Multi-Stage All-Optical WDM-to-TDM-to-WDM and TDM-to-WDM-to-TDM Data Format Conversion and Reconversion Through 80 km of Fiber and 3 EDFAs

Within a large WDM network, data from N independent WDM channels arriving at a single node may need to be time-division-multiplexed (TDM) onto a single signal at a given wavelength and then transmitted across the network. Such a scenario is advantageous when there is limited available system bandwidth imposed by, for example, system nonlinearities.