Integrated dispersion slope equalizer of AWG-based optical CDMA for radio-over-fiber transmissions

Chromatic dispersion from optical fiber is the most important problem that produces temporal skews and destroys the rectangular structure of code patterns in the spectra-amplitude-coding optical code-division multiple-access (SAC-OCDMA) system. Thus, the balance detection does not work perfectly and the system performance will be degraded. In order to improve the distortion, we apply cascaded Mach–Zehnder interferometers (MZIs) to design a dispersion slope equalizer for the SAC-OCDMA system integrated with arrayed-waveguide grating (AWG) router coder. The dispersion slopes of a cascaded MZI compensator could be adjusted by the arm length differences of MZIs and be complementary with the fiber links. In this study, we present a set of length differences for 10 km long single-mode fiber (SMF) and verify the compensation scheme by relative delay time slope and signal-to-interference ratio (SIR). The dispersion slope equalizer with perfect complementary slope successfully compensates the dispersion from SMF and the system performance with dispersion slope equalizer is highly improved.     

Planar lightwave circuit dispersion equalizer

The authors report an integrated-optic dispersion equalizer fabricated on a planar lightwave circuit (PLC). This PLC dispersion equalizer is composed of several asymmetrical Mach-Zehnder interferometers cascaded in series. The dispersion equalizer has a high degree of design flexibility and can compensate for both normal and anomalous fiber dispersions at any center wavelength. Moreover, the equalizer can be applied to WDM transmission systems. This equalizer employing five asymmetrical interferometers is fabricated and its measured dispersion values are +834 and -1006 ps/nm. The effectiveness of the equalizer is demonstrated in a 2.5 Gb/s transmission experiment with a 1.3 μm zero-dispersion fiber at 1.55 μm. Also, its performance is evaluated theoretically     

Compensation for chromatic dispersion and nonlinear effect in highdispersive coherent optical repeater transmission system

A design for a chromatic dispersion equalizer that provides 4.4 times higher efficiency in the dispersion compensation characteristics, compared with a conventional equalizer, is proposed. In addition, the amplitude response slope in the frequency domain is less than half of the conventional characteristic. This extends the compensation limit for chromatic dispersion up to 82500 ps/nm for a 2.5-Gb/s heterodyne system, which corresponds to a 4900-km normal dispersion fiber transmission system. A compensation method for modulational instability is also proposed. The method was confirmed by a 2.5-Gb/s continuous-phase frequency-shift-keying (CPFSK) 764-km normal dispersion fiber transmission experiment, with the abovementioned chromatic dispersion equalizer. Employing computer simulations, an over-1000-km normal dispersion fiber optical repeater transmission system with 2.5-Gb/s CPFSK heterodyne detection was shown to be feasible     

160-gb/s adaptive dispersion equalization using an asynchronous dispersion-induced chirp monitor

This paper describes an adaptive dispersion equalizer (ADE) that uses an asynchronous dispersion-induced chirp monitor and the detailed study of the first demonstration of 160-Gb/s adaptive dispersion equalization. The device successfully equalized the dispersion change over a 40/spl deg/C temperature range (from 5/spl deg/C to 45/spl deg/C) and the dispersion slope of an 80-km dispersion-shifted fiber (DSF). The ADE will enhance the feasibility of 160-Gb/s optical transmission systems.     

Integrated-optic dispersion slope equalizer for N/spl times/ several tens of Gb/s WDM transmission

We report a dispersion slope equalizer on a planar lightwave circuit for wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) transmission. This device consists of an array of lattice-formed equalizers with different compensation values fabricated on one wafer and arrayed-waveguide gratings for wavelength multi/demultiplexing. We describe its configuration, operational principle, parameter design, fabrication, and measured characteristics in detail. N/spl times/20 and N/spl times/40 Gb/s slope equalizers were fabricated and their characteristics agreed well with designed values. We also report a reduction in the bias electrical power needed for thermooptic phase shifters in the equalizer array that we realized by employing a phase trimming technique normally used for optical switches.     

