Alberto Bononi

Analysis and comparison of hot-potato and single-buffer deflection routing in very high bit rate optical mesh networks

The steady state behavior of regular two-connected multihop networks in uniform traffic under a hot-potato and a simple single-buffer deflection routing technique is analyzed for very high bit rate optical applications. Manhattan Street Network and ShuffleNet are compared in terms of throughput, delay, deflection probability, and hop distribution both analytically and by simulation. It is analytically verified that this single-buffer deflection routing technique recovers in both networks more than 60% of the throughput loss of hot-potato with respect to store-and-forward when packets are generated with independent destinations. This gain, however, decreases to below 40% when the average message length exceeds 20 packets. >

Doped-fiber amplifier dynamics: a system perspective

Sun et al. [see Electron. Lett., vol. 32, p. 1490, Aug. 1996] succeeded in reducing the set of coupled first-order nonlinear partial differential equations determining the wavelength-dependent, time-varying amplifier gain into a single ordinary differential equation (ODE). In this paper, we further simplify the ODE bringing into greater evidence the physical meaning of the amplification process, and greatly enhancing the utility of the ODE as an analysis and design tool. We find that the gain dynamics of a doped-fiber amplifier are completely specified by its total number of excited ions r, whose time behavior is described by a simple first-order differential equation. We exploit this new understanding of amplifier gain dynamics: 1) to develop an equivalent circuit model for amplifier gain dynamics, 2) to identify that channel addition causes much faster transients than channel dropping in wavelength division multiplexing networks, and 3) to demonstrate that gain excursions can be significant in multichannel packet switching applications, which unlike time-multiplexed signals are characterized by bursts and lulls in communications. We are also able to revisit the most significant previously published results on both steady-state and dynamic analysis of doped-fiber amplifiers with a much more concise and more intuitive derivation.

On nonlinear distortions of highly dispersive optical coherent systems

We investigate via experiments and simulations the statistical properties and the accumulation of nonlinear transmission impairments in coherent systems without optical dispersion compensation. We experimentally show that signal distortion due to Kerr nonlinearity can be modeled as additive Gaussian noise, and we demonstrate that its variance has a supra-linear dependence on propagation distance for 100 Gb/s transmissions over both low dispersion and standard single mode fiber. We propose a simple empirical model to account for linear and nonlinear noise accumulation, and to predict system performance for a wide range of distances, signal powers and optical noise levels.

Cross-Phase Modulation Induced by OOK Channels on Higher-Rate DQPSK and Coherent QPSK Channels

In this paper we show that, in hybrid wavelength division multiplexed systems, the performance of high datatrate QPSK channels impaired by cross-phase modulation (XPM) induced by the lower rate OOK channels can be simply estimated by an extension of a well-known linear model for XPM, and novel analytical expressions of the sensitivity penalty are provided. From such a model we prove that the reported QPSK penalty decrease with QPSK baud rate increase should be attributed to the action of the phase estimation process rather than to the walkoff effect. The model also simply shows how coherent QPSK is more affected by XPM than incoherent DQPSK, and allows to infer that even more impact is expected when the baudrate is further reduced through polarization multiplexing.

Intensity distortion induced by cross-phase modulation and chromatic dispersion in optical-fiber transmissions with dispersion compensation

In dispersion compensated systems, the intensity distortion induced by the interplay between cross-phase modulation and fiber chromatic dispersion can be a primary cause of transmission degradation. This interplay is mostly studied by time-consuming computer simulations. This letter introduces a new model of this interplay in fiber transmissions with dispersion compensation, leading to a linear filter that, applied to the input intensity of a modulated interfering channel, gives the intensity distortion of a continuous-wave probe signal at the receiver. The model can be of significant value in the search for optimized dispersion maps.

The RP method: a new tool for the iterative solution of the nonlinear Schrodinger equation

An original approach to the solution of the nonlinear Schrodinger equation (NLSE) is pursued in this paper, following the regular perturbation (RP) method. Such an iterative method provides a closed-form approximation of the received field and is thus appealing for devising nonlinear equalization/compensation techniques for optical transmission systems operating in the nonlinear regime. It is shown that, when the nonlinearity is due to the Kerr effect alone, the order n RP solution coincides with the order 2n + 1 Volterra series solution proposed by Brandt-Pearce and co-workers. The RP method thus provides a computationally efficient way of evaluating the Volterra kernels, with a complexity comparable to that of the split-step Fourier method (SSFM). Numerical results on 10 Gb/s single-channel terrestrial transmission systems employing common dispersion maps show that the simplest third-order Volterra series solution is applicable only in the weakly nonlinear propagation regime, for peak transmitted power well below 5 dBm. However, the insight in the nonlinear propagation phenomenon provided by the RP method suggests an enhanced regular perturbation (ERP) method, which allows the first order ERP solution to be fairly accurate for terrestrial dispersion mapped systems up to launched peak powers of 10 dBm.

