Switching Characteristics of All-Optical Wavelength-Selective Switch Consisting of Waveguide-Type Raman Amplifiers and 3dB Couplers

Abstract

We report effects of phase variation and wavelength dependency on switching characteristics of the new type of optical switch we have proposed, which is investigated numerically using beam propagation method. IntroductionAll-optical switching is one of the key technologies for realization of future photonic network because it does not need electrical processing which is presumed as a bottleneck of high speed photonic IP packet routing. In addition, wavelength-selectivity is believed to have a promising feature for dealing effectively with the wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) technology which leads tremendous capacity increase of the photonic network. The purpose of our study, therefore, is to propose a new type of all-optical switch having wavelength-selectivity. In this report, we describe its switching characteristics such as effects of phase change and wavelength dependency.

Low complexity design of the ROADMs by integrating spectral equalization and power amplification functions

“…Recently, a kind of new emerging WSS has been reported, which is constructed by using waveguide-type Raman amplifiers to provide both wavelength selective switching and power amplification for switched wavelengths [8][9][10]. We call such WSS as Raman-amplifier-based WSS (RWSS).…”