Performance of an Adaptive Threshold Receiver in a Dynamic Optical Burst-Switched Network

We compare the performance of a digital receiver operating with both a fixed and adaptive decision threshold in response to gain transients arising from network operation of an optically gain-clamped erbium-doped fiber amplifier. An optical burst switching link, based on a recirculating transmission loop, is used to study the effect of transients accumulated across a number wavelength-routing nodes linked by amplified fiber spans where bursts are added and dropped at each node. The use of an adaptive threshold reduces the amount of optical feedback required by a factor of 6 and, in some cases, allows for unclamped operation.