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JOURNAL OF LIGHTWAVE TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 24, NO. 12, DECEMBER 2006

Ultrahigh-Speed OTDM-Transmission Technology

Hans-Georg Weber, Reinhold Ludwig, Sebastian Ferber, Carsten Schmidt-Langhorst, Marcel Kroh,
Vincent Marembert, Christof Boerner, and Colja Schubert

Invited Paper

AbstractThis paper reviews ultrahigh-speed data transmission in optical fibers based on optical time division multiplexing
(OTDM) transmission technology. Optical signal processing in the
transmitter and receiver as well as the requirements on ultrahighspeed data transmission over a fiber link are discussed. Finally,
results of several OTDM-transmission experiments, including
160-Gb/s transmission over 4320 km, 1.28-Tb/s transmission over
240 km, and 2.56-Tb/s transmission over 160-km fiber link, are
described.
Index TermsOptical communication, optical signal processing, time division multiplexing (TDM), ultrafast optics.

I. I NTRODUCTION

PTICAL networks use a combination of wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) and time division multiplexing
(TDM) to optimize the transmission capacity. TDM may be
realized by electrical multiplexing (ETDM) or by optical multiplexing (OTDM) to a high-speed data signal. Currently, the first
40-Gb/s systems based on ETDM have been installed, and in
laboratories, the first 100-Gb/s ETDM experiments have been
performed. On the other hand, at the same data rates, OTDMtransmission experiments were carried out about ten years
earlier. For instance, the first 100-Gb/s OTDM-transmission
experiment over a 36-km fiber link was already reported in 1993
[1]. Since then, OTDM-transmission technologies have made a
lot of progress toward much higher bit rates and much longer
transmission links, as has been described in several review
articles [2][4] and will be discussed in this paper with special
emphasis on the most recent developments. For example, we
will report on 160-Gb/s transmission over a record length of
4320 km [5] and on 2.56-Tb/s transmission over 160 km [6].
OTDM-transmission technology is often considered to be
an interim technique with which to study high-speed data
transmission in fiber and which will be replaced by ETDM as
soon as electrical signal processing becomes available at the
required data rate. We expect that ETDM will replace OTDM
Manuscript received April 26, 2006; revised September 20, 2006. This work
was supported in part by the Bundesministerium fuer Bildung und Forschung
(BMBF) of the Federal Republik of Germany in the National Program MultiTeraNet and in part by the Companies Lucent Technologies in Nuremberg,
Germany, and Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd. in Japan.
The authors are with the Fraunhofer Institute for Telecommunications,
Heinrich-Hertz-Institut, Einsteinufer 37, 10587 Berlin, Germany (e-mail:
hgweber@hhi.fhg.de;
hgweber@fraunhofer.hhi.de;
ludwig@hhi.fhg.de;
sebastian.ferber@hhi.fraunhofer.de;
carsten.schmidt-langhorst@hhi.
fraunhofer.de;
marcel.kroh@gmx.de;
vincent.marembert@web.de;
chboerner@gmx.de; colja.schubert@hhi.fhg.de).
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/JLT.2006.885784

