Optical signal processing plays a key role in a high capacity all-optical communication network. Rapid advances in the processing technology offers new solutions to enhance fiber communications. This thesis focuses on the development of new components and techniques for optical signal processing. / The application of optical nonlinearities in fibers and in semiconductor devices is of great importance in different fields of research. In this thesis, we report our findings in the development of new techniques for photonic signal processing. Two different approaches for extinction ratio enhancement of an amplitude-shift keying (ASK) signal have been demonstrated using self-phase modulation in a highly nonlinear bismuth oxide fiber. The differential phase-shift keying (DPSK) modulation format is also receiving much attention owing to its improved receiver sensitivity and its higher tolerance to signal degradation by undesired fiber nonlinearities. We demonstrated all-optical processing of DPSK signals using different nonlinear phenomena in a semiconductor optical amplifiers, a dispersion-flattened highly nonlinear photonic crystal fiber, and a highly nonlinear bismuth oxide fiber. Various application areas including extinction ratio enhancement, amplitude noise reduction, phase noise reduction, wavelength conversion and wavelength multicasting have been realized using four-wave mixing, self-phase modulation, and cross-phase modulation in the optical elements. (Abstract shortened by UMI.) / The birefringent comb filter is an important element in the processing of microwave and optical signals. To increase the flexibility in its operation, it is desirable for the filter to be tunable in both the spectral position and the spacing of the comb. By incorporating an electro-optic phase modulator to control the overall birefringence, the output comb can be rapidly modulated in the spectral domain. We also introduced a new architecture of a dual-pass Lyot filter that offers the highest tunability of the comb spacing at a given number of birefringent fiber elements. Selectivity of the spacing is based on different alignments between the fiber axes in our cascadable scheme. We applied the birefringent comb filter to multi-wavelength laser source generation using either a semiconductor or a fiber-based gain element. By electrical tuning of the birefringence inside a semiconductor optical amplifier ring laser, a waveband switchable multi-wavelength source has been obtained. In an erbium-doped fiber (EDF) laser, multi-wavelength lasing is inhibited at room temperature owing to the homogeneously broadened gain medium. To address this problem, two different types of fiber nonlinearities, stimulated Brillouin scattering and four-wave mixing, are incorporated separately to the EDF laser to provide self-stabilization of the multi-wavelength oscillation. In addition to multi-wavelength source generation, we further applied the birefringent comb filter to multiply the repetition rate of a high-speed pulsed source using the spectral elimination approach. Repetition rate multiplication from 10 to 40 GHz has been simultaneously achieved for four ITU-grid laser sources around 1550 nm, resulting in an aggregate pulse rate of 160 GHz. The phase coherence of the output pulses is also preserved. / Fok, Mei Po Mable. / "August 2007." / Adviser: Chester Shu. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 69-02, Section: B, page: 1198. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references. / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstract in English and Chinese. / School code: 1307.

No description available.

Fiber-optic networks are continually evolving to accommodate ever-increasing data transport rates demanded by modern applications, devices, and services. Network operators are now beginning to deploy systems with 100 Gb/s per-wavelength data rates while maintaining the 50 GHz dense wavelength division multiplexing grid that is (generally) standard for 10 Gb/s systems. Advanced modulation formats incorporating both amplitude- and phase-based data symbols are necessary to meet the spectral efficiency requirements of fiber-optic data transport. These modulation formats require coherent detection, enabling future networks to take advantage of advances in silicon CMOS via digital signal processing algorithms and techniques. The primary challenge for future networks is the fiber nonlinear response; changes in the intensity of the propagating optical signal induce changes in the optical fiber refractive index. Limiting the allowed propagation intensity will reduce these nonlinear effects and correspondingly limit the total available signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) within the channel. Predicting the nonlinear SNR limits of fiber-optic transport for data rates 100 Gb/s and beyond is a primary purpose of this research. This dissertation expressly matches several novel expressions for nonlinear interference accumulation to experimental data and demonstrates robust theoretical prediction of nonlinear transmission penalties. The experiments were performed to isolate the transmission performance of the fiber medium in the highly dispersive regime -- no dispersion compensation or Raman amplification was employed and all other hardware was kept static. These results are the first experimental validation of the nonlinear interference expressions on a fiber-type basis. Second, this dissertation moves to data transport beyond per-wavelength rates of 100 Gb/s by employing 16QAM at baud rates as high as 32 GHz. It examines signal processing strategies for 16QAM transport and extends the nonlinear interference prediction techniques to 16QAM. The results reveal that the SNR requirements of 16QAM as limited by nonlinear interference will likely limit deployments to high-density regional and metro networks.

No description available.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Iowa State University, 1995. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 104-111).

Thesis (Ph.D)--Electrical and Computer Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009. / Committee Chair: Ralph, Stephen; Committee Member: Barry, John; Committee Member: Chang, G. K.; Committee Member: Cressler, John D.; Committee Member: Trebino. Part of the SMARTech Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Collection.

