This paper addresses the problem of detecting digital line components in a given binary image consisting of n black dots arranged over N N integer grids. The most popular method in computer vision for this purpose is the one called Hough Transform which transforms each black point to a sinusoidal curve to detect digital line components by voting on the dual plane. We start with a definition of a line component to be detected and present several different algorithms based on the definition. The one extreme is the conventional algorithm based on voting on the subdivided dual plane while the other is the one based on topological walk on an arrangement of sinusoidal curves defined by the Hough transform. Some intermediate algorithm based on half-planar range counting is also presented. Finally, we discuss how to incorporate several practical conditions associated with minimum density and restricted maximality.

We propose a novel optical add/drop multiplexer (OADM) utilizing free spectral range (FSR) periodicity of an arrayed-waveguide multiplexer (AWG). In this OADM, wavelength-division multiplex (WDM) signal is multiplexed and/or de-multiplexed in two steps. Power penalty due to coherent crosstalk is drastically reduced compared with that of conventional OADM where AWG multiplexers are opposite to each other. The calculated power penalty due to the coherent crosstalk is about 0.7 dB after the 16 OADMs in the case of 128 wavelengths. It was confirmed through a computer simulation that more than one hundred channels at 10 Gbps data rate could be accommodated in an OADM network with 16 nodes. These results show that the OADM network with over 1 Tbps capacity and 16 nodes could be constructed.

We propose a novel optical add/drop multiplexer (OADM) utilizing free spectral range (FSR) periodicity of an arrayed-waveguide multiplexer (AWG). In this OADM, wavelength-division multiplex (WDM) signal is multiplexed and/or de-multiplexed in two steps. Power penalty due to coherent crosstalk is drastically reduced compared with that of conventional OADM where AWG multiplexers are opposite to each other. The calculated power penalty due to the coherent crosstalk is about 0.7 dB after the 16 OADMs in the case of 128 wavelengths. It was confirmed through a computer simulation that more than one hundred channels at 10 Gbps data rate could be accommodated in an OADM network with 16 nodes. These results show that the OADM network with over 1 Tbps capacity and 16 nodes could be constructed.

We fabricated a 1.55-µm polarization insensitive Michelson interferometric wavelength converter (MI-WC). The MI-WC consists of a two-channel spot-size converter integrated semiconductor optical amplifier (SS-SOA) on a planar lightwave circuit (PLC) platform. Clear eye opening and no power penalty in the back-to-back condition were obtained at 10 Gb/s modulation. We also confirmed the polarization insensitive operation on the input signal. Moreover, for an application of the MI-WC to DWDM networks, we demonstrated the selective wavelength conversion of 2.5 G/s optical packets from Fabry-Perot laser diode (FP-LD) light to four ITU-T grid wavelengths. We confirmed the good feasibility of this technique for use in DWDM networks. The wavelength conversion we describe here is indispensable for future all-optical networks, in which optical signal sources without wavelength control will be used at user-end terminals.

The demonstrated capacity of 40-Gb/s WDM systems is now exceeding 3-Tb/s. We will discuss some of the enabling technologies for these high capacities and some of the technologies that may push the aggregate capacity of WDM systems towards 10-Tb/s.

We demonstrate, through numerical simulations, the possibility of trans-oceanic single channel transmission at 160 Gbit/s with no active control. This was achieved using short period dispersion management, which supports short pulse propagation at practical map strengths. We demonstrate that through careful selection and optimisation of the system parameters the performance of this system can be extended. We also define the tolerable limits of the system to the residual dispersion slope and polarisation mode dispersion.

The present paper discusses several promising application areas for optical data links based on high-performance vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser diodes (VCSELs). Both 850 and 980 nm emission wavelength devices realized in the GaAs-AlGaAs or InGaAs-AlGaAs material systems are considered. We show data transmission results of 10 Gb/s signals at 830 nm wavelength over a new high-bandwidth multimode silica fiber of up to 1.6 km length. The same fiber type is employed to demonstrate the first 40 Gb/s transport over 300 m distance by means of a 4-channel coarse wavelength-division multiplexing approach. A first 1 10 linear VCSEL array capable of 10 Gb/s per channel operation is presented for use in next generation parallel optical modules. To improve the singlemode emission characteristics for output power in the 5 mW range we introduce a new device concept incorporating a long monolithic cavity. For low-cost short-distance data links we investigate graded-index polymer optical fibers and report on up to 9 Gb/s transmission over a length of 100 m. Polymer waveguides are also used in an optical layer of a hybrid electrical-optical printed circuit board. Transmitted 10 Gb/s optical data over a prototype board show the potential of this new technology. Finally we present two-dimensional VCSEL arrays for highly parallel data transport on a CMOS chip level. Both 980 and 850 nm bottom emitting devices with modulation capabilities up to 12.5 Gb/s are discussed.

