All-optical signal processing in ultrahigh-speed optical transmission

The coming broadband era will require very high-speed technologies that can handle more than 100-Gb/s for both transmission lines and transmission nodes. Novel all-optical signal processing technologies that offer unsurpassed performance are urgently required. This article briefly reviews the essential photonic technologies required for high-speed optical TDM transmission, including ultrashort optical pulse generation, all-optical multiplexing/demultiplexing, and optical timing extraction techniques. Recent all-optical TDM transmission experiments up to 100 Gb/s are introduced together with major issues and future prospects.<
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