E. Iannone

Optical path technologies: a comparison among different cross-connect architectures

The introduction of optical technology in the path layer of the transport network is expected to allow scalable and modular networks to be realized. In this paper, different optical cross-connect architectures, based either on space division or wavelength division switching, are analyzed. A comparative investigation is accomplished considering three issues of primary importance: cross-connect modularity, complexity, and transmission performance. In particular, the transmission performance of a generic path through the network is evaluated by upgrading a previously published analytical model, so to more accurately take into account the in-band crosstalk arising in the cross-connect.

Polarization modulated direct detection optical transmission systems

A novel polarization modulated direct detection (PM-DD) system suitable both for binary and multilevel transmission is presented. At the transmitter the optical field is polarization modulated by a standard modulator. The receiver is based on the estimation of the Stokes parameters of the received optical field by means of a direct-detection optical front end and baseband electrical processing. The Poincare sphere rotation induced by the fiber is compensated by means of a purely electronic algorithm and the decision is performed in the Stokes space. The system performance is evaluated by an analytical model when the only relevant noise source is the receiver thermal noise and when erbium-doped optical amplifiers introduce amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) noise. The system is completely compatible with a direct-detection-based optical network, and it is possible to implement efficient multilevel modulation formats. >

Impact of transmission performance on path routing in all-optical transport networks

The impact of transmission related issues on the routing strategies for transparent all-optical wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) transport networks is analyzed in this paper. Three different categories of routing algorithms are analyzed: algorithms based on the wavelength path (WP) strategy, based on the virtual wavelength path (VWP) strategy and requiring only a limited number of wavelength converters in the network partial virtual wavelength path (PVWP). It results that the PVWP allows a saving in network devices with respect to the WP similar those permitted by the VWP also attaining transmission performances near those attained by the WP that are quite better that those attained by the VWP.

A novel multilevel coherent optical system: 4-quadrature signaling

A novel multilevel coherent optical system is proposed. It is based on the exploitation of the property that the electromagnetic field propagating in a single-mode optical fiber can be represented by a four-dimensional vector whose components are the phase and quadrature terms of the two polarization components of the electrical field. This allows a wider use of the resources of the electromagnetic field for information transmission in order to obtain a spectrally efficient modulation format with a limited end. The net performance gain with respect to multilevel amplitude and phase modulation (N-APK) and N-PSK increases with an increase in the number of levels N. For instance, for N=32 the gain is 1.6 and 7.7 dB with respect to N-APK and N-PSK systems. The effect of laser phase noise on the system performance is evaluated. >

Optical transport networks employing all-optical wavelength conversion: limits and features

An analysis of transmission performance of optical transport networks employing two different types of wavelength conversion (based on four wave mixing and cross phase modulation) and adopting two different node architectures is reported. The performance is evaluated by means of a system modeling which allows one to consider physical phenomena occurring during transmission and all the important impairments that introduce system penalties. The limits of these kinds of network are investigated and the main features are reported. The analysis reveals that both the types of converters can be employed with different features and limitations, according to the considered architecture. An example of geographical network is discussed and its simulated transmission performance is reported.

Phase noise and polarization state insensitive optical coherent systems

The authors present three different schemes that allow compensation of phase noise and polarisation state change by sending a reference channel that is suitably frequency shifted by using polarization modulation together with Stokes parameters detection or computing and inverting the Jones matrix that describes the fiber polarization state transformation. As a conclusion, some comparisons are made among different approaches in order to show how different systems can be tailored to different requirements both in point-to-point and in multipoint networks. >

Evolution of the bandwidth of the principal states of polarization in single-mode fibers.

The bandwidth in which the first-order approximation of the principal states of polarization of a single-mode fiber can be assumed valid is examined. The principal states of polarization and their bandwidth are found for a fiber with both constant coupling and birefringence, and the relationship with the fibers eigenmodes is examined. On the basis of these results, a fiber cascade is analyzed, and a Monte Carlo simulation provides theoretical values of the bandwidth that have been experimentally verified on a 2-km-long concatenation of single-mode dispersion-shifted fibers.

Performance evaluation of an optical multi-carrier network using wavelength converters based on FWM in semiconductor optical amplifiers

An analysis of the transmission performance of optical multi-carrier network layer employing wavelength converters based on four wave mixing in semiconductor travelling wave amplifiers is presented. The all-optical wavelength conversion proposed here would allow the network to fulfil the requirement of flexibility, maintaining the transparency of the optical layer. Analytical results, obtained by an accurate model of the transmission through the network, are reported for two different photonic switching approaches. One is based on a combination of wavelength choice and space switching, while the other one relates to a switching completely in the wavelength domain. In both the cases the results assess satisfactory transmission performances. >

Modeling of in-band crosstalk in WDM optical networks

In this paper, we analyze three different simulation models which allow the impact of in-band crosstalk on the transmission performances of wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) optical networks to be evaluated: an accurate simulation (AS), a Gaussian correlated noise (GCN) model, and a Gaussian white noise (GWN) model. In the AS, an interfering channel is generated at each node and added to the signal after an optical filtering. The final result must be averaged with respect to the message transmitted on the interfering channels and to the phases of the optical carriers. In the GCN the crosstalk term is modeled as a Gaussian correlated noise, whose spectrum coincides with that of the interfering channel. This model can be further simplified if the noise is also assumed uncorrelated (GWN approximation). The results obtained by these simulation models are also compared with those produced by an analytical model allowing to evaluate the in-band crosstalk penalty.

A transparent, all-optical, metropolitan network experiment in a field environment: the "PROMETEO" self-healing ring

In this paper, we present an optical network demonstrator realizing a wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) metropolitan self-healing ring. The network integrate three optical add-drop multiplexer (OADM) nodes, designed by two manufacturing companies adopting different architectures and technological solution. It is so demonstrated that transversal compatibility among optical network entities produced by different companies is possible at the state of the art of the technology. A complete transmission performance characterization of the network has been carried out demonstrating that, in nominal operating conditions and on the most critical path, the error probability is lower that 10/sup -14/. The reconfiguration times in case of failure has been measured too, demonstrating that this network architecture provide fast self-healing mechanism, in line with the requirements of ITU-T recommendations for very high capacity networks.