Advanced flexible wavelength routing based on Bragg trans-reflectance in 1550 nm VCSEL

Abstract

We experimentally present a wavelength routing approach for optical networks with dynamic traffic pattern. All-optical wavelength conversion, energy efficient VCSELs and precise wavelength selective FBGs are adopted to achieve this. In our study, a 1546.07 nm master VCSEL with a 22-dBm output power is optically injected to the side mode of a 1547.32 nm VCSEL, resulting to a new up-converted wavelength with 23.07 dB Extinction ratio. The newly converted wavelength is modulated with 8.5 Gbps data and transmitted over 24.7 km SMF. A maximum penalty of 4.41 dB is incurred over the converted wavelength. A 1547.34 nm DFB laser is modulated with 10 Gbps data and multiplexed with the newly converted wavelength. The 24.6 dB wavelength isolation and precise double reflection due to Bragg effect on a 1547.32 nm FBG is adopted to optically route the DFB channel at the network integration node. We prove a viable approach to address content resolution in current and future high-speed optical networks.