System and method for mitigating dispersion slope in an optical communication system

• US 20060140632A1
• Filed: 12/28/2004
• Published: 06/29/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 12/28/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Tyco Electronics Subsea Communications LLC (TE Connectivity Limited)
• Original Assignee: Tyco Electronics Subsea Communications LLC (TE Connectivity Limited)
• Inventors: Nissov, Morten, Cai, Jin-Xing, Mohs, Georg Heinrich
• Granted Patent: US 7,616,894 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 398/85
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 10/2507 for the reduction or elimination of distortion or dispersion
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 10/66 Non-coherent receivers, e.g. using direct detection
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 14/0227 Operation, administration, maintenance or provisioning [OAMP] of WDM networks, e.g. media access, routing or wavelength allocation
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 14/0246 using one wavelength per ONU
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 14/0279 WDM point-to-point architectures

Abstract

A system and method for mitigating dispersion slope is capable of reducing the performance impact on an optical communication system caused by dispersion slope. The system and method receives an optical signal, demultiplexes the optical signal and optically filters the demultiplexed optical signals. The optical filters may have a bandwidth that is wide with respect to the demultiplexed optical signals and narrow with respect to the original optical signal.

Claims

1. An apparatus, comprising:

at least one optical time division demultiplexer capable of demultiplexing an original optical signal into demultiplexed component optical signals; and

at least one optical filter capable of optically filtering one of the component optical signals, wherein said optical filter has a bandwidth that is wide with respect to a bandwidth of the component optical signals and narrow with respect to a bandwidth of the original optical signal.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a receiver configured to process the filtered component optical signals.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said optical filter is an optical bandpass filter.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the bandwidth of said optical filter is greater than twice the clock frequency of the demultiplexed component optical signals and less than twice the clock frequency of the original optical signal.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the original optical signal has a bandwidth of about 40 Gigabits per second, and wherein said component optical signals have a bandwidth of about 10 Gigabits per second.

6. The apparatus of claim 5 wherein said optical filter has a bandwidth in the range of about 20 to 80 GHz.

7. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein said optical filter has a bandwidth of about 20 GHz.

8. A receiving terminal comprising:

at least one optical time division demultiplexer capable of demultiplexing a received optical signal into demultiplexed component optical signals;

a plurality of optical filters capable of optically filtering one of the component optical signals, wherein said optical filter has a bandwidth that is wide with respect to a bandwidth of the component optical signals and narrow with respect to a bandwidth of the received optical signal; and

a plurality of receivers configured to process the filtered component optical signals to produce a data stream.

9. The receiving terminal of claim 8, wherein said optical filters include optical bandpass filters.

10. The receiving terminal of claim 8, wherein the bandwidth of said optical filter is greater than twice the clock frequency of the demultiplexed component optical signals and less than twice the clock frequency of the received optical signal.

11. The receiving terminal of claim 8, wherein the received optical signal has a bandwidth of about 40 Gigabits per second, and wherein each of said component optical signals has a bandwidth of about 10 Gigabits per second.

12. The receiving terminal of claim 11 wherein each of said optical filters has a bandwidth in the range of about 20 to 80 GHz.

13. The receiving terminal of claim 11, wherein each of said optical filters has a bandwidth of about 20 GHz.

14. A method of receiving an optical signal, said method comprising:

receiving an optical signal;

time division demultiplexing the optical signal into component optical signals; and

filtering the component optical signals using a filter bandwidth that is wide with respect to the component optical signals and narrow with respect to the received optical signal.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising processing the demultiplexed filtered component optical signals to produce data streams.

16. The method of claim 14 wherein the bandwidth of said optical filter is greater than twice the clock frequency of the demultiplexed component optical signals, and wherein the bandwidth of said optical filter is less than twice the clock frequency of the received optical signal.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein the received optical signal has a bandwidth of about 40 Gigabits per second, and wherein each of said component optical signals has a bandwidth of about 10 Gigabits per second.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein each of said optical filters has a bandwidth in the range of about 20 to 80 GHz.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein each of said filters has a bandwidth of about 20 GHz.

20. An optical communication system, comprising:

a transmitting terminal capable of transmitting at least one optical signal;

an optical channel capable of propagating the optical signal from the transmitting terminal;

a receiving terminal capable of receiving the optical signal propagated by the optical channel, said receiving terminal comprising;

at least one optical time division demultiplexer capable of demultiplexing the received optical signal into demultiplexed component optical signals;

a plurality of optical filters capable of optically filtering one of the component optical signals, wherein said optical filter has a bandwidth that is wide with respect to a bandwidth of the component optical signals and narrow with respect to a bandwidth of the received optical signal; and

a plurality of receivers configured to process the filtered component optical signals to produce a data stream.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein the bandwidth of said optical filter is greater than twice the clock frequency of the demultiplexed component optical signals, and wherein the bandwidth of said optical filter is less than twice the clock frequency of the received optical signal.

22. The system of claim 20, wherein the received optical signal is demultiplexed at a ratio of 1:

4.

23. The system of claim 20, wherein the received optical signal has a bandwidth of about 40 Gigabits per second, and wherein each one of the plurality of component optical signals has a bandwidth of about 10 Gigabits per second.

24. The system of claim 23 wherein each of said optical filters has a bandwidth in the range of about 20 to 80 GHz.

25. The system of claim 23, wherein each of the plurality of optical filters has a bandwidth of about 20 GHz.