Complete dispersion compensation for 400-fs pulse transmission over10-km fiber link using dispersion compensating fiber and spectral phaseequalizer

We have demonstrated essentially complete dispersion compensation for 400-fs pulses over a 10-km fiber link using dispersion compensating fiber and a programmable femtosecond pulse shaper functioning as a spectral phase equalizer. The pulse shaper impresses adjustable quadratic and cubic phases onto the spectrum and removes all the residual dispersion and dispersion slope in the dispersion compensated fiber link. Our work shows that the pulse shaper technique provides a powerful and convenient tool for programmable fiber dispersion compensation over broad optical bandwidth. This allows distortion-free femtosecond pulse transmission over a fiber link in excess of 10 km without requiring the exact trimming of the dispersion-compensating fiber     

Adaptive dispersion equalization by monitoring relative phase shiftbetween spacing-fixed WDM signals

This paper proposes a novel adaptive dispersion equalization system that equalizes the temperature-induced dispersion fluctuation in long-span ultra-high-speed optical transmission systems. The system monitors the dispersion fluctuation by measuring the relative delay between two wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) signals, and equalizes the dispersion fluctuation by wavelength tuning. A variable-dispersion equalizer can be used instead of wavelength tuning. Adaptive equalization is successfully demonstrated in 40-Gb/s (8-ps-RZ pulses) 400-km transmission. Furthermore, the proposed equalization system is shown to be applicable to WDM systems that use dispersion and dispersion slope compensation. Since the sensitivity to the dispersion fluctuation is improved by extending the wavelength spacing of the signal and monitor channels, the system is shown to operate even when polarization-mode dispersion (PMD) of the transmission fiber must be taken into account     

Fiber nonlinearity and dispersion mitigation in 40-Gb/s NRZ WDM transmission using a multichannel optical equalizer

We investigate the mitigation of distortion due to self-phase modulation and dispersion in 40-Gb/s nonreturn-to-zero wavelength-division-multiplexed transmission using a multichannel optical equalizer. The ability of the equalizer to reduce the signal degradation due to fiber nonlinearities was demonstrated. We achieved 21-channel transmission at BER <10/sup -9/ without forward error correction over 750 km of true wave reduced slope fiber with 107-km amplifier span lengths.     

Optical circuits for equalizing group delay dispersion of opticalfibers

Optical circuits are synthesized for equalizing the group delay dispersion of single-mode fibers. The transfer function of the equalizing circuits are given by Chebyshev polynomials of the second kind. The various realization methods for the group delay equalizer are shown, including periodic structures using birefringent crystals, birefringent fibers, and Mach-Zehnder interferometric planar optical circuits. An optical equalizer employing TiO₂ birefringent crystals was fabricated and evaluated by using an optical network analyzer, which operates by making modulation-envelope phase and amplitude measurements while scanning the optical carrier frequency. The measured optical equalizer characteristics show excellent agreement with the simulation analysis. The effectiveness of the equalizer for substantial reduction of the dispersion penalty for a 10 Gb/s signal transmitted over 30 km of normal dispersion fiber was demonstrated. The periodicity of the equalizer results in periodic dispersion-free bands, and hence, the equalizer is suitable for use in future multichannel FDM systems     

Nonlinear Electrical Equalization for Different Modulation Formats With Optical Filtering

Based on bit-error-ratio simulations, we investigate electrical-dispersion-compensation performance by using a nonlinear electrical equalizer based on nonlinear Volterra theory for different modulation formats. This nonlinear equalizer is compared to conventional decision-feedback equalizer as well as to maximum-likelihood sequence estimation. Especially, we show that nonlinear equalizers, in conjunction with narrowband optical filtering of the light signal, result in improved performance. First of all, the system can benefit from the noise reduction due to narrowband filtering. Second, interacting with chromatic dispersion, nonlinear equalizers benefit from the improved dispersion tolerance through spectrum reshaping by narrowband optical filtering. Finally, nonlinear equalizers can efficiently mitigate the distortion resulting from strong optical filtering     

