Online Group-Velocity Dispersion Monitor Based on Clock Frequency Power Analysis

In this letter, we demonstrate a cost-effective technique to monitor the group-velocity dispersion (GVD) of an optical fiber link. The described method is based on the measurement of the electrical signal power at clock frequency, and is able to return the magnitude value and sign of the GVD. We demonstrate, through simulation, that this technique enables the measurement of the group-velocity along a fiber link in the range [-625, 625] ps.nm^-1 for a 10-Gb-s^-1 optical signal.