The ever-increasing demand for broadband services by end-user devices utilising 3G/4G/LTE and the projected 5G in the last mile will require sustaining broadband supply from fibre-linked terminals. The eventual outcome of the high demand for broadband is strained optical and electronic devices. The backbone optical fibre transport systems and techniques such as dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM), higher modulation formats, coherent detection and signal amplification have increased both fibre capacity and spectrum efficiency. A major challenge to fibre capacity and spectrum efficiency is fibre-faults and optical impairments, network management, routing and wavelength assignment (RWA). In this study, DWDM and flexible spectrum techniques such as wavelength assignment and adjustment, wavelength conversion and switching, optical add and drop multiplexing (OADM) and bitrate variable transmission have been experimentally optimized in a laboratory testbed for short- and long-haul optical fibre networks. This work starts by experimentally optimising different transmitters, fibre-types and receivers suitable for implementing cost effective and energy efficient flexible spectrum networks. Vertical cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) and distributed feedback (DFB) lasers have been studied to provide up to 10 Gb/s per channel in 1310 nm and 1550 nm transmission windows. VCSELs provide wavelength assignment and adjustment. This work utilises the non-return-to-zero (NRZ) on-off keying (OOK) modulation technique and direct detection due to their cost and simplicity. By using positive intrinsic negative (PIN) photo-receivers with error-free BER sensitivity of -18±1 dBm at the acceptable 10-9-bit error rate (BER) threshold level, unamplified transmission distances between 6 km and 76 km have been demonstrated using G.652 and G.655 single mode fibres (SMFs). For the first time, an all optical VCSEL to VCSEL wavelength conversion, switching, transmission at the 1550 nm window and BER evaluation of a NRZ data signal is experimentally demonstrated. With VCSEL wavelength conversion and switching, wavelength adjustments to a spectrum width of 4.8 nm (600 GHz) can be achieved to provide alternative routes to signals when fibre-cuts and wavelength collision occurs therefore enhancing signal continuity. This work also demonstrates a technique of removing and adding a wavelength in a bundle of DWDM and flexible channels using an OADM. This has been implemented using a VCSEL and a fibre Bragg grating (FBG) providing a wavelength isolation ratio of 31.4 dB and ~0.3 𝑑𝐵 add/drop penalty of 8.5 Gb/s signal. As a result, an OADM improves spectrum efficiency by offering wavelength re-use. Optical impairments such as crosstalk, chromatic dispersion (CD) and effects of polarization mode dispersion (PMD) have been experimentally investigated and mitigated. This work showed that crosstalk penalty increased with fibre-length, bitrate, interfering signal power and reduced channel spacing and as a result, a crosstalk-penalty trade-off is required. Effects of CD on a transmitted 10 Gb/s signal were also investigated and its mitigation techniques used to increase the fibre-reach. This work uses the negative dispersion fibres to mitigate the accumulated dispersion over the distance of transmission. A 5 dB sensitivity improvement is reported for an unamplified 76 km using DFB transmitters and combination of NZDSF true-wave reduced slope (TW-RS) and submarine reduced slope (TW-SRS) with + and – dispersion coefficients respectively. We have also demonstrated up to 52 km 10 Gb/s per channel VCSEL-based transmission and reduced net dispersion. Experimental demonstration of forward Raman amplification has achieved a 4.7 dB on-off gain distributed over a 4.8 nm spectral width and a 1.7 dB improvement of receiver sensitivity in Raman-aided 10 Gb/s per wavelength VCSEL transmission. Finally, 4.25-10 Gb/s PON-based point to point (P2P) and point to multipoint (P2MP) broadcast transmission have been experimentally demonstrated. A 10 Gb/s with a 1:8 passive splitter incurred a 3.7 dB penalty for a 24.7 km fibre-link. In summary, this work has demonstrated cost effective and energy efficient potential flexible spectrum techniques for high speed signal transmission. With the optimized network parameters, flexible spectrum is therefore relevant in short-reach, metro-access and long-haul applications for national broadband networks and the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) fibre-based signal and data transmission.

Optical fibre networks play an increasingly prominent role in communications. As networks grow in size and complexity, the probability and impact of failures increase. In this dissertation, different optical network concepts, survivability and resilience methods are considered. Link and Path failures are discussed and Static Path Protection (SPP), Shared Backup Path Protection (SBPP), as well as Path Restoration (PR) are investigated. A Shared Backup Path Protection model and simulation tool is designed and implemented. This implementation is compared with other studies. Dual-link failures are considered under specific network topologies. Shortest Path algorithms are used to reprovision optimal routes for backup protection. Results and conclusions are discussed in detail, giving valuable insight into resilience methods. Availability and protectability are discussed and evaluated as measures of resilience and network survivability. Results vary between compromising little availability and bringing a significant improvement in availability. It is concluded that the implementation of SBPP is a necessity in highly-meshed networks with high availability needs, but doesn’t necessarily provide the best solution for sparsely-connected networks. The additional cost involved in the implementation needs to be considered carefully. / Dissertation (MEng)--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering / unrestricted

