Abstract

As optical communications evolve in capacity, complexity, bandwidth and density, there are increasing opportunities for novel technologies to contribute. Ultrafast technology (capable of generating pulses of 100 fs or shorter duration) can be used in ultra-high speed Time Domain Multiplexed systems, with data rates as high as 640 Gb/s [1]. Ultrahigh speed TDM can be transmitted over a limited number of wavelength channels (TDM in Figure 1). Alternatively, WDM systems with Tb/s capacity and greater can be constructed by using lower TDM rates with many WDM channels using 100 or more conventional DFB laser diodes [2]. A new scheme for WDM systems has been recently developed using highly chirped pulses (CPWDM in Figure 1) [3], and Code-Division multiplexing (CDMA in Figure 1) has been demonstrated using femtosecond optical pulses and a nonlinear discriminator [4].

© 1998 IEEE