Abstract

A semi analytical analysis is carried out to investigate the effect of linear crosstalk due to wavelength converters and other Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) components in the presence of interferometric intensity noise and amplified spontaneous emission on the performance of an optical multi-wavelength transport network employing wavelength converters based on XPM in a Single Mode Fiber (SMF) and Mach-Zehnder Interferometer (MZI), where a new parameter names Relative Output Noise (RON) is identified and accounted for. Theoretical study is done for the Bit Error Rate (BER) performance analysis due to crosstalk and ASE noise. It is found that linear crosstalk induces higher penalty when the number of transmitted channels is increased in the presence of all the above effects. The conditions for conversion at 10 Gbps or more are identified. The initial results for monolithic integrated interferometric wavelength converters are reviewed by transmission of 10 Gb/s converted signals over non-dispersion shifted single mode fiber.