International Journal of Electronics and Computer Science Engineering Available Online at www.ijecse.

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1274 ISSN- 2277-1956

OPTICAL WAVELENGTH CONVERTERS BASED ON CROSS GAIN MODULATION AND CROSS PHASE MODULATION IN SOA
Vikas Thakur (M.TECH Pursuing) , Ms. Geetanjli Pandove (Assistant Prof.), Tarun Gupta (M.TECH Pursuing) Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering DCRUST MURTHAL, SONEPAT. vks413@yahoo.com
Abstract- All optical wavelength conversion is demonstrated at 10 Gbit/s over a wavelength span of 10 nm without any bit loss by the use of Semiconductor Optical Amplifier (SOA) in a Mach-Zehnder configuration. These wavelength conversion architectures are implemented by using SOA cross-gain modulation (XGM) and cross-phase modulation (XPM) techniques. We have compared the results of both techniques on the basics of Bit Error Rate (BER) and Quality factor. Keywords- Semiconductor Optical Amplifier (SOA), cross-gain modulation (XGM), cross-phase modulation (XPM), Mach-Zehnder Interferometer, BER, extinction ratio(ER).

I.INTRODUCTION All optical wavelength converters are expected to become key components in the future broadband net works. Their most important use will be for avoidance of wavelength blocking in optical cross connects in wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) networks [1-4]. Thereby the converters increase the flexibility and the capacity of the network for a fixed set of wavelengths [5-6]. With the help of wavelength conversion a data stream at a specific wavelength is transferred to another one in order to be routed on a different wavelength path and release the original wavelength resource to another data stream. A. Semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOA)An SOA is an optoelectronic device that under suitable operating conditions can amplify an input light signal. A schematic diagram of a basic SOA is shown in Fig. 1.1. The active region in the device imparts gain to an input signal. An external electric current provides the energy source that enables gain to take place. An embedded waveguide is used to confine the propagating signal wave to the active region. However, the optical confinement is weak so some of the signal will leak into the surrounding lossy cladding regions. The output signal is accompanied by noise. This additive noise is produced by the amplification process itself and so cannot be entirely avoided. The amplifier facets are reflective causing ripples in the gain spectrum. In an SOA electrons (more commonly referred to as carriers) are injected from an external current source into the active region. The gain of an SOA is influenced both by the input signal power and internal noise generated by the amplification process. As the signal power increases the carriers in the active region become depleted leading to a decrease in the amplifier gain. This gain saturation can cause significant signal distortion. It can also limit the gain achievable when SOAs are used as multichannel amplifiers. A typical SOA gain versus output signal power characteristic is saturation output power shown in Fig. 1.2. A useful parameter for quantifying gain saturation is the saturation output power which is defined as the amplifier output signal power at which the amplifier gain is half the small-signal gain.

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1275 OPTICAL WAVELENGTH CONVERTERS BASED ON CROSS GAIN MODULATION AND CROSS PHASE MODULATION IN SOA

Figure 1. SOA structure

Figure 1.2 Gain Saturation

Semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs) are used in the cross gain modulation (XGM) mode or the cross phase modulation (XPM) mode for wavelength conversion. II. CROSS GAIN MODULATION BASED WAVELENGTH CONVERSION A. IntroductionAn all optical wavelength converter is a device that transfers information from one wavelength to another without entering the electrical domain. A simple technique for the realization of this function is the use of cross gain modulation (XGM) in semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOA's).The XGM effect consists on the variation of the SOA gain in function of the input power [7-8]. The increase of the power of the input signal causes in the SOA a depletion of the carrier density, and therefore the amplification gain is reduced. The dynamic processes that take place in the carrier density of the SOA are very fast, of the order of picoseconds, so it is possible to use this variation on the gain with bit to bit fluctuations of the input power. B. Operating principleGain saturation can be simply used for XGM by transmitting two different optical signals together through the semiconductor optical amplifier. Two input data signals are coupled to the SOA: a low power continuous wave signal and a pulsed signal, both at different wavelengths. If an optical pulse is present on the pulsed signal the gain of the SOA decreases, and therefore the continuous signal experiences low amplification. Contrarily, if no light is present on the pulsed signal, the gain of the SOA increases, and consequently the continuous wave signal experiences high amplification [9-10].

Figure 2. Wavelength convertor using XGM in a SOA

In fig 2. the first is the information signal on wavelength. The other is a continuous wave on . In this case the intensity modulation of the first signal will change the gain value of the SOA according to the gain saturation, so that the device will function as an external modulator for the second signal. C. Experimental Set Up-

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Figure 3. Simulation Model for XGM conversion

When the Pump (1550 nm) is in a low power state the SOA will not be saturated and therefore the probe (1540) will experience unsaturated gain. In a high power state the gain is saturated and the probe signal will experience a lower gain. The degree of gain decrease depends to a large extent on the pump power and the injection current applied to the amplifier. In this way, pump modulation is transferred to the probe with the signal being inverted. D. Parameters for Wavelength Converter Based on XGMTable-1 Simulation Parameters

Parameters Input signal wavelength Input signal power CW wavelength CW signal power SOA injection current E. Experimental Results-

values 1550 nm 0.316 mw 1540 nm 0.158 mw 0.15 A

(a)

(b)

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1277 OPTICAL WAVELENGTH CONVERTERS BASED ON CROSS GAIN MODULATION AND CROSS PHASE MODULATION IN SOA

(c)

(d)

Figure 4. (a) Input signal at 1550 nm wavelength. (b) Inverted output signal at 1540 nm wavelength. (c) Eye diagram of the converted signal. (d) BER curve for converted signal at 10 Gbit/s.

