Abstract

2R and 3R optical regenerators will play an important role in future large-scale all-optical networks. In this paper we perform an analysis and design of a 2R optical regenerator consisting of a saturable absorber (SA), a highly nonlinear fiber (HNF), and a narrowband optical bandpass filter (OBPF) as shown in Fig.l. This regeneration scheme is a lumped version of soliton transmission control by means of guiding filters and saturable absorbers.^1,2 The regenerator has advantages that no local signal source is needed, which makes the system simpler, and that phase information of the signal is retained so that we may benefit from using improved modulation formats such as carrier-suppressed RZ.

© 2002 Optical Society of America