at the TDM bit rate of 100 Gb/s within the next two years
and probably at the TDM bit rate of 160 Gb/s in the future.
From this viewpoint, the main task with regard to OTDM
technology is to investigate the feasibility of ultrahigh-speed
data transmission. One has to study how the advantages of
high TDM bit rates are eventually eroded by an increase in
detrimental effects. A higher TDM bit rate makes transmission
systems more vulnerable to chromatic dispersion (CD) and
polarization-mode dispersion (PMD), as well as creating the
need for a higher optical signal-to-noise ratio (OSNR) in the
wavelength channel. A higher OSNR is obtained by employing
a higher signal power, and this will make the system more
sensitive to fiber nonlinearity.
A different and more challenging view as regards OTDM
technology is that optical networks will evolve into photonic
networks, in which ultrafast optical signals of any bit rate
and modulation format will be transmitted and processed from
end to end without opticalelectricaloptical conversion. With
this as the target, OTDM technology presents us with the
challenge of investigating and developing high-speed optical
signal processing and exploring the ultimate capacity for fiber
transmission in a single wavelength channel. The photonic
network appears to be a task for the distant future, and ETDM
technology will dominate commercial transmission systems in
the near future.
This paper is organized as follows: Section II-A gives a
general description of an OTDM system, followed by a discussion of the OTDM transmitter in Section II-B, of the OTDM
receiver in Section II-C, and of the fiber link in Section II-D.
Transmission experiments are described in Section III, starting with a review on 160-Gb/s transmission experiments in
Section III-A and followed by a detailed description of two
160-Gb/s transmission experiments, transmission with longterm stability in Section III-B, and transmission over a record
fiber length of 4320 km in Section III-C. In Section III-D,
we report on transmission experiments at data rates beyond
160 Gb/s, including a detailed description of a 1.28-Tb/s transmission over 240 km and on a 2.56-Tb/s transmission over
160 km. Finally, Section IV summarizes our conclusions on the
present state of OTDM technology.
II. OTDM-T RANSMISSION S YSTEM
A. General Description
Fig. 1 (upper part) is a schematic illustration of a 160-Gb/s
OTDM-transmission system as an example. The essential

0733-8724/$20.00 2006 IEEE

WEBER et al.: ULTRAHIGH-SPEED OTDM-TRANSMISSION TECHNOLOGY

Fig. 1. Schematic view of a 160 Gb/s OTDM transmission system (upper part)
and of a simplified laboratory system (lower part of the figure).

component on the transmitter side is an optical-pulse source.

The repetition frequency of a generated pulse train depends on
the base data rate (or on the symbol rate, see Section II-B)
used. The system shown in Fig. 1 has a base data rate of
40 Gb/s. The 40-GHz optical-pulse train is coupled into four
optical branches, in which modulators (MOD) driven by
40-Gb/s nonreturn-to-zero (NRZ) electrical data signals generate 40-Gb/s optical return to zero (RZ) data signals. The
modulation formats include ON OFF keying (OOK), differential phase shift keying (DPSK), differential quadrature phase
shift keying (DQPSK), etc. The four optical data signals
(TDM channels) are bit-interleaved to generate a multiplexed
160-Gb/s optical data signal. Multiplexing (MUX) can be such
that all bits of the multiplexed data signal have the same
polarization (SP multiplexing, SP signal), or adjacent bits
have alternating (orthogonal) polarization (AP multiplexing,
AP signal). On the receiver side, the essential component is an
optical demultiplexer (DEMUX), which separates the four base
rate data signals (TDM channels) for subsequent detection and
electrical signal processing.
The DEMUX shown in Fig. 1 comprises two parts: an
optical gate and a clock-recovery device. The optical gate is
a fast switch with a switching time that is shorter than the bit
period (6.25 ps for 160 Gb/s) of the multiplexed data signal.
The clock-recovery device provides the timing signal for
the optical gate. The transmission link requires, in general,
compensation for CD and PMD, which both depend on the
type of single-mode fiber used in the transmission system. In
Sections II-BD, we discuss the OTDM transmitter, the OTDM
receiver, and the fiber transmission line in more detail.
Laboratory systems are frequently simplified as follows
(Fig. 1, lower part): On the transmitter side, only one modulator
is used and combined with the pulse source for a 40-Gb/s optical transmitter. The generated optical data signal is then multiplexed by a fiber-delay-line multiplexer (MUX) to a 160-Gb/s
data signal using either SP or AP multiplexing. On the receiver
side, only one 40-Gb/s TDM channel is selected and detected
by one 40-Gb/s optoelectronic receiver at a given time. In a
proper experiment, all TDM channels are measured successively in this way.
In this paper, we discuss point-to-point transmission links,
as shown in Fig. 1. We do not consider network components

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Fig. 2. Pulse spectrum of mode-locked laser diode, which was successfully

operated in 160 Gb/s DPSK transmission experiments.

