Henrik Sunnerud

A comparison between different PMD compensation techniques

We quantify the benefits of using different techniques for compensation of polarization mode dispersion (PMD) in fiber-optic communication systems by means of numerical simulations. This is done both with respect to PMD-induced pulse broadening and in terms of system outage probability for different data formats [nonreturn-to-zero (NRZ) and return-to-zero (RZ)]. Attention is focused on simple and relevant single- and double-stage post-transmission compensators with a few degrees of freedom (DOF). It is generally believed that a PMD compensator with a polarization controller and a variable delay line can only compensate the PMD to the first order. We show, from analytical results, the counterintuitive fact that this scheme can also partially compensate for higher order PMD. We also investigate the benefit of using a polarizer as compensation element where the optical average power can be used as a feedback signal.

Noise characteristics of fiber optical parametric amplifiers

We derive an analytical theory for the noise figure of an undepleted and lossless fiber optical parametric amplifier (FOPA). Both the signal and the wavelength converted idler are investigated. Our theory is applicable for both an ideal pump power source, as well as a noisy one. We find that a noisy pump source can severely degrade the performance at high gain due to the stochastic gain-variations the signal and idler will experience. The theory is compared with Monte Carlo simulations of the FOPA and an excellent agreement is obtained. Simulations in the gain-depleted region show the possibility to reach below quantum-limited, phase-insensitive amplification for single channel transmission.

Polarization-mode dispersion in high-speed fiber-optic transmission systems

We review recent research related to polarization mode dispersion (PMD) in fiber-optic transmission systems operating at 40 Gb/s and above. We investigate the benefits of using different passive techniques for mitigating the effects of PMD, including more advantageous data formats compared to the conventional nonreturn-to-zero (NRZ) format, soliton transmission, and forward error correction (FEC). We also compare a number of active pre- and posttransmission compensators.

High-performance optical-fiber-nonlinearity-based optical waveform monitoring

An all-optical waveform sampling system with simultaneous submilliwatt optical signal sensitivity (20-dB signal-to-noise ratio) and subpicosecond temporal resolution over more than 60-nm optical bandwidth is demonstrated in this paper. The optical sampling was implemented by four-wave mixing in a 10-m highly nonlinear fiber using a sampling pulse source with a sampling pulse peak power of only 16 W. The sampling performance was evaluated in terms of sensitivity, temporal resolution, and optical bandwidth with respect to fiber length, sampling pulse source wavelength offset from the zero-dispersion wavelength of the highly nonlinear fiber, sampling pulse peak power, and walk-off due to chromatic dispersion. This paper also presents a summary of the available methods to achieve polarization-independent optical sampling as well as a brief summary of the available sampling pulse sources viable for optical sampling.

Amplification of WDM signals in fiber-based optical parametric amplifiers

We demonstrate for the first time, experimentally, the performance of fiber-based optical parametric amplifiers in wavelength-division-multiplexed (WDM) applications. Both a 3 /spl times/ 10 Gb/s and a commercial 7 /spl times/ 2.5 Gb/s WDM system are investigated together with the parametric amplifier. Limitations due to pump depletion and four-wave mixing are quantified. Measurements showing the performance in terms of power penalty and gain versus input-output signal power are presented.

A comparison between NRZ and RZ data formats with respect to PMD-induced system degradation

We quantify the polarization-mode dispersion (PMD)-induced system outage probability by means of numerical simulations for nonreturn-to-zero (NRZ) and return-to-zero (RZ) data formats with proper comparative conditions and find that RZ performs better than NRZ. We also study the impact of the RZ duty-factor and the tradeoff between power margin and acceptable PMD.

Software-synchronized all-optical sampling for fiber communication systems

This paper describes a software-synchronized all-optical sampling system that presents synchronous eye diagrams and data patterns as well as calculates accurate Q values without requiring clock recovery. A synchronization algorithm is presented that calculates the offset frequency between the data bit rate and the sampling rate, and as a result, synchronous eye diagrams can be presented. The algorithm is shown to be robust toward poor signal quality and adds less than 100-fs timing drift to the eye diagrams. An extension of the software synchronization algorithm makes it possible to automatically find the pattern length of a periodic data pattern in a data signal. As a result, individual pulses can be investigated and detrimental effects present on the data signal can be identified. Noise averaging can also be applied. To measure accurate Q values without clock recovery, a high sampling rate is required in order to establish the noise statistics of the measured signal before any timing drift occurs. This paper presents a system with a 100-MHz sampling rate that measures accurate Q values at bit rates as high as 160 Gb/s. The high bandwidth of the optical sampling system also contributes to sampling more noise, which in turn results in lower Q values compared with conventional electrical sampling with a lower bandwidth. A theory that estimates the optically sampled Q values as a function of the sampling gate width is proposed and experimentally verified.

Effects of Nonlinearities on PMD-Induced System Impairments

It is well known that cross-phase-modulation-induced polarization rotation, cross-polarization modulation (XPolM), significantly degrades the performance of polarization-mode-dispersion (PMD) compensators. In this paper, the research on XPolM is reviewed, unique simulations of XPolM in the presence of walk off are presented, and some pitfalls are demonstrated with respect to choice of data streams in such simulations. Then, the authors discuss how XPolM affects PMD and PMD-induced outage probabilities (OP) in fiber-communication systems by providing analytical formulas for the OP with and without XPolM. Finally, the XPolM and PMD compensation are tied together by giving simple rules of thumb for when XPolM degrades PMD compensated systems, and PMD mitigation methods that are robust to XPolM are discussed

Analytical theory for PMD-compensation

We derive exact analytical expressions for the expected pulse broadening in a fiber-optic transmission system suffering from both first- and higher order polarization mode dispersion (PMD). Furthermore, we quantify the influence of two simple PMD-compensation techniques.

0.5-Tb/s eye-diagram measurement by optical sampling using XPM-induced wavelength shifting in highly nonlinear fiber

In this letter, we report on a novel all-optical sampling scheme using cross-phase modulation-induced wavelength shifting and optical filtering. Up to 500-Gb/s optical signal eye-diagram measurements have been demonstrated for the first time with a temporal resolution of 0.7 ps. Signal operational wavelength range covering basically the whole erbium-doped fiber amplifier gain range (1535-1569 nm) with temporal resolutions equal to or less than 1 ps was also demonstrated in the experiment. These results show that the sampling system is suitable for directly monitoring and evaluating ultrahigh bit-rate optical time-division multiplexed data at or above 160 Gb/s.