In this dissertation the performance of a novel variant of a return-to-zero (RZ) modulation format, based on square-wave phase modulation and filtering of a continuous-wave (CW) signal, is investigated and compared with various modulation formats considered in the literature. We call this modulation format continuous-wave square-wave (CWSW). With CWSW an RZ pulse train is generated by phase modulating the CW signal by a periodic square-wave phase function having an amplitude of and frequency of half the bit rate, and then filtering the signal. The filter performs phase-to-amplitude conversion, resulting in an alternate-sign RZ pulse train, which is shown to be resistant to fiber dispersion. The alternate-sign RZ pulse train is then amplitude modulated with the data before the transmission. Alternate signs between adjacent pulses makes this signal format robust to impairments caused by the optical fiber, similar to a conventional alternate-sign RZ signal format. However, the unique property of the CWSW signal format is that individual pulses can induce peak intensity enhancement (PIE), a phenomenon by which the peak of a pulse increases during the initial propagation in the presence of dispersion. The PIE in effect delays the decrease in the pulse peak, which represents the signal level for bit 1. Thus, the eye opening at the receiver is improved. An analytically tractable model is developed to explain the occurrence of the PIE, which cannot be achieved with a conventional pulse shape. The sources of performance degradations for different modulation formats in single-channel 40 Gb/s systems are also discussed in this dissertation. Various transmission system configurations of practical interest are considered and the performance of CWSW is compared with alternative modulation formats. It is found that the CWSW signal format performs significantly better than the other considered modulation formats in systems not employing dispersion compensation and is comparable to the others in dispersion-managed systems. Furthermore, the transmitter configuration of the CWSW signal format is simpler than the other approaches. / Ph. D.

Currently, optical communications plays an important role in the transmission aspect of backbone fiber networks. However, there still remain two challenges in this field: one is the bottleneck between high-capacity local area networks (LANs) and the backbone network, where the answer is the broadband optical fiber access networks; the other is the bottleneck of low-speed electrical signal processing in high capacity optical networks, where one possible solution is all-optical nonlinear signal processing. This thesis will cover both of the two topics. In the first topic, the emphasis will be put on the novel optical access network infrastructure design to improve the access network reliability and functionality as well as the reduction of system complexity. In the second topic, the focus is how to utilize the newly-emerging photonic devices or newly-designed configurations to improve the performance of current optical signal processing subsystems for applications in lightwave transmission systems. / In summary, this thesis introduces a series of novel optical access network architecture designs and transmission system technologies for optical fiber communications and discusses their feasibilities in practice from the research perspective. We hope that these proposed technologies can contribute to the further developments in this field. / In the area of broadband optical fiber access networks, two aspects are considered: survivability and monitoring function. For the first part, several new network protection schemes among various access network topologies (i.e. tree and ring) are proposed and experimentally demonstrated, which could reduce the access network cost and simplifying the operation of the access network. For the second part, an interesting in-service fault surveillance scheme in the current TDM-PON is proposed via analyzing the composite radio-frequency (RF) spectrum of the common supervisory channel at the central office (CO). Experiment proves its effectiveness with negligible influence on the signal channels. In addition, a system demonstration of the WDM-based optical broadband access network with automatic optical protection function is presented, showing the potential of WDM technologies in the broadband optical access networks. / In the area of nonlinear optical signal processing, the technology innovation is in two areas: new architecture design and the new photonic devices. For the issue of architecture design, the focus is on the Nonlinear Optical Loop Mirror (NOLM) structure. A new polarization-independent OTDM demultiplexing scheme is proposed and demonstrated by incorporating a polarization-diversity loop into a conventional NOLM, which offers stable operation using the conventional components without sacrificing the operation speed or structural simplicity. In another study the design of a novel OFSK transmitter based on phase-modulator-embedded NOLM is conceived and implemented, which features data-rate transparent, continuous tuning of the wavelength spacing and stable operation. For the aspect of new photonic devices, this thesis focuses on the applications of photonic crystal fibers (PCF). In one work, a relatively short-length of dispersion-flattened high-nonlinearity PCF (gamma=11.2 (W-km)-1, D<-1 ps/nm/km 1500-1600 nm, S<1 x 10-3 ps/km/nm2) is integrated into a dispersion-imbalanced loop mirror (DILM) to form a nonlinear intensity discriminator and its application in the nonlinear suppression of the incoherent interferometric crosstalk has been successfully demonstrated. The special characteristics of the PCF ensure a broadband signal quality improvement and make the DILM more compact and stable. In the other work, the small birefringence of this PCF helps to simply achieve the polarization-insensitive wide-band wavelength converter based on four-wave-mixing in PCF. / Wang Zhaoxin. / "September 2006." / Advisers: Chinlon Lin; Chun-Kit Chan. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 68-03, Section: B, page: 1846. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 93-101). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / School code: 1307.