Transparent virtual optical code/wavelength path network

The concept of a virtual optical code/wavelength path (VOCP/VWP) is introduced within the transport layer of the network. A potential solution to wavelength path (WP) allocation problems that may limit the expansion of WDM-based transport on mul-networks is demonstrated by employing optical code division multiplexing (OCDM). Key technologies of the VOC/VWP concept are both optical code and wavelength conversions. A transparent VOCP/VWP network is experimentally demonstrated in the total link lengths of 180 km with four network nodes and at a channel data rate of 10 Gb/s. In the proposed photonic network, network nodes are capable of optical code and wavelength conversions with 8.05 THz ultrawide-band operational bandwidth by supercontinuum generation. Transparency is achieved using optical 3R by clock recovery and optical time-gating.