Chromatic dispersion

Chromatic dispersion of optical fibers, i.e., the optical frequency dependence of the group delay, dramatically restricts the bit rate that can be transmitted over standard fibers. Chromatic dispersion (CD) must therefore be eliminated, either by appropriate transmission fibers (costly installation), or by fixed dispersion compensators (inflexible), or by adaptive dispersion compensators. Adaptive dispersion compensation requires, in the receiver, the derivation of a control signal which indicates residual CD after the compensator. We have two main contributions to the field of CD compensation:

1) A highly sensitive innovative low-cost CD detection scheme. It is based on a purely electronic arrival time modulation detection of frequency modulated light. The required modulation is so small that it can without restriction be applied to an optical transmitter laser during data transmission. Only a few cheap components are needed. We estimate the total added cost to be < 30 €. Not even a photodetector is needed in practice since the standard photodetector of the optical data receiver can be used. A picture of newest version of our hardware is seen here:

An earlier version was publicly exhibited:

Chromatic dispersion including its sign is being measured at 40Gbit/s in the Audimax Foyer of the Univ. Paderborn on 5 Aug. 2002 by Dr.-Ing. David Sandel, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Reinhold Noé, M.Sc. Biljana Milivojevic (from left to right). 

 

Even more surprising than its low implementation cost is the accuracy of the scheme. The noise is so low that the arrival time modulation detection sensitivity is about 100 attoseconds = 10-16 s = 0.000,000,000,000,000,1 s. Usually a laboratory full of expensive physical equipment is needed before somebody ventures to talk about such small times.

A summarizing publication about the scheme is found here:

2) Chromatic dispersion compensation, using adaptive dispersion compensators of our cooperation partner Teraxion (www.teraxion.com). This includes automated adaptive dispersion compensation using the above-described CD detection scheme as well as the standalone operation of a multichannel CD compensator, where a record capacity of 5.94 Tb/s was demonstrated.

