40 Gbit/s optical 3R regenerator for all-optical networks

A 40 Gbit/s optical 3R regenerator was proposed and demonstrated using wavelength converters based on electroabsorption modulators. It consists simply of two wavelength converters, a clock recovery section and an optical clock generator, and provides polarization insensitive operation as well as simple adjustment of an optimal operation condition. By inserting it between two 500 km transmission lines, a Q factor improvement of about 1.5 dB was obtained after 1000 km transmission, compared to without the regenerator. This type of optical 3R regenerator will prove extremely useful in all-optical networks.