Delivering 10 Gb/s optical data with picosecond timing

We report a method to determine propagation delays of optical 10 Gb/s data traveling through a 75 km long amplified fiber link with an uncertainty of 4 ps. The one-way propagation delay is determined by twoway exchange and cross correlation of short (< 1 ms) bursts of 10 Gb/s data, with a single-shot time resolution better than 2.5 ps. We thus achieve a novel optical communications link suited for both long-haul high-capacity data transfer and time transfer with picosecond-range uncertainty. This opens up the perspective of synchronized optical telecommunication networks allowing picosecond-range time distribution and millimeter-range positioning. ©2013 Optical Society of America OCIS codes: (060.0060) Fiber optics and optical communications; (060.2360) Fiber optics links and subsystems; (060.2400) Fiber properties; (120.0120) Instrumentation, measurement, and metrology; (120.3930) Metrological instrumentation. References and links 1. 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