and subsystems such as adddrop MUXs (e.g., [7][10]), wavelength converters (e.g., [11][14]), modulation-format converters (e.g., [15]), optical regenerators (e.g., [16]), and optical
sampling systems (e.g., [17], [18]). Also, OTDM/WDM transmission systems are not discussed in detail.
B. OTDM Transmitter
The pulse source is a key component in an OTDM
transmitter. The pulse source must provide the following: a
well-controlled repetition frequency and wavelength, transform
limited pulses, a pulsewidth significantly shorter than the bit
period of the multiplexed data signal, a timing jitter much less
than the pulsewidth, low amplitude noise, and a high extinction
ratio. Typical values for stable 160-Gb/s transmission are jitter
< 300 fs, pulsewidth [full-width at half-maximum (FWHM)]
< 2 ps for SP multiplexing and < 4 ps for AP multiplexing,
extinction ratio > 27 dB, and amplitude noise < 3%. Moreover,
if some sort of phase-modulation format such as DPSK or
DQPSK is used, there are further pulse-source requirements,
namely, the pulse source must be highly stable in terms of
carrier phase and wavelength.
Pulse sources used for high bit-rate transmission experiments
include mode-locked laser diodes (MLLDs), either external
cavity devices (e.g., [19], [20]) or monolithically integrated
devices (e.g., [21], [22]), mode-locked fiber lasers (MLFLs)
(e.g. [23], [24]), mode-locked solid-state lasers (MLSLs) [25],
and externally modulated cw lasers [pulse carving, e.g., by
an electro-absorption modulator (EAM)] (e.g., [26]). These
pulse sources provide in general a 10-GHz or 40-GHz pulse
train with a pulsewidth of a few picoseconds. If the pulsewidth
is not sufficiently narrow for the considered bit rate, some
sort of subsequent pulse compression and optical regeneration
(e.g., [28][31]) is used. High-power pulses can generate
a supercontinuum spectrum. Spectral slicing provides a
multiwavelength pulse source, which is of particular interest for
WDM/OTDM applications (supercontinuum pulse generation,
SC-pulses) (e.g., [27]).
Fig. 2 shows the optical spectrum (mode comb spectrum) of
a 40-GHz pulse train generated by a monolithically integrated
MLLD. A small linewidth and a large contrast ratio of the mode

4618

combs indicate a pulse train with low phase and amplitude

noise. If phase-modulation formats such as DPSK or DQPSK
are used, this spectrum needs to have a long-term stability in
the wavelength position appropriate for the phase demodulator
in the receiver (IIC). This is often a problem for the MLFL.
This laser needs harmonic mode locking, and long-term
wavelength stability is a critical issue.
In OTDM experiments, Lithium-Niobate (LiNbO3 ) modulators are most frequently used to modulate the generated pulse
train. Only in few OTDM experiments, EAMs were applied.
The modulation characteristics of LiNbO3 modulators are very
broadband (up to 80 GHz) and little dependent on wavelength
in the 1.3-to-1.5-m range. In addition, a nearly perfect
phase shift is obtained in DPSK and DQPSK systems by use
of a pushpull-operated LiNbO3 MachZehnder modulator,
which is biased at zero transmission and driven by two times
the -switching voltage [32], [33]. This modulator may show
some residual amplitude modulations. Those, however, are less
detrimental than deviations from the desired phase shift [34].
In a DPSK system, each pulse is modulated in the phase
with n , n {0, 1}, whereas in a DQPSK system, each
pulse is modulated in the phase with n /2, n {0, 1, 2, 3}.
Consequently, in a DQPSK-modulated signal, each symbol
(optical pulse) carries one out of four logical states instead of
one out of two states as in an OOK or a DPSK system. For
OOK and DPSK, the data rate is equal to the symbol rate,
whereas for DQPSK, the data rate is twice the symbol rate.
Most optical MUXs are of the kind as schematically depicted
in the lower part of Fig. 1. These delay-line MUXs generate
a high bit-rate test signal for laboratory experiments by combining several replicas of one data signal with different relative
delays. They are realized by using 2 2 optical couplers and
optical delay lines either as fiber devices or as planar lightwave
circuits. An important requirement for these test multiplexers
is that there is no correlation between the adjacent bits of the
multiplexed data signal. This is obtained by employing a delay
time, which is long compared with the bit period of the input signal.
Real OTDM MUXs would use different modulators (see
upper part of Fig. 1) to provide a multiplexed data signal. An example of a real MUX is reported in [35] and [36]. This MUX
enables the multiplexing of eight different 20-Gb/s data signals
to one multiplexed 160-Gb/s data signal by using an integrated
planar lightwave circuit. Yet another real MUX is reported in
[37]. It provides independent modulation of all TDM channels
and optical-phase alignment between adjacent bits.
In general, the delay-line MUX provides an arbitrary relative
phase of adjacent pulses in the multiplexed data signal, because
usually, no effort is made in these experiments to adjust and
stabilize the delay-line MUX for a well-defined relative phase
of the adjacent pulses. The effect of a well-defined relative
phase of adjacent data pulses in the multiplexed data signal is
expected to increase the tolerance of the transmission system
with respect to CD and fiber nonlinearity, and it will increase
the spectral efficiency [38]. Therefore, the controllability
of the optical-phase alignment between adjacent bits in the
multiplexed data signal is an important feature of an amplitude
modulated system. Techniques for realizing optical-phase

