title: Polarization insensitive silicon photonic ROADM with selectable communication direction for radio access networks.
abstract: We report on an experimental prototype of a low-cost silicon photonic reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexer (ROADM). The device is able to operate with up to 12 wavelength division multiplexing channels. In order to control the polarization of the multi-wavelength signal at the input of the device, an integrated polarization controller is investigated as an alternative to the polarization diversity device architecture. The integrated ROADM is equipped with optical switches for the selection of the path direction and variable optical attenuators for optical power control. We demonstrate the polarization insensitive routing of 10 Gb/s channels between two ROADM nodes with error-free transmission.
authors.forename: Vito
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Sorianello
authors.forename: Gabriele De
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Angelis
authors.forename: Tommaso
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Cassese
authors.forename: Massimo Valerio
authors.initials: MV
authors.lastname: Preite
authors.forename: Philippe
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Velha
authors.forename: Alberto
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bianchi
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Romagnoli
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Testa