Multiwavelength mode-locked dense wavelength division multiplexed optical communication systems

A multi-wavelength mode-locked dense wavelength division multiplexed (MWML-DWDM) optical transmitter, comprising:

• a multiwavelength mode-locked (MWML) laser source comprising a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) disposed in a cavity of said MWML laser source, said SOA being actively driven by a radio frequency (RF) signal and emitting periodic pulses within a plurality of discrete wavelength bands simultaneously at a port of said MWML laser source, where the RF signal oscillates at a frequency whereby one of said frequency and a sub-harmonic of said frequency substantially equals the inverse of the round trip travel time of pulses circulating within a cavity of said MWML laser source;
• a temporal dispersion element which time shifts said plurality of wavelengths by differential wavelength-dependent delays so as to transform pulses emitted by said MWML laser source into a wavelength ordered repetitive periodic (WORP) sequence of optical pulses;
• and
• an optical modulator which modulates an electronic digital data stream onto individual wavelengths in said WORP sequence.

A multi-wavelength mode-locked dense wavelength division multiplexed (MWML-DWDM) optical transmitter, comprising:

• a multiwavelength mode-locked (MWML) laser source comprising a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) disposed in a cavity of said MWML laser source, said SOA being actively driven by a radio frequency (RF) signal and emitting periodic pulses within a plurality of discrete wavelength bands simultaneously at a port of said MWML laser source, where the RF signal oscillates at a frequency whereby one of said frequency and a sub-harmonic of said fundamental frequency substantially equals the inverse of the round trip travel time of pulses circulating within a cavity of said MWML laser source;
• a temporal dispersion element which time shifts said plurality of wavelengths by differential wavelength-dependent delays so as to transform pulses emitted by said MWML laser source into a wavelength ordered repetitive periodic (WORP) sequence of optical pulses;
• a wavelength selective splitter which splits said WORP sequence of optical pulses into at least two pulse sub-sequences, each pulse sub-sequence containing a subset of wavelengths generated by said MWML laser source;
• an optical modulator for each pulse sub-sequence, each optical modulator modulating a digital data stream onto each individual wavelength in a pulse sub-sequence received by the optical modulator;
• and
• an optical combiner that combines an output from each of said optical modulators into a single multiwavelength aggregated optical data stream for transmission.

A multi-wavelength mode-locked dense wavelength division multiplexed (MWML-DWDM) optical transmitter, comprising:

• a plurality of multiwavelength lasers, each multiwavelength laser emitting pulses at a plurality of wavelengths simultaneously at a port of said multiwavelength laser;
• a temporal dispersion element which time shifts said plurality of wavelengths by differential wavelength-dependent delays so as to transform pulses emitted by said multiwavelength lasers into a wavelength ordered repetitive periodic dense wavelength division multiplexed (WORP) sequences of optical pulses;
• an optical modulator for each of said multiwavelength lasers, each optical modulator modulating a digital data stream onto each individual wavelength in said WORP sequence;
• and
• an optical combiner which combines WORP sequences from each optical modulator into a single optical data stream for transmission.

A multi-wavelength mode-locked dense wavelength division multiplexed (MWML-DWDM) optical transmission system, comprising:

• a MWML-DWDM optical transmitter comprising:
• a multiwavelength mode-locked (MWML) laser source including a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) disposed in a cavity of said MWML laser source, said SOA being actively driven by a radio frequency (RF) signal and emitting periodic pulses within a plurality of discrete wavelength bands simultaneously at a port of said MWML laser source, where the RF signal oscillates at a frequency whereby one of said frequency and a sub-harmonic of said frequency substantially equals the inverse of the round trip travel time of pulses circulating within a cavity of said MWML laser source,
• a temporal dispersion element which time shifts said plurality of wavelengths by differential wavelength-dependent delays so as to transform pulses emitted by said MWML laser source into a wavelength ordered repetitive periodic (WORP) sequence of optical pulses, and
• an optical modulator which modulates a digital data stream onto individual wavelengths in said WORP sequence;
• an optical fiber which transmits said WORP sequence;
• and
• a MWML-DWDM optical receiver comprising:
• a DWDM filter which separates said WORP sequence into said plurality of wavelengths, and
• a plurality of optical receivers which demodulate said digital data stream from each of said plurality of wavelengths.

A multi-wavelength mode-locked dense wavelength division multiplexed time-division multiplexed (MWML-DWDM-TDM) optical transmission system, comprising:

• a MWML-DWDM optical transmitter comprising:
• at least one multiwavelength laser emitting periodic pulses within a plurality of discrete wavelength bands simultaneously at a port of said multiwavelength laser,
• a temporal dispersion element for each of said multiwavelength lasers, each temporal dispersion element time shifting said plurality of wavelengths by differential wavelength-dependent delays so as to transform pulses output by said multiwavelength laser into a wavelength ordered repetitive periodic (WORP) sequence of optical pulses,
• an optical modulator for each of said multiwavelength lasers, each optical modulator modulating a digital data stream onto each individual wavelength in said WORP sequence, and
• an optical combiner combines said WORP sequences from each optical modulator in a time shifted temporal order such that a wavelength may be used by more than one optical modulator to transmit data so long as said wavelength is not used in the same pulse-frame, where the pulse frame is the time interval allocated within a WORP pulse sequence to transmission of a single pulse, by said more than one optical modulator;
• an optical fiber which transmits said combined WORP sequences;
• and
• a MWML-DWDM-TDM optical receiver comprising:
• a plurality of optical pulse-frame selectors which select optical data from at least one of a plurality of wavelengths in a particular optical pulse-frame in a received combined WORP sequence,
• a plurality of DWDM filters, each DWDM filter separating the combined WORP sequences in at least one optical pulse-frame into said plurality of wavelengths, and
• a plurality of optical receivers which demodulate said optical digital data streams to obtain electronic digital data streams.

A multi-wavelength mode-locked dense wavelength division multiplexed (MWML-DWDM) optical transmission method, comprising the steps of:

• generating light emission by a multiwavelength laser, said light emission including periodic pulses emitted within a plurality of discrete wavelength bands simultaneously at an output of said multiwavelength laser;
• time shifting pulses in said discrete wavelength bands by differential wavelength-dependent delays so as to transform pulses emitted by said multiwavelength laser into a wavelength ordered repetitive periodic (WORP) sequence;
• and
• modulating a digital data stream onto each individual wavelength in said WORP sequence for transmission.