JOURNAL OF LIGHTWAVE TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 24, NO. 12, DECEMBER 2006

alignment have been introduced [39], [40], and several OTDM

and OTDM/WDM transmission experiments have been performed using such formats as carrier-suppressed RZ
(CS-RZ), in which the optical pulses in adjacent bit slots have
a relative phase shift of [37], [41][44]. On the other hand, the
improvement for the transmission system is not as significant
as to justify the effort of adjustment and stabilization of a
test-multiplexer, even not for phase-modulated data signals.
In DPSK and DQPSK transmission systems, the well-defined
phase of adjacent pulses is only required behind the DEMUX
(i.e., within the TDM channel). The relative phase of adjacent
pulses within a TDM channel is independent of the adjustment
of the delay-line MUX.
C. OTDM Receiver
Various optical gates have been used for demultiplexing.
At data rates beyond 160 Gb/s, the optical gates are mostly
fiber-based using cross phase modulation (XPM) or four wave
mixing (FWM) in fibers [2][4]. A well-known example is the
nonlinear optical loop mirror (NOLM) [45], which was applied
as a DEMUX for data rates up to 640 Gb/s, which is the
fastest DEMUX reported so far [6], [46][48]. Another class
of optical gates is based on XPM and FWM in a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA). Examples of XPM-based optical gates include the SOA in a MachZehnder interferometer
(SOA-MZI) [49], [50], the SOA in a polarization discriminating
switch (SOA-UNI) [51], [52], and the SOA in a Sagnac interferometer [53]. In general, the SOA-based optical gates operate
well at data rates up to 160 Gb/s, although operation at data
rates up to 320 Gb/s was also reported [49], [50].
SOA- and fiber-based optical gates use all-optical switching.
An optical signal controls the gate, which switches an optical
data signal. Thus, these optical gates require also an appropriate
optical-pulse source. Another optical gate used in many highspeed transmission experiments is the EAM. In this device,
an electrical control signal controls the gate that switches the
optical data signal. This is an enormous simplification of the
DEMUX. This switch has been used as DEMUX in many
transmission experiments, as described in Section III. Recently,
an EAM was monolithically integrated with a photodiode, and
an electrical signal from the photodiode drove the EAM directly
[54], [55]. Demultiplexing up to a data rate of 500 Gb/s was
reported. However, this gate needs an optical control signal.
The DEMUXs described above are capable of selecting
only one TDM channel of the multiplexed data signal (singlechannel output operation). Multiple-channel output operation
can be achieved by a serial-parallel configuration of several
of these switches. Examples for multichannel output operation
using only one device are reported in [3] and [4] and, more
recently, in [56].
At data rates of 160 Gb/s and beyond, prescaled optoelectronic clock recovery was successfully achieved by using
phase-locked-loop (PLL) configurations with either opticalphase comparators based on FWM or XPM in an SOA or with
opto-electrical phase comparators based on EAMs. SOA-based
and EAM-based clock-recovery devices have been operated
at up to 400 [57] and 320 Gb/s [58], respectively. Many