Reconfigurable Dispersion Equalizer Based on Phase-Apodized Fiber Bragg Gratings

We present a novel dispersion equalizer design for the compensation of chromatic dispersion and chromatic dispersion slope in WDM systems. The device is based on a cascade of complex quasi-periodic chirped fiber Bragg gratings. We show that the use of a low chirp results in the distribution of the resonating cavities along the optical fiber length, which allows reconfiguration of the spectral characteristics by the application of a temperature profile. This paper exposes in detail the numerical techniques used in the optimization of the fiber Bragg grating filters taking into account fabrication imperfections. We present a specific design for a 32-channel dispersion equalizer for 10 Gbit/s and a 50-GHz channel spacing. We examine the spectral characterization of a device fabricated using a phase-apodized mask for various settings of the chromatic dispersion profile. We demonstrate a tuning range of $pm {800}~{rm ps}/{rm nm}$ over a bandwidth of 30 GHz. On average, the standard deviation of the phase ripple was below 0.1 rad. Finally, we evaluate the performance of this device by bit error rate measurements.      

Adaptive minimum MSE controlled PLC optical equalizer for chromatic dispersion compensation

With the advent of very high-bit-rate optical communication systems (40 Gb/s and beyond) and the progressive transformation of the optical layer in a real networking layer, a channel-by-channel adaptive optical equalization will be needed. An adaptive optical equalizer for chromatic dispersion compensation, based on planar lightwave circuit (PLC) technology and controlled by a minimum mean square error (MSE) strategy, is proposed here. It is shown in a rigorous manner how the PLC parameters are to be adjusted and that the control algorithm is effective even with a few stages PLC equalizer, performing better than other nonadaptive control techniques. An analysis of the dynamic behavior of the equalizer shows that, in a realistic time-varying scenario, it can easily adapt to slow channel variations and is able to quickly restore a minimum MSE condition after an abrupt chromatic dispersion variation.     

Performance of MSE configured PLC optical equalizers for chromatic dispersion compensation

In this letter, we propose a mean square error (MSE) strategy to control a planar lightwave circuit (PLC) optical equalizer. We show by simulation that MSE is a suitable criterion to exploit the PLC programmability for realizing an adaptive optical equalizer. When controlled through the MSE criterion, a PLC equalizer for chromatic dispersion compensation performs better than with other control strategies and turns out to be effective even with few component elements.     

Micromechanical gain slope compensator for spectrally linearoptical power equalization

We present a device which produces changes in the slope of its transmitted spectra via an applied bias, a spectrally linear optical power equalizer (SLOPE) device. This device may have application for equalizing power levels in optical networks when simple gain tilt is all that is required, for example in optical power amplifiers     

Design of a transversal equalizer for electronic dispersion compensation in optical communication links

A programmable transversal equalizer for electronic dispersion compensation(EDC) in optical fiber communication systems is developed.Based on the SiGe technology with a cut-off frequency of 80 GHz,the equalizer consists of 6 seriesparallel amplifiers as delay units and 7 Gilbert variable gain amplifiers as taps,which ensure that the equalizer can work at the bit rate of 10 Gb/s.With different tap gains,the forward voltage gain of the transversal equalizer varies,which demonstrates that the equalizer has various filtering characteristics such as low pass filtering,band pass filtering,band reject filtering,and notch filtering,so it can effectively simulate the inverse transfer function of dispersive channels in optical communications,and can be used for compensating the inter-symbol interference and other nonlinear problems caused by dispersion.The equalizer(including pads) occupies an area of 0.40 mm × 1.08 mm,and its total power dissipation is 400 mW with 3.3 V power supply.     

