Gb / s OTDM Networking using Deployed Fiber

We report a 160 Gb/s OTDM network comprising switching and demultiplexing through field deployed fiber. The 160 Gb/s signal was obtained by time-interleaving 16 channels of a 10 Gb/s signal. The add-drop node was realized by using a gain-transparent operation of a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA). A subharmonic clock recovery with a pre-scaled electro-optical phase locked loop employing an electroabsorption modulator was applied. An OTDM receiver employed a fourwave mixing principle in an SOA. The impact of fiber chromatic and polarization mode dispersion is discussed. Switching and demultiplexing performance are shown for a fiber link of 275 and 550 km, respectively. Excellent operation of clock recovery, drop-through-add function, and transmission was achieved.