WEBER et al.: ULTRAHIGH-SPEED OTDM-TRANSMISSION TECHNOLOGY

4619

a pulse source in the transmitter, which is highly stable in terms

of the carrier wavelength.
D. Transmission Line

Fig. 3. Schematic of demodulators for DPSK and DQPSK transmission at

40 Gbaud base rate.

transmission experiments were also performed without recovering the clock signal from the multiplexed data signal, because
an appropriate clock-recovery device was unavailable. Two
alternative approaches were used. A clock signal was generated
at the transmitter and transmitted together with the data signal
over the fiber at a separate wavelength [clock transmitted
(e.g., [52])], or the MUX at the transmitter end was adjusted
for slightly different pulse amplitudes [clock modulation
(e.g., [46])] such that a simple photodetector was able to detect
the clock signal at the receiver end.
In OTDM-transmission experiments, the output of the
DEMUX is in general connected with the O/E receiver via an
optical amplifier and an optical filter. In DPSK and DQPSK
transmission experiments, a demodulator is additionally placed
between DEMUX and O/E receiver. The demodulator converts the phase-modulated data signal into two complementary
amplitude-modulated data signals. In the DPSK experiment, the
demodulator is a MachZehnder interferometer, as shown in
Fig. 3, with a delay between both interferometer arms of one
bit period at the base rate, for instance, 25 ps for a base rate
of 40 Gb/s. In case of DPSK, adjacent bits with zero phase
difference, which carry the logical information equivalent to
a space in OOK, interfere constructively at one port (e.g.,
port 1 in Fig. 3) and destructively at the other port (port 2) of the
interferometer, whereas adjacent bits with phase difference,
which carry the logical information equivalent to a mark in
OOK, interfere constructively at port 2 and destructively at
port 1. If the two complementary signals are detected by a
balanced photodetector, an improvement of 3 dB, as compared
with OOK, is obtained [34].
The demodulator for a DQPSK signal is also shown in Fig. 3.
It comprises two MachZehnder interferometers, each with a
differential delay (in the interferometer arms) of one bit period
at the symbol base rate (i.e., 25 ps for 40 GBd or 80 Gb/s)
plus an additional phase shift of +/4 or /4 to detect the
in-phase or quadrature component, respectively. The DPSK
(or DQPSK) demodulator needs to be actively matched to the
transmitter wavelength for proper operation. This requires also

For application in commercial systems, a fiber-link length

in the order of 1000 km is desirable. For these fiber lengths,
compensation of CD and of PMD is essential for high-speed
data transmission. Already for a 160-Gb/s system, it is necessary to compensate for both the path-averaged CD (D = 0) at
the center wavelength of the pulse and for the path-averaged
CD slope (dD/d = 0), because the dispersion slope produces
oscillations near the trailing edge of the data pulse, even if
D() = 0 for the center wavelength of the pulse. Currently,
the most mature dispersion-compensation technique is based
on dispersion compensating fiber (DCF), which compensates
simultaneously for both D and dD/d. Generally, the DCF
is localized as module in the repeaters and does not contribute to the transmission length. On the other hand, DCF
has further evolved into inline dispersion-managed-fiber (DMF)
transmission lines. The DMF represents a pair of transmission
fibers, which together compensate for the path-averaged D and
dD/d over a wide wavelength range.
Various types of transmission fiber in combination with their
associated DCF have been investigated for high-speed data
transmission at 1550 nm. Examples are standard single-mode
fiber (SMF, D 17 ps/nm/km), dispersion shifted fiber (DSF,
D 0.1 ps/nm/km), and various types of nonzero DSF
(NZDSF, D 48 ps/nm/km). Additionally, there are several types of DMF such as SMF/RDF (SMF/reverse dispersion fiber) or SLA/IDF. The latter comprises Super Large
Area fiber (SLA, D 20 ps/nm/km) and Inverse Dispersion
Fiber (IDF, D 40 ps/nm/km), which together compensate
for D and dD/d.
The tolerances with regard to residual dispersion or residual
SMF or DCF length are particularly crucial for high-speed
systems. For instance, for a data rate of 160 Gb/s (pulsewidth
1.3 ps), simulations yield a tolerance (eye-opening penalty of
1 dB) of +/2.5 ps/nm, which corresponds to an SMF length
of +/150 m [59]. However, in experiments, a fine tuning of
+/50 m is appropriate. To maintain such tolerances over a
large environmental temperature range requires automatic dispersion compensation in addition to the DCF. Various tunabledispersion compensators have been proposed [60][63].
For 640 Gb/s and beyond, dispersion compensation using
DCF is insufficient for most fibers. Higher order dispersion
terms (d2 D/d2 ) have to be taken into account. Simultaneous compensation of the dispersion slope (dD/d) and of
d2 D/d2 is obtained by applying excess dispersion (D) and
a phase modulation to the pulse [64], [65]. This dispersioncompensation technique was successfully realized in a
1.28-Tb/s transmission experiment over a 70-km DMF link
comprising SMF-RDF [48]. On the other hand, modern fibers
like the SLA/IDF fiber are more suitable for high-speed data
transmission. A 2.56-Tb/s DQPSK data signal, corresponding
to a symbol rate of 1.28 TBd, was transmitted over 160-km
SLA/IDF fiber without application of an additional sophisticated compensation scheme [6].