It is observed from simulation results that the BER values are very high at low pump power. BER value continuously falls from input power 0.1 mW to 0.3 mW. It is seen from the simulation results that minimum BER value comes out around at 0.3 mW input power. III. CROSS PHASE MODULATION BASED WAVELENGTH CONVERSION A. IntroductionTo overcome the problems with extinction ratio degradation with the XGM scheme, the SOA converter can be used in a XPM mode (also called an interferometic mode for wavelength converters based on (XPM). The XPM scheme relies on the dependency of the refractive index of the carrier density in the active region of the SOA. An incoming signal that depletes the carrier density will modulate the refractive index and thereby result in phase modulation of a CW signal. This phase modulation can be converted in intensity modulation by using a Mach-Zehnder interferometric configuration [11-13]. B. Operating PrincipleThe Mach-Zehnder interferometer consists of a standard interferometric structure with semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs) placed in the two interferometer arms. Each SOA is applied bias current, thereby inverting the carrier population. Wavelength conversion is subsequently achieved in the following way: a data signal at the wavelength is coupled into port #1 of the MZI. As the signal propagates through the upper SOA, it modulates the carrier density, causing a change in the refractive index, and thereby a phase modulation [14-16]. CW-light at the wavelength is coupled into port #3, and is subsequently split equally to the two interferometer arms. In the lower arm the CW-light will experience a constant phase change according to the biasing of the lower SOA. However, in the upper arm the CW-light will experience a phase change depending on the bit pattern of the input data signal. Thus, the CW-light will combine constructively or destructively at the interferometer output depending on the modulation of the input data signal. In this way, the bit pattern is transferred to the CW-light, which is selected at the output using a filter. The transfer function of the Mach-Zehnder interferometer is shown schematically in dB-scale in Fig. 4b. As indicated, the transfer function is periodic, depending on cosine to the phase difference, cos ( ), between the two arms. This means that the converted output signal can either be inverted

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Vikas Thakur et al. or non-inverted compared to the input data signal, simply by operating on the negative or positive slope, respectively.

Fig.4. (a) Schematic of standard wavelength conversion based on XPM in a Mach Zehnder interferometer. (b) The converted output power at versus the data signal input power at (dB-scale).

C. Simulation Setup and ParametersWe have generated a bit sequence at a bit rate of 10 Gbits/s .This information signal has wavelength of 1550 nm is send to upper port of SOA-MZI and the CW signal with wavelength 1540 nm (desired wavelength) is applied at lower port. The same phase-change effect that creates pulse distortion in the cross-gain modulation can be used to create wavelength conversion. As the carrier density in the amplifier varies with the input signal, it produces a change in refractive index, which in turn modulates the phase of the probe. This phase modulation can be converted into intensity modulation by using an interferometer [17].

Figure 5. Simulation Model for XGM conversion

such as a Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI). Finally we use a fabry parot optical filter centered at desired wavelength (1540 nm) with 20 GHz bandwidth. BER analyzer is used to measure the bit error rate and Q factor of the received signal. D. Experimental Results-

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1279 OPTICAL WAVELENGTH CONVERTERS BASED ON CROSS GAIN MODULATION AND CROSS PHASE MODULATION IN SOA

(a)

(b)

(c) (d) Figure 5. (a) Input signal at 1550 nm wavelength. (b) Output signal at 1540 nm wavelength. (c) Eye diagram of the converted signal with no error (d) BER curve for converted signal at 10 Gbit/s.

From fig.5(a) we have find that the input signal at 1550 nm wavelength has its average signal power at 300 and from fig.5(b) shows converted signal at 1540 nm wavelength with 100 average signal power.fig.5(c) shows error free output signal eye diagram. It is observed from the simulation results that the BER value continuously falls from input power 0.1 mW to 0.3 mW as shown in figure 5 (d). It is seen from the simulation results that minimum BER value comes out around at power 0.3 mW.

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IV. CONCLUSION Wavelength conversion using semiconductor optical amplifiers is one of the most intensively developing topic of optical telecommunication research. In this paper the simulation results are presented to determine the performance of wavelength conversion based on SOA XGM and SOA-XPM. The effect of the BER and eye diagram of the output wavelength and the incident optical power of the optical signals and the SOA bias current was examined. We have observed the variation in the value of BER, as we increase the input power , BER values continuously falls. In XGM the minimum bit error rate comes out around at 0.3 mW input power while in XPM the minimum bit error rate comes out around at 0.3 mW input power. The XGM wavelength convertor which is simply made up of a SOA has the demerits that the wavelength-converted output signal is inverted with large chirp, low extinction ratio(ER). But in XPM technique the output signal can either be inverted or non inverted compared to the input data signal with low bit error rate and large extinction ratio. V. REFERENCE
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