Wavelength conversion in WDM optical networks: a comparison among different devices based on semiconductor amplifiers

In this paper a comparison between three different optical wavelength converters, all based on travelling wave semiconductor optical amplifiers, is carried out on the ground of a possible use of these devices in the optical layer of the transport network. Cross-gain modulation (XGM), cross-phase-modulation (XPM) and four-wave-mixing (FNM) converters are considered.