MLSE Equalizers for Frequency Discrimination Receiver of MSK Optical Transmission System

We propose maximum-likelihood sequence estimator (MLSE) equalizers based on either Viterbi algorithm or template matching temple matching (TM) for the equalization of impairments imposed on the minimum shift keying (MSK) modulation formats in long haul transmission without optical dispersion compensation. The TM-MLSE equalizer is proposed as a simplified alternative for the Viterbi-MLSE equalizer. It is verified that the Viterbi-MLSE equalizer can operate optimally when noise approaches a Gaussian distribution. Simulation results of the performances of the two MLSE equalizers for optical frequency discrimination receiver-based optical MSK systems are described. The transmission performance is evaluated in terms of: (1) the chromatic dispersion (CD) tolerance for both Viterbi-MLSE and TM-MLSE equalizers; (2) transmission distance limits of Viterbi-MLSE equalizers with various number of states; (3)the robustness to fiber polarization mode dispersion (PMD) of Viterbi-MLSE equalizers; and (4) performance improvements for Viterbi-MLSE equalizers when utilizing sampling schemes with two and four samples per bit over the conventional single sample per bit. With a small number of states (64 states), the non-compensating optical link can equivalently reach up to approximately 928 km SSMF for 10 Gb/s transmission or 58 km SSMF for 40 Gb/s. The performance of 16-state Viterbi-MLSE equalizers for optical frequency discrimination receiver (OFDR)-based optical MSK transmission systems for PMD mitigation is also numerically investigated. The performance of Viterbi-MLSE equalizers can be further improved by using the sampling schemes with multiple samples per bit compared to the conventional single sample bit. The equalizer also offers high robustness to fiber PMD impairment.     

Wiener solution of electrical equalizer coefficients in lightwave systems

Electrical dispersion compensation equalizer is a key and cost-effective element in optical communication on-off-keying systems in the presence of chromatic dispersion. Here, for the first time, to the best of the authors? knowledge, an analytical solution is established for the electrical equalizer coefficients in an optical communication system. The solution is based on minimum mean-square error criterion. The analytical results show a perfect match with computer simulation. In addition BER performance comparison with the adaptive least mean square (LMS) method reveals that the analytical solution performs better due to LMS excess mean-square error.     

Electrical Dispersion Compensation Equalizers in Optical Direct- and Coherent-Detection Systems

We study the performances of several electrical dispersion compensation (EDC) equalizers in the presence of chromatic dispersion (CD) and polarization mode dispersion (PMD) for optical coherent and direct detection on-off keying systems. The EDCs that are analyzed include the decision-feedback equalizer, linear equalizer, and maximum-likelihood sequence estimator (MLSE). We present an inclusive quantitative analysis of the performance difference between the various techniques. The MLSE gives a good indication of the best possible performance     

Digital Equalization of Chromatic Dispersion and Polarization Mode Dispersion

In this paper, we consider a fractionally spaced equalizer (FSE) for electronic compensation of chromatic dispersion (CD) and polarization-mode dispersion (PMD) in a dually polarized (polarization-multiplexed) coherent optical communications system. Our results show that the FSE can compensate any arbitrary amount of CD and first-order PMD distortion, provided that the oversampling rate is at least 3/2 and that a sufficient number of equalizer taps are used. In contrast, the amount of CD and PMD that can be corrected by a symbol-rate equalizer only approaches an asymptotic limit, and increasing the number of taps has no effect on performance due to aliasing that causes signal cancellation and noise enhancement.     

Electrical equalization for advanced optical communication systems

We investigate equalizers for electronic dispersion compensation (EDC) of dispersion limited optical fibre communication links in combination with different modulation formats. We show that the performance of conventional equalizers including feedforward equalizer (FFE) and decision feedback equalizer (DFE) are fundamentally limited by the nonlinearity of square-law detection of the photodiode in direct detection systems. Advanced modulation formats such as differential phase shift keying (DPSK) and optical duobinary further enhance this kind of nonlinearity and degrade further FFE/DFE performance. However, nonlinear FFE–DFE and maximum likelihood sequence estimation (MLSE) take into account the mitigation of nonlinear inter symbol interference (ISI) and hence can achieve much better performance. We show that in contrast to other modulation formats, optical single sideband modulation results in approximately linear distortions after detection and thus a simple linear FFE equalizer can achieve good compensation.