Gain stabilization in gain clamped EDFA cascades fed by WDM burst-mode packet traffic

This paper studies via simulation the stabilizing effect of all-optical gain-clamping (AOGC) in a chain of erbium-doped fiber amplifiers (EDFA) fed by wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) burst-mode packet traffic. AOGC is necessary to suppress swings of output power and optical signal-to-noise ratio (OSNR). A case study is selected, in which only the first EDFA in a cascade of six amplifiers is clamped using a ring laser configuration. A numerical model which solves the transcendental equation for the average inversion at each EDFA is used for the analysis. The traffic is generated on the eight WDM channels by ON-OFF time-slotted sources, with statistically independent ON and OFF durations, randomly generated by a truncated Pareto distribution with infinite variance. The simulation model includes the generation of amplified spontaneous emission within each amplifier and the propagation of the lasing power generated in the AOGC EDFA through the cascade. It is shown that the sizable power and OSNR swings arising in an unclamped cascade of EDFAs can be effectively suppressed when a lasing signal a few decibels above the aggregate signal power develops in the AOGC EDFA and propagates along the cascade.

Output power and SNR swings in cascades of EDFAs for circuit- and packet-switched optical networks

A simple dynamic model of the erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA) that includes self-saturation by amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) is used to analyze the power and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) transients in wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) optical networks in which signals cross chains of EDFAs from source to destination. The model, which consists of solving sequentially one ordinary differential equation per amplifier, is used to (1) determine power and SNR excursions in the surviving channels along a chain of 35 EDFAs during isolated add-drop events in a 16-channel WDM circuit switching scenario and (2) run Monte Carlo simulations of the first five EDFAs of the same chain fed by burst-mode packet switching traffic on each of the 16 channels. Each packet source is modeled as an ON-OFF asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) source, with ON and OFF times having a heavy-tailed Pareto distribution. The aggregate source model is asymptotically self-similar, and well describes multimedia packet communications. The results are used to examine the influence of average network utilization and source ON-OFF time variance on the probability density function of signal power and SNR at each EDFA output. We demonstrate that self-similar traffic generates sizable power and SNR swings, especially at low network utilization. The simulations also indicate sizable broadening of the power and SNR density functions along the cascade of EDFAs, reaching levels in excess of 9 dBm and 4 dB for the power and SNR swings, respectively, at the 5th EDFA. The effect becomes more pronounced for longer EDFA chains. Such a large broadening may imply serious system impairments in burst-mode WDM packet networks.

Parametric-gain approach to the analysis of single-channel DPSK/DQPSK systems with nonlinear phase noise

This paper presents a novel method based on a parametric gain (PG) approach to study the impact of nonlinear phase noise in single-channel dispersion-managed differentially phase-modulated systems. This paper first shows through Monte Carlo simulations that the received amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) noise statistics, before photodetection, can be reasonably assumed to be Gaussian, provided a sufficiently large chromatic dispersion is present in the transmission fiber. This paper then evaluates in a closed form the ASE power spectral density by linearizing the interaction between a signal and a noise in the limit of a distributed system. Even if the received ASE is nonstationary in time due to pulse shape and modulation, this paper shows that it can be approximated by an equivalent stationary process, as if the signal were continuous wave (CW). This paper then applies the CW-equivalent ASE model to bit-error-rate evaluation by using an extension of a known Karhunen-Loe/spl acute/ve method for quadratic detectors in colored Gaussian noise. Such a method avoids calculation of the nonlinear phase statistics and accounts for intersymbol interference due to a nonlinear waveform distortion and optical and electrical postdetection filtering. This paper compares binary and quaternary schemes with both nonreturn- and return-to-zero (RZ) pulses for various values of nonlinear phases and bit rates. The results confirm that PG deeply affects the system performance, especially with RZ pulses and with quaternary schemes. This paper also compares ON-OFF keying (OOK) differential phase-shifted keying (DPSK) systems, showing that the initial 3-dB advantage of DPSK is lost for increasing nonlinear phases because DPSK is less robust to PG than OOK.

Fast and Efficient Dynamic WDM Semiconductor Optical Amplifier Model

A novel state-variable model for semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs) that is amenable to block diagram implementation of wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) signals and fast execution times is presented. The novel model is called the reservoir model, in analogy with similar block-oriented models for Raman and erbium-doped fiber amplifiers (EDFAs). A procedure is proposed to extract the needed reservoir model parameters from the parameters of a detailed and accurate space-resolved SOA model due to Connelly, which was extended to cope with the time-resolved gain transient analysis. Several variations of the reservoir model are considered with increasing complexity, which allow the accurate inclusion of scattering losses and gain saturation induced by amplified spontaneous emission. It is shown that at comparable accuracy, the reservoir model can be 20 times faster than the Connelly model in single-channel operation; much more significant time savings are expected for WDM operation. The model neglects intraband SOA phenomena and is thus limited to modulation rates per channel not exceeding 10 Gb/s. The SOA reservoir model provides a unique tool with reasonably short computation times for a reliable analysis of gain transients in WDM optical networks with complex topologies