All optical wavelength converter and its application in optical network

Abstract

All optical network (AON) is a hot topic in recent studies of optical fiber communications. Key techniques in AON include optical switching/routing, optical cross connection (OXC), all optical wavelength conversion (AOWC), all optical buffering, etc. Optical switching/routing is in fact wavelength switching/routing. OXC and wavelength conversion (WC) are introduced into cross nodes so that a virtual wavelength path is established. With WC, communication route is formed only if there is unused wavelength in an individual segment link. The rate wavelength usage is thus greatly increased. The blocking rate of network can be reduced by adding WCs, especially for huge capacity multiple nodes ones. Therefore, WC has attracted much attention in basic research of optical communication and is used in some experimental networks. This dissertation studies all optic wavelength conversion and its application, with the contributions in the following five aspects.