Time domain add–drop multiplexing scheme enhanced using a saw-tooth pulse shaper

Abstract

We experimentally demonstrate the use of saw-tooth optical pulses, which are shaped using a fiber Bragg grating, to achieve robust and high performance time-domain add-drop multiplexing in a scheme based on cross-phase (XPM) modulation in an optical fiber, with subsequent offset filtering. As compared to the use of more conventional pulse shapes, such as Gaussian pulses of a similar pulse width, the purpose-shaped saw-tooth pulses allow higher extinction ratios for the add and drop windows and significant improvements in the receiver sensitivity for the dropped and added channels.

Efficient All-Optical Wavelength-Conversion Scheme Based on a Saw-Tooth Pulse Shaper

“…Following the preliminary results reported in [8], in this Letter, we experimentally demonstrate, in a proof of principle experiment, a simple and cost effective all-optical wavelength conversion scheme based on XPM spectral broadening induced by saw-tooth pulses and filtering using conventional bandpass filters and show the improved performance achieved as compared to more conventional pulse shapes. We note that this saw-tooth shape has also been demonstrated to be very interesting for various other applications -amongst these, optical time division add-drop multiplexing is a clear and important example [9][10].…”

Nonlinear Pulse Reshaping in Optical Fibers

“…Triangular pulses as well as parabolic pulses are highly desired for a range of photonic applications. Possible applications include: add-drop multiplexing (Parmigiani et al, 2009) or doubling of the optical signals (Latkin et al, 2009). In order to investigate pulse transformations towards triangular pulse shape we introduce the following triangular fitting function:…”

Nonlinear Pulse Shaping in Fibres for Pulse Generation and Optical Processing

“…These include optical regeneration [84,85] including pulse retiming [86], prereceiver nonlinear processing in the optical domain [87,88], and mitigation of linear waveform distortions [89,90]. The simple intensity profile of triangular pulses is also highly desired for a range of processing applications, including time domain add-drop multiplexing [91,92], wavelength conversion [93][94][95], optical signal doubling [96], time-to-frequency mapping of multiplexed signals [97], and enhanced spectral compression [98,99]. In this Section, we will review some of these applications.…”