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PMD is also a severe limitation with respect to high bit-rate

data transmission. PMD is caused by a slight birefringence of
the fiber and of other components in the transmission
link. For

example, a PMD value of less than 0.05 ps/ km is needed

to realize a low-penalty 160-Gb/s transmission over a 160-km
fiber link [66]. Modern fiber such as
the SLA/IDF fiber has
a PMD value of less than 0.05 ps/ km. On the other hand,
older installed fiber generally has a larger PMD value. Unlike
CD, PMD is much more difficult to compensate for because
it changes with time and wavelength in a nondeterministic
way. Therefore, automatic and adaptive PMD compensation is
required. Adaptive PMD compensation has been demonstrated
for data rates of up to 160 Gb/s [44], [67][70]. In most
ultrahigh bit-rate transmission experiments, PMD (first order)
was compensated for by manually adjusting the polarization of
the data signal at the transmission link input (principal state
transmission).
Fiber nonlinearity is another cause for signal degradation.
High-speed transmission experiments are commonly performed
in the quasi-linear (pseudolinear) transmission regime, where
the nonlinear length is much greater than the dispersion length
(e.g., [40]). A high local dispersion is advantageous for this
transmission regime, provided that the path-averaged dispersion and dispersion slope are close to zero. The short pulses
of the data signal disperse very quickly in the fiber, spreading
into many adjacent timeslots before the original pulse sequence
is restored by dispersion compensation. Therefore, the peak
power of the pulses is low for most of the path along the
fiber. Consequently, fibers with high dispersion D are favorable
for high-speed transmission. For example, with 160-Gb/s data
transmission, impressive results with transmission distances
of up to 2000 km have been obtained using NZDSF [71].
However, 160-Gb/s data transmission over the SLA/IDF fiber
with its high local dispersion and low nonlinearity (large effective area) achieved a transmission distance of more than
4000 km [5].
III. T RANSMISSION E XPERIMENTS
A. 160-Gb/s Transmission Experiments: Summary
The first 160-Gb/s transmission experiment was performed in
the NTT laboratories in 1995 based on OOK soliton transmission over 200-km DSF using AP multiplexing [72]. The pulse
source was an MLFL followed by an optical-pulse compressor,
and the DEMUX comprised a polarizer and a NOLM. EDFAs
were used as inline amplifiers. Using essentially fiber-based
optical-signal-processing technology for the terminal equipment, the NTT group increased the OTDM bit rate in a number
of spectacular experiments [46][48], [73][76] within five
years up to 1.28 Tb/s (AP-multiplexing), as will be discussed in
Section III-D. Here, we mention only the 3-Tb/s (160 Gb/s
19 channel, SP multiplexing) transmission over 40-km DSF
as a contribution of this group to the 160-Gb/s WDM/OTDM
technology [76]. This experiment combined the technologies of
160-Gb/s OTDM and ultrawideband WDM. The 19 channels
were generated by an SC pulse source. The DEMUX in the
OTDM-receiver comprised an optical gate based on FWM in
fiber. The terminal equipment comprised fiber-based devices