This paper describes a simple polarization-independent wavelength conversion method using degenerated four-wave mixing (FWM) in single-mode fibers pumped with cross-polarized high frequency, saw-tooth pulses from a single pump source. Successful polarization-independent wavelength conversion is experimentally confirmed with less than 12% and 5.6% variation using a gain-switched LD pumping and a mode-locked fiber laser pumping, respectively. We clarify that the interference effect between two orthogonal pump pulses must be taken into account to achieve a good polarization-insensitive operation, since even the small pulse edges bring about the large polarization fluctuations when they are interfered. Furthermore, it is reveal that the shorter pump pulse broadens its own spectrum due to the self-phase modulation in fibers, resulting in poor FWM efficiency. Finally, possibility of high-speed operation is discussed taking into account the pump pulse conditions.

In order to realize automatic-level-controlled (ALC) erbium doped fiber amplifiers (EDFAs) with both wide dynamic range and good noise performance, we propose EDFAs employing the automatic power control (APC) scheme and a variable attenuation slope compensator (VASC). The VASC consists of two asymmetrical Mach-Zehnder interferometers (MZIs) concatenated in series and thermo optic (TO) heaters are attached to the arms of each MZIs. By adjusting the electric power supplied to the TO heaters, an almost linear attenuation slope can be varied by plus minus 5 dB or more over the operational wavelength band of 30 nm. The EDFA employing the APC scheme and the VASC has exhibited a dynamic range as large as 20 dB with the output power variation as small as 0.7 dB, which is as good as that of the EDFA employing the APC scheme and a variable optical attenuator (VOA). The noise figure (NF) of the EDFA employing the VASC was degraded about 4.1 dB with increasing the input power by 20 dB, while it was degraded about 7.3 dB with increasing the input power by only 15 dB in the EDFA employing the VOA. The EDFA employing the VASC can realize the ALC operation over a wider dynamic range with reduced noise figure degradation. In the EDFA employing the VASC, the power excursion was suppressed to less than 1.1 dB, when the input signal level was changed between -23 dBm/ch and -18 dBm/ch with the rise/fall time of 8 ms.

We demonstrate, through numerical simulations, the possibility of trans-oceanic single channel transmission at 160 Gbit/s with no active control. This was achieved using short period dispersion management, which supports short pulse propagation at practical map strengths. We demonstrate that through careful selection and optimisation of the system parameters the performance of this system can be extended. We also define the tolerable limits of the system to the residual dispersion slope and polarisation mode dispersion.

We investigated the characteristics of optical duobinary signals in achieving high fiber input power transmission focusing on the idea of optimum residual dispersion equalization. We confirm through calculations and experiments that setting the total link dispersion at a non-zero value allows high fiber launched power (+18 dBm) and large dispersion tolerance (350 ps/nm) at 10 Gbit/s. We demonstrate repeaterless 250-km single mode fiber (SMF) transmission with a 10-Gbit/s optical duobinary signal. We also demonstrate high-speed complete optical duobinary coding and transmit synchronous digital hierarchy (SDH) frames over optical duobinary signals for the first time.

In the circuit-switching literature, the Least Loaded Path Routing (LLR) concept has been shown to be very simple and efficient. However, it seems that there is no unique definition for the "least busy" path, i.e., how to measure the degree of "busy" of a path. In this paper, we examine six ways of defining the least busy path and a random policy. The performance of these policies is evaluated via both simulation and analysis. Our numerical results show that all policies, include the random policy, have almost the same performance under most of the network configurations. Only under extremely low traffic load conditions, the difference between the policies becomes significant. However, the magnitude of the difference is still very small (about 0.001). Therefore, we conclude that how to select the alternate path does not affect the performance of LLR-based routing algorithms significantly when the call blocking probability is not too small. Instead, we found that the trunk reservation level affects the performance of LLR-based routing algorithms significantly.

The demonstrated capacity of 40-Gb/s WDM systems is now exceeding 3-Tb/s. We will discuss some of the enabling technologies for these high capacities and some of the technologies that may push the aggregate capacity of WDM systems towards 10-Tb/s.

