Demonstration of an eight-user 115-Gchip/s incoherent OCDMA system using supercontinuum generation and optical time gating

A system demonstration of an eight-user optical code-division multiple-access (OCDMA) star network, operating at 115 Gchip/s, with a single user bit rate of 5 Gb/s is presented. Error-free transmission is obtained (10/sup -13/ bit-error rate or better). Our two-dimensional time-wavelength incoherent OCDMA encoding is based on supercontinuum generation and spectral slicing; quadratic-congruence prime codes are generated using off-the-shelf components. Integrated ultrafast delay lines based on spiral waveguides enable rapid selectivity at the decoder. The need for optical time gating at high data rate to remove multiple-access interference at the receiver is also investigated.