MARCH 29, 2007 -- Researchers from optical subsystems supplier Optium Corp. and the Centre for Ultrahigh-bandwidth Devices for Optical Systems (CUDOS) at the University of Sydney, Australia, have demonstrated the ability of Optium's dynamic wavelength-selective switch (WSS) to provide dynamic dispersion compensation—a critical requirement for next-generation 40- and 100-Gbit/sec systems—on a per-channel basis in a DWDM system.
Optium's WSS dynamic dispersion-compensation capability is scheduled to be presented in the Post Deadline Session today at OFC/NFOEC 2007 in Anaheim, CA. The paper will describe "dramatic improvements in system performance" at speeds of 80 Gbits/sec using a standard Optium WSS, with only software changes required to create the dispersion compensation function. This function was overlaid onto the standard control software for Optium's WSS, which, researchers found, was still able to provide the full switching and per-channel amplitude control required for conventional network operation.
"Optium's dynamic dispersion-compensation capability takes the flexibility of the wavelength-selective switch to a higher level," states Michael Roelens of CUDOS and key researcher on the project, "with phase and intensity control leading to new possibilities in optical signal manipulation."
The company's "flexible and futureproof" approach to reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexers (ROADMs) supports conventional add and drop switching functions, as well as dynamic allocation of mixed 50/100-GHz channel plans. It also claims that the ROADM approach provides the industry's only 10-port "Drop and Continue" capability.
CUDOS is an Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence at the University of Sydney, Australia. This work was funded partially by the ARC under the Linkage grant scheme.
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