Reconfigurable Time Slot Interchange Based on Four-Wave Mixing and a Programmable Planar Lightwave Circuit

We demonstrate the all-optical reconfigurable time slot interchange (TSI) of individual bits at 40 Gb/s based on four-wave mixing (FWM) and a programmable planar lightwave circuit (PLC). The PLC is used to generate different control signals (masks) that determine which bits undergo TSI. By programming the PLC to generate two different masks, two different TSI patterns are obtained. TSI is achieved using FWM between the data signal and the desired mask with bidirectional propagation in a length of highly nonlinear fiber. Error-free operation is obtained for both of the TSI patterns, with a power penalty <; 5.2 dB, at a bit error rate of 10
^-9
.