A fast channel-tunable optical transmitter for ultrahigh-speed all-optical time-division multiaccess networks

This paper describes the design and the experimental demonstration of a novel fast channel tunable optical transmitter which is suitable for ultrahigh-speed all-optical time-division multiaccess (TDMA) networks. This optical transmitter is capable of performing fast channel tuning and data modulation in a simple and cost-effective way without using the expensive optical modulators and optical switches. By employing this transmitter, together with the proposed destructive writing scheme, ultrahigh-speed channel multiplexing with relaxed synchronization requirements for data access can be achieved. The demonstrated prototype can be arbitrarily tuned to any one of the 16 1-Gb/s channels in a 16-Gb/s all-optical TDMA network with a channel switching time of less than 5 ns. This is suitable for use in most high-speed optical time-division multiplexed (TDM) systems and tunable-channel multiaccess (TCMA) networks