Enabling techniques for asynchronous coherent OCDMA

Abstract

The coherent OCDMA system could suffer from severe multiple access interference (MAI) and beat noise, which limit the maximum number of active users that can be supported in a network. One effective method to reduce the beat noise as well as the MAI noise is to lower the interference level by adopting ultra-long optical code. Applying optical thresholding technique is also crucial to enable data-rate detection for achieving a practical OCDMA system. In this paper, we review the recent progress in the key enabling techniques for asynchronous coherent OCDMA: the novel encoder/decoders including spatial lightwave phase modulator, micro-ring resonator for spectral phase coding and superstructured FBG (SSFBG) and AWG type encode/decoder for time-spreading coding; optical thresholding techniques with PPLN and nonlinearity in fiber. The FEC has also been applied in OCDMA system recently.With 511-chip SSFBG and SC-based optical thresholder, 10-user, truly-asynchronous gigabit OCDMA transmission has been successfully achieved. Most recently, a record throughput 12×10.71 Gbps truly-asynchronous OCDMA has been demonstrated by using the 16×16 ports AWG-type encoder/decoder and FEC transmit ITU-T G.709 OTN frames.