title: Performance of an optical equalizer in a 10 G wavelength converting optical access network.
abstract: A centralized optical processing unit (COPU) that functions both as a wavelength converter (WC) and optical burst equaliser in a 10 Gb/s wavelength-converting optical access network is proposed and experimentally characterized. This COPU is designed to consolidate drifting wavelengths generated with an uncooled laser in the upstream direction into a stable wavelength channel for WDM backhaul transmission and to equalize the optical loud/soft burst power in order to relax the burst-mode receiver dynamic range requirement. The COPU consists of an optical power equaliser composed of two cascaded SOAs followed by a WC. Using an optical packet generator and a DC-coupled PIN-based digital burst-mode receiver, the COPU is characterized in terms of payload-BER for back-to-back and backhaul transmission distances of 22, 40, and 62 km. We show that there is a compromise between the receiver sensitivity and overload points that can be optimized tuning the WC operating point for a particular backhaul fiber transmission distance. Using the optimized settings, sensitivities of -30.94, -30.17, and -27.26 dBm with overloads of -9.3, -5, and >-5 dBm were demonstrated for backhaul transmission distances of 22, 40 and 62 km, respectively.
authors.affiliation: Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, University College London (UCL), London, UK. j.mendinueta@ee.ucl.ac.uk
authors.forename: José Manuel D
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Mendinueta
authors.forename: Bowen
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Cao
authors.forename: Benn C
authors.initials: BC
authors.lastname: Thomsen
authors.forename: John E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Mitchell