  • Hongbin Zhang, A. Fauzi Abas, Ariya Hidayat, David Sandel, Suhas Bhandare, Frank Wüst, Biljana Milivojevic, Reinhold Noé, Martin Lapointe, Yves Painchaud, and Martin Guy, Tunable Dispersion Compensation Experiment in 5.94 Tb/s WDM Transmission System, Proc. SPIE, Vol. 6021, paper 60210L, Dec. 8, 2005.
  • H. Zhang, S. Bhandare, D. Sandel, A. Hidayat, A. Fauzi, F. Wuest, B. Milivojevic, R. Noé, M. Guy, M. Lapointe, and Y. Painchaud, Adaptive chromatic dispersion compensation in 1.6 Tbit/s DPSK and ASK transmission experiments over 44...94 km of SSMF, Proc. SPIE, Vol. 6021, paper 60212L, Dec. 8, 2005.
  • S. Bhandare, D. Sandel, A. Hidayat, A. Fauzi, H. Zhang, F. Wüst, B. Milivojevic, R. Noé, M. Guy, M. Lapointe, Y. Painchaud, 1.6 Tb/s (40×40 Gb/s) Transmission over 44...94 km of SSMF with Adaptive Chromatic Dispersion Compensation, IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett., Vol. 17, 2005, No. 12, pp. 2748 - 2750
  • H. Zhang, A. Fauzi Abas, A. Hidayat, D. Sandel, S. Bhandare, F. Wüst, B. Milivojevic, R. Noé, M. Lapointe, Y. Painchaud, M. Guy, Tunable Dispersion Compensation Experiment in 5.94 Tb/s WDM Transmission System, Asia-Pacific Optical Communications Conference (APOC 2005), 6–10 November 2005, Shanghai, China, Session 3a, paper 6021-20
  • H. Zhang, S. Bhandare, D. Sandel, A. Hidayat, A. Fauzi Abas, F. Wüst, B. Milivojevic, R. Noé, M. Guy, M. Lapointe, Y. Painchaud, Adaptive chromatic dispersion compensation in 1.6 Tbit/s DPSK and ASK transmission experiments over 44...94 km of SSMF, Asia-Pacific Optical Communications Conference (APOC 2005), 6–10 November 2005, Shanghai, China, Session 10a, paper 6021-98
  • A. Hidayat, A. Fauzi Abas, D. Sandel, S. Bhandare, H. Zhang, F. Wüst, B. Milivojevic, R. Noé, M. Lapointe, Y. Painchaud, M. Guy, 5.94 Tb/s capacity of a multichannel tunable −700 to −1200 ps/nm dispersion compensator, Proc. 31st European Conference on Optical Communication ECOC 2005, 25-29 September 2005, Glasgow, Scotland, We1.2.5, Vol. 3, pp. 329-330
  • Selwan K. Ibrahim, S. Bhandare, D. Sandel, A. Hidayat, A. Fauzi, R. Noe, "Low-Cost, Signed Online Chromatic Dispersion Detection Scheme Applied to a 2×10 Gb/s RZ-DQPSK Optical Transmission System", Conference digest 7th Optical Fibre Measurement Conference OFMC 2005, 21-23 September 2005, Teddington, UK, pp. 83-86
  • A. Hidayat, S. Bhandare, D. Sandel, A. Fauzi Abas, H. Zhang, B. Milivojevic, R. Noé, M. Guy, M. Lapointe, Adaptive 700...1350 ps/nm chromatic dispersion compensation in 1.6 Tbit/s (40x40 Gbit/s) DPSK and ASK transmission experiments over 44...81 km of SSMF, 6. ITG-Fachtagung Photonische Netze, ITG-Fachbericht 186, pp. 91-93, VDE Verlag, 2.-3. May 2005, Leipzig, Germany
  • B. Milivojevic, A. F. Abas, A. Hidayat, S. Bhandare, D. Sandel, R. Noé, M. Guy, M. Lapointe, 1.6-bit/s/Hz, 160-Gbit/s, 230-km RZ-DQPSK Polarization Multiplex Transmission with Tunable Dispersion Compensation, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters, Vol. 17, 2005, pp. 495-497
  • D. Sandel, S. Bhandare, A. Fauzi, B. Milivojevic, R. Noe, M. Guy, and M. Lapointe, “Automatic Tunable Chromatic Dispersion Compensation at 40 Gbit/s in ASK and DPSK NRZ and CSRZ, 263 km Transmission Experiments”, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters, 2004, pp. 1568-2570
  • B. Milivojevic, A. Fauzi Abas, A. Hidayat, S. Bhandare, D. Sandel, R. Noé, M. Guy, M. Lapointe, 160Gbit/s, 1.6bit/s/Hz RZ-DQPSK Polarization-Multiplexed Transmission over 230km Fiber with TDC, Proc. 30th European Conference on Optical Communication ECOC 2004, September 5-9, 2004, Stockholm, Sweden, We1.5.5
  • S. Bhandare, D. Sandel, A. F. Abas, B. Milivojevic, A. Hidayat, R. Noe, M.Guy, M. Lapointe, "2×40 Gbit/s RZ-DQPSK transmission with tunable chromatic dispersion compensation in a 263 km fiber link", Electronics Letters, 2004
  • R. Noé, D. Sandel, S. Bhandare, F. Wüst, B. Milivojevic, V. Mirvoda, "Signed online chromatic dispersion monitoring by synchronous detection of FM-induced arrival time modulations in the clock recovery PLL" , Journal of Optical Networking, Optical Society of America, Vol. 3, No. 8, pp. 589 - 600, 2004
  • S. Bhandare, D. Sandel, A. Fauzi Abas Ismail, B. Milivojevic, R. Noe, M. Guy, M. Lapointe, Fully automatic, tunable chromatic dispersion compensation at 40 Gbit/s in ASK and DPSK, NRZ and CSRZ, 263 km transmission experiments, Ninth Optoelectronics and Communications Conference/Third International Conference on Optical Internet (OECC/COIN2004), 15C1-4, Yokohama, Japan, July 12-16, 2004
  • D. Sandel, S. Bhandare, A. Fauzi Abas Ismail, F. Wüst, B. Milivojevic, A. Hidayat, R. Noe, M. Guy, M. Lapointe, 2×40 Gbit/s RZ-DQPSK transmission over 263 km of fiber with tunable chromatic dispersion compensator, Ninth Optoelectronics and Communications Conference/Third International Conference on Optical Internet (OECC/COIN2004), 16C2-3, Yokohama, Japan, July 12-16, 2004
  • B. Milivojevic, D. Sandel, S. Bhandare, R. Noé, F. Wüst, Chromatic Dispersion Detection in a 40Gbit/s CSRZ-DPSK Transmission, p. 91, YUINFO, 8-12 March 2004, Kopaonik, Serbia and Montenegro.
  • D. Sandel, S. Bhandare, B. Milivojevic, R. Noe, M. Guy, M. Lapointe, Automated tunable chromatic dispersion compensation at 40 Gbit/s, 5. ITG-Fachtagung "Photonische Netze", Leipzig, Germany, 3.-4. May 2004, pp. 199-201
  • B. Milivojevic, D. Sandel, S. Bhandare, R. Noé, F. Wüst, 40Gbit/s CSRZ-DPSK Transmission System with Signed Online Chromatic Dispersion Detection, Electronics Letters, vol. 39, no. 20, 2nd October, 2003, pp. 1455-1456
  • B. Milivojevic, D. Sandel, S. Bhandare, R. Noé, F. Wüst, Practical 40Gbit/s CSRZ-DPSK Transmission System with Signed Online Chromatic Dispersion Detection. Proc. ECOC-IOOC 2003, Rimini, Italy, Tu3.6.4.
  • R. Noé, Z. Gao, Design of a tunable optical chromatic dispersion compensator with simplified control of a Mach-Zehnder lattice, and dispersion slope mitigation, Electrical Engineering, 2003, DOI: 10.1007/s00202-003-0186-2
  • R. Noé, Z. Gao, Mach-Zehnder lattice based tunable chromatic dispersion  compensator design with simplified control and dispersion slope mitigation, European Conference on Integrated Optics (ECIO 2003), Prague, CZ, 2-4 April 2003, WeA3.1, vol. 1, pp. 75-78
  • Sandel, D., Mirvoda, V., Wüst, F., Noé, R.: Robust Signed Online Chromatic Dispersion Detection at 40Gbit/s Without Any Extra Optics or High-Frequency Electronics. Photonics 2002, 16-18 Dec. 2002, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, India
  • Sandel, D., Mirvoda, V., Wüst, F., Noé, R.: Robust, signed, online chromatic dispersion detection in a 40Gbit/s optical transmission link. Electrical Engineering, DOI 10.1007/s00202-002-0138-2, 7. Sept. 2002 and Electrical Engineering, 85(2003), pp. 41-44
  • Sandel, D., Mirvoda, V., Wüst, F., Noé, R., Weiske, C.-J.: Signed online chromatic dispersion detection at 40Gb/s based on arrival time detection with a 60-attosecond dynamic accuracy. Electron. Lett., Vol. 38, no. 17, 15th August, 2002, pp. 984-986
  • Sandel, D., Mirvoda, V., Wüst, F., Noé, R., Hinz, S.: Signed online chromatic dispersion detection at 40Gb/s with a sub-ps/nm dynamic accuracy. Proc. 28th European Conference on Optical Communication (ECOC 2002), Vol. 3, 6.1.4, Copenhagen, DK