| With propagation in a network, the quality of signals is degraded by the accumulation of noise, dispersion, crosstalk and nonlinear effects, requiring regeneration every so often. All-optical regenerators provide an attractive alternative to regeneration without the associated drawbacks of conventional Optical-to-Electrical-to-Optical repeaters. Consisting of an erbium doped fiber amplifier followed by highly nonlinear fiber and an optical bandpass filter, a fiber based all-optical regenerator that utilizes self phase modulation is investigated. Using the input versus output peak power relationship, the regenerator is modelled with different filter parameters (offset between the regenerator's input signal carrier frequency and the filter center frequency, bandwidth, order) and fiber parameters (dispersion, dispersion slope, nonlinear coefficient, length, and loss). The modelling results show that the filter offset is the most important filter parameter followed by the .bandwidth and order. Modelling also reveals that use of a smaller offset reduces the power needed to operate the device, enhances efficiency, and decreases the level of variation in the regenerator's output power. Larger bandwidths, on the other hand, help to enhance efficiency while reducing the output power variation. As for the fiber parameters, the modelling results show that the dispersion determines the stability of the device and the needed power for operation. The parameters of nonlinear coefficient, dispersion slope, loss, and length determine the compactness of the regenerator (through the needed length of fiber), its efficiency, and the needed power to operate the device. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)... |
