September 10, 2010 / Vol. 8, No. 9 / CHINESE OPTICS LETTERS 859
Simultaneous multichannel NRZ-to-RZ format conversion of
4-ASK signal based on phase-intensity hybrid modulation
and dispersion compensation fiber
Wenke Yu (
ßßß
)
∗
, Caiyun Lou (
), Xiaofan Zhao (
), and Dan Lu (
)
Tsinghua National Laboratory for Information Science and Technology, and State Key Laboratory of Integrated
Optoelectronics, Department of Electronic Engineering, Tsinghua Universit y, Beijing 100084, China
∗
E-mail: ywk07@mails.tsinghua.edu.cn
Received May 11, 2010
We prop ose and investigate a novel technique to realize non-return-to-zero (NRZ) to return-to-zero (RZ)
format conversion of a multichannel 4-ary amplitude shift keying (4-ASK) signal. The proposed format
converter composed of two modulators and a dispersion compensating fiber (DCF) is theoretically inves-
tigated using numerical simulation as basis. Research shows that a 4-channel 20-Gb/s NRZ-4-ASK signal
can be converted to a RZ-4-ASK signal simultaneously without wavelength shifting and signal quality
degradation, with the converted signal multiplexed to 40 Gb/s.
OCIS codes: 060.2330, 070.4340, 230.0250.
doi: 10.3788/COL20100809.0859.
Recent unprecedented development of dense wavelength
division multiplexing (DWDM) optical networks has
stimulated the necessity for researching advanced modu-
lation formats with high spectral efficiency; this necessity
stems from the limitations imposed by the gain band-
width of amplifiers and low-loss window of the optical
fiber on the available optical bandwidth of DWDM
[1−3]
.
A higher spectral efficiency modulation format can be
achieved through amplitude multiplexing, such as mul-
tilevel amplitude shift keying (M-ASK). The bandwidth
occupancy of a M-ASK signal is 1/log
2
M of the con-
ventional 2-ASK signal for a specific bit rate, where M
is the number of the intensity levels. 4-ASK has at-
tracted considerable interest because this type of signal
enables doubling the bit rate and exhibits higher tol-
erance to chromatic dispersion and polarization mode
dispersion
[4−11]
. To the best of our knowledge, however,
few studies on signal processing of 4-ASK or multichan-
nel 4-ASK have been reported. The return-to-zero (RZ)
4-ASK signal has been demonstrated to have better dis-
persion robustness than the non-return-to-zero (NRZ)
4-ASK signal
[9]
. NRZ-to-RZ format conversion also has
potential applications in optical nodes between DWDM
and optical time division multiplexing (OTDM) optical
networks
[12]
. In this letter, a NRZ-4-ASK to RZ-4-ASK
format converter is proposed and investigated using nu-
merical simulation as basis. The converter can be used
in multichannel conversions in a broad bandwidth. Re-
search shows that a 4-channel 20-Gb/s NRZ-4-ASK sig-
nal can be successfully convertedtoaRZ-4-ASKsignal
simultaneously without signal quality degradation in the
numerical simulation.
The proposed converter (Fig. 1) is composed of two
components. The first is a LiNbO
3
phase-intensity hy-
brid modulator used to generate a flattened optical mul-
ticarrier and short pulse source
[13,14]
; the second is a
dispersion compensating fiber (DCF). The operation
schematic of the converter is shown in Fig. 2. The NRZ
-4-ASK signal is first launched into a phase modulator
(PM) to acquire chirps (dashed lines) without changing
signal intensity. Here, the clock frequency is equal to
the input signal and must be adjusted to ensure that
the central part of every period of the input signal cor-
responds to the down-chirp generated by the PM. Then,
it passes through an intensity modulator (IM), in which
the timing between PM and IM is controlled by an ad-
justable microwave phase-shifter. This approach enables
the down-chirp to be gated in the IM and the up-chirp
to correspond to the lower transmission area of inten-
sity modulation (shaded areas). Subsequently, the signal
passes through a section of the DCF for down-chirp com-
pensation to realize RZ conversion (solid lines, bottom of
Fig. 2). The converter is applicable to multi-wavelength
Fig. 1. Setup of format converter. AWG: arra yed waveguide
grating.
Fig. 2. Operation principle illustration of NRZ-4-ASK to RZ-
4-ASK format conversion.
1671-7694/2010/090859-04
c
2010 Chinese Optics Letters