FBG-based bidirectional optical cross connects for bidirectional WDM ring networks

This paper proposes a new bidirectional optical cross connect (BOXC) using fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) and optical circulators for bidirectional wavelength-division-multiplexing ring networks. Dynamic and independent wavelength routing is achieved by employing cascaded tunable FBGs. The proposed BOXC requires a small tuning range equal to wavelength channel spacing for tunable FBGs. Therefore, the wavelength count of the proposed BOXC could be increased easily without imposing constraint on the tuning range of FBGs. Coherent and incoherent crosstalk arising in the proposed BOXC and their impact on the power penalty are studied in detail. The Monte Carlo simulation is used to characterize the probability distribution of the power penalty due to both coherent and incoherent crosstalk under various conditions. The specification requirements are then obtained for the FBGs used in BOXC nodes with a different number of wavelengths. The study in this paper reveals that the requirement for the isolation of FBGs is more stringent than that for the reflectivity of FBGs at the Bragg wavelength. It is also shown that a large BOXC can be built based on the Benes network structure, and a method to reduce the complexity is also presented.