtain the synthetic speech. The proposed hybrid coder which combines the powerful features of the sinusoidal and CELP coding algorithms yeilds a high quality synthetic speech at 4.05 kbps.

An access attempt overload control method is proposed for CDMA cellular system to provide good communication quality to mobile stations under the traffic overload condition. Under the normal traffic condition, the effect of access attempts on the interference is negligible. But under the traffic overload condition, the interference due to access attempts could be large and deteriorate the communication quality (or reduce the capacity of a reverse link) if access attempts are not controlled properly. The numerical and simulation results show that our access attempt overload control method can maintain the interference caused by access attempts very low and the capacity of the reverse link is not reduced under the traffic overload condition.

We successfully fabricated plastic ferrules and split alignment sleeves for single-mode fiber-optic connectors by the injection molding process. Liquid crystalline polymer (LCP) was used as the molding material for the ferrule. We introduced an eccentricity control mechanism into the ferrule mold and realized an eccentricity of less than 1 µm. As the molding material for the sleeve, thermosetting epoxy resin was used. Suitable mechanical properties were realized by employing appropriate dimensional design and the molding process. The optical characteristics of a system combining these plastic components are compatible with single-mode SC-type connectors and are also stable under hot and humid conditions.

As a means of CDMA network evolution toward future wireless services, a spectral overlay of narrowband CDMA (N-CDMA) and wideband CDMA (W-CDMA) systems is proposed in [8]. In order to justify the overlaying strategy, the reverse link capacity is examined in the same work. Although the capacity of conventional CDMA cellular systems is usually limited by the reverse link, the limit could occur at the forward link depending on the transmission technologies adopted by specific CDMA proposals. Especially, the number of users that can be simultaneously accommodated in the system would be limited by the forward link in future mobile service environments where unequal traffic is offered between two links. In this paper, we first examine the forward link capacity of the spectrally overlaid narrowband and wideband CDMA (N/W CDMA) system. And we compare it with the reverse link capacity to obtain the overall performance. The effects of various parameters on the capacity of N/W CDMA system are numerically evaluated for different mobile environments.