Waveguide fiber dispersion compensating regenerator
AssigneeCorning Incorporated
InventorAlan F. Evans
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Disclosed is a dispersion compensating optical regenerator that provides for enhanced performance of telecommunication systems employing varying-soliton signal propagation and dispersion compensation. Allowing the solitons to change in amplitude, width and shape while traversing the dispersion compensating optical regenerator provides for beneficial system performance including improved signal to noise ratio at the receiver, reduced impact of signal interactions, and longer regenerator spacing. The regenerator in accord with the invention combines the filtering features of a NOLM or NALM with the advantageous effects of dispersion compensation.
Claims22
A dispersion compensating optical regenerator for use in a waveguide fiber telecommunications system comprising:
- a first optical waveguide fiber having a positive total dispersion and a first length;
- a second optical waveguide fiber for compensating dispersion of said first optical waveguide fiber, said second optical waveguide fiber having a second length and a negative total dispersion and being incorporated into a loop mirror, wherein
- said second optical waveguide fiber carries counter-propagating varying-soliton signals in the loop mirror;
- phase shifting means incorporated in the loop mirror to produce a phase shift between the counter-propagating varying-soliton signals in the loop mirror, the phase shift produced being sufficient to cause varying-soliton signals to be coupled out of the loop mirror;
- wherein,
- the respective first and second lengths multiplied by the respective positive and negative total dispersions of the optical waveguide fibers provide respective dispersion products that add algebraically to provide an average total dispersion over the total length of optical waveguide fiber of the optical regenerator and said dispersion products are chosen to provide an average total dispersion of said dispersion compensating optical regenerator that is within a pre-selected range.
An optical waveguide telecommunications system comprising:
- an optical signal transmitter;
- an optical signal receiver;
- a length of optical waveguide fiber optically coupled between said optical signal transmitter and said optical signal receive;
- and, incorporated into said length of optical waveguide fiber,
- an optical regenerator including a first optical waveguide fiber having a positive total dispersion and a first length;
- a second optical waveguide fiber for compensating dispersion of said first optical waveguide fiber, said second optical waveguide fiber having a second length and a negative total dispersion and being incorporated into a loop mirror, wherein said second optical waveguide fiber carries counter-propagating varying-soliton signals in the loop mirror;
- phase shifting means incorporated in the loop mirror to produce a phase shift between the counter-propagating varying-soliton signals in the loop mirror, the phase shift produced being sufficient to cause varying-soliton signals to be coupled out of the loop mirror;
- wherein,
- the respective first and second lengths multiplied by the respective positive and negative total dispersions of the optical waveguide fibers provide respective dispersion products that add algebraically to provide an average total dispersion over the total length of optical waveguide fiber of the optical regenerator and said dispersion products are chosen to provide an average total dispersion of said dispersion compensating optical regenerator that is within a pre-selected range.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.