The present paper discusses several promising application areas for optical data links based on high-performance vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser diodes (VCSELs). Both 850 and 980 nm emission wavelength devices realized in the GaAs-AlGaAs or InGaAs-AlGaAs material systems are considered. We show data transmission results of 10 Gb/s signals at 830 nm wavelength over a new high-bandwidth multimode silica fiber of up to 1.6 km length. The same fiber type is employed to demonstrate the first 40 Gb/s transport over 300 m distance by means of a 4-channel coarse wavelength-division multiplexing approach. A first 1 10 linear VCSEL array capable of 10 Gb/s per channel operation is presented for use in next generation parallel optical modules. To improve the singlemode emission characteristics for output power in the 5 mW range we introduce a new device concept incorporating a long monolithic cavity. For low-cost short-distance data links we investigate graded-index polymer optical fibers and report on up to 9 Gb/s transmission over a length of 100 m. Polymer waveguides are also used in an optical layer of a hybrid electrical-optical printed circuit board. Transmitted 10 Gb/s optical data over a prototype board show the potential of this new technology. Finally we present two-dimensional VCSEL arrays for highly parallel data transport on a CMOS chip level. Both 980 and 850 nm bottom emitting devices with modulation capabilities up to 12.5 Gb/s are discussed.

In order to realize automatic-level-controlled (ALC) erbium doped fiber amplifiers (EDFAs) with both wide dynamic range and good noise performance, we propose EDFAs employing the automatic power control (APC) scheme and a variable attenuation slope compensator (VASC). The VASC consists of two asymmetrical Mach-Zehnder interferometers (MZIs) concatenated in series and thermo optic (TO) heaters are attached to the arms of each MZIs. By adjusting the electric power supplied to the TO heaters, an almost linear attenuation slope can be varied by plus minus 5 dB or more over the operational wavelength band of 30 nm. The EDFA employing the APC scheme and the VASC has exhibited a dynamic range as large as 20 dB with the output power variation as small as 0.7 dB, which is as good as that of the EDFA employing the APC scheme and a variable optical attenuator (VOA). The noise figure (NF) of the EDFA employing the VASC was degraded about 4.1 dB with increasing the input power by 20 dB, while it was degraded about 7.3 dB with increasing the input power by only 15 dB in the EDFA employing the VOA. The EDFA employing the VASC can realize the ALC operation over a wider dynamic range with reduced noise figure degradation. In the EDFA employing the VASC, the power excursion was suppressed to less than 1.1 dB, when the input signal level was changed between -23 dBm/ch and -18 dBm/ch with the rise/fall time of 8 ms.

Using the chirped grating with temperature control, we demonstrated the adaptive dispersion compensation at 40 Gbit/s RZ transmission. The simple monitoring of the 40 GHz frequency component enables us to automatic control of the adaptive dispersion compensator.

Recent progress in ultrahigh bit rate optical transmission using time-division multiplexing and wavelength-division multiplexing is described. Latest over 1 Tbit/s transmission experiments are shown and the possibility of higher bit rate transmission is discussed.

Recent progress in ultrahigh bit rate optical transmission using time-division multiplexing and wavelength-division multiplexing is described. Latest over 1 Tbit/s transmission experiments are shown and the possibility of higher bit rate transmission is discussed.

This paper conducts performance evaluation and performs simulation for a code division multiple access (CDMA) system when channel bands of multiple neighboring CDMA/DSSS are overlapped in time domain. It is assumed that all systems adopt direct-sequence spread-spectrum (DSSS) technique and are BPSK modulated by the different carrier frequencies. Automatic power control (APC) is also applied in the interfered system such that the receiver gets the same power from all users. Without loss generality, an additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channel is also assumed during analysis. In this paper, the analytic solution of the signal to noise ratio (SNR) is first derived in which both CDMA systems are modulated by different carrier frequencies. We have the results by simulation with Δ f = 0 and Δ f = 1 MHz, respectively. This analysis is good for general cases; and the results show an excellent computational performance. In particular, the result is very close to Pursley's result, when the systems have the same code length with no carrier difference.

Using the chirped grating with temperature control, we demonstrated the adaptive dispersion compensation at 40 Gbit/s RZ transmission. The simple monitoring of the 40 GHz frequency component enables us to automatic control of the adaptive dispersion compensator.