except for the clock recovery, which was based on FWM in

an SOA.
The employment of semiconductor devices for optical signal
processing in the transmitter and receiver of the OTDM system
is an alternative to fiber-based optical signal processing. In
particular, the SOA has long been considered a key device
for optical signal processing, such as optical gates and optical
clock-recovery devices. There are many transmission experiments resting upon SOA-based optical signal processing in
the terminal equipment [9], [49][53], [77][79]. Examples of
single wavelength channel transmission experiments are the
first 160-Gb/s field trial involving unrepeatered transmission
over 116-km field-installed SMF using an MLLD as pulse
source and an SOA-UNI as optical gate for demultiplexing
(DEMUX) [52] and another 160-Gb/s field trial over various
link lengths of installed fiber of up to 275-km SMF using
a DEMUX based on FWM in an SOA [9]. The latter field
experiment is of particular interest because it also includes a
160-Gb/s adddrop node based on gain-transparent operation
of an SOA. This is the first OTDM networking experiment
using deployed fiber. Examples of OTDM/WDM transmission
experiments are 1.28 Tb/s (160 Gb/s 8 channel) unrepeatered transmission over 140-km SMF [79] and 3.2-Tb/s
(320 Gb/s 10 channel) transmission over 40-km SMF
[49], both with use of a hybrid-integrated SOA-MZI DEMUX.
In these experiments, the spectral efficiencies were 0.4 and
0.8 b/s/Hz, respectively. Also of particular importance is
the first 160-Gb/s OTDM-transmission experiment with allchannel independent modulation and all-channel simultaneous
demultiplexing achieved by using a MUX and a DEMUX
based on periodically poled Lithium Niobate and SOA hybrid
integrated planar lightwave circuits [36].
For 160-Gb/s OTDM systems, the SOA-based optical gate
is probably the better choice for demultiplexing applications as
compared to fiber-based optical gates because of its compactness and the possibility of integration with other components.
On the other hand, another semiconductor device (the EAM)
has been developed into a very effective component for optical signal processing for data generation and demultiplexing
[80], [81]. In 1999, the first 160-Gb/s transmission experiment was reported, which used the EAM as an optical gate
in the DEMUX, as a basic element in the clock-recovery
circuit, and as a device for optical-pulse generation (CW +
Mod) [82]. This investigation also stimulated similar experiments in many laboratories [83][91] because the EAM-based
160-Gb/s OTDM technology does not require such sophisticated devices as interferometric optical gates or FWM
configurations for demultiplexing applications. Moreover, the
EAM-based DEMUX is polarization insensitive, which is difficult to achieve with the fiber-based and SOA-based DEMUXs.
Also, the EAM-based DEMUX does not need an optical-pulse
source to operate the optical gate. The simpler technology of
the EAM-based OTDM-system stimulated also several N
160 Gb/s OTDM/WDM transmission experiments [41], [42],
[44], [92], [93]. In particular, we mention the 170-Gb/s (160 +
7% FEC) 8 channel, AP-multiplexing, CS-RZ, 430-km
field trial experiment comprising an EAM as an optical gate in
the DEMUX, as a basic element in the clock-recovery circuit,

WEBER et al.: ULTRAHIGH-SPEED OTDM-TRANSMISSION TECHNOLOGY

Fig. 4.

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Experimental set-up of 160 Gb/s DPSK transmission over either a 334 km SMF fiber link or a 320 km SLA/IDF (Ultrawave) fiber link.

and as a device for optical-pulse generation (CW + Mod) [44].

Here FEC stands for forward error correction.
Currently, the EAM-based optical gate is the best choice
for demultiplexing applications and clock-recovery devices in
160-Gb/s OTDM-transmission systems. On the other hand,
the EAM is probably not the best choice for optical-pulse
generation (CW + Mod), because it requires in general some
sort of subsequent pulse compression. In the following, we describe two 160-Gb/s OTDM-transmission experiments in detail,
which use EAM-based terminal equipment in the receiver, an
MLLD in the transmitter, and the modulation-format DPSK.
B. 160-Gb/s Transmission With Long-Term Stability
The system performance for 160-Gb/s DPSK transmission
in