Abstract
The trend toward hlgher bit rates in lightwave systems puts an increasing emphasis on the need for high-bandwidth drive electronics. At Gbit/s data rates, it becomes increasingly difficult to develop electronic drive circuits which do not degrade system performance. One approach to relieving this electronic speed bottleneok is to time multiplex a number of lower bit-rate signals in the optical domain rather than the electrical domain. The potential of optical time-division muitiplexing (OTDM) and demultipiexing has been recognized for more than a decade,1 but until recently there have been few practical demonstrations of the technique. This has been due to a lack of hlgh-speed optical switches and high-repetition-rate short optical pulse streams, The recent advent of very high-speed Ti:LiNbO3 waveguide switch/modulators2 and high-repetition-rate optical pulse trains from semiconductor lasers has enabled viable system demonstrations to be carried out.3,4
© 1988 Optical Society of America
PDF ArticleMore Like This
R. S. TUCKER, S. K. KOROTKY, G. EISENSTEIN, L. L. BUHL, J. J. VESELKA, G. RAYBON, BRYON L. KASPER, A. H. GNAUCK, and RODNEY C. ALFERNESS
ThB2 Optical Fiber Communication Conference (OFC) 1988
Kristin Rauschenbach, Katie Hall, John Moores, Steve Finn, Rick Barry, William Wong, Hermann Haus, Eric Ippen, and Mark Haner
PWE4 Photonics in Switching (PS) 1995
H. NISHIMOTO
TUI1 Optical Fiber Communication Conference (OFC) 1990