Actual speed limitations of wavelength switching for optical networks

Gavin Mulvihill; Yonglin Yu; Sean O'Duill; Ronan F. O'Dowd

doi:10.1117/12.464080

27 August 2003 Actual speed limitations of wavelength switching for optical networks

Gavin Mulvihill, Yonglin Yu, Sean O'Duill, Ronan F. O'Dowd

Proceedings Volume 4876, Opto-Ireland 2002: Optics and Photonics Technologies and Applications; (2003) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.464080
Event: OPTO Ireland, 2002, Galway, Ireland

Abstract

Due to the continuous growth of data traffic current telecommunications systems are being pushed to the extremes of their capacity. Bottlenecks are particularly evident at the routers, where optical to electrical conversion must take place to read the routing information. Using optical only routing, traffic flow would be much more streamlined. Central to this optical routing is the tunable laser, the speed of the routing is obviously dependent on the speed at which the laser can switch between different wavelengths. Wavelength switching is achieved through the application of currents to the front, back and phase sections of the laser. With each change in current there is a corresponding change in the temperature of the laser. It is extremely important to quantify and minimise the temperature effects for stable accurate wavelength output. A measurement rig which had been previously used for high speed switching has been setup under labview control to study these transients. The laser is tuned to a wavelength and then is switched to another wavelength by applying currents to the three sections quickly. A fabry perot interferometer is used to quickly determine the wavelength of the laser.

Citation Download Citation

Gavin Mulvihill, Yonglin Yu, Sean O'Duill, and Ronan F. O'Dowd "Actual speed limitations of wavelength switching for optical networks", Proc. SPIE 4876, Opto-Ireland 2002: Optics and Photonics Technologies and Applications, (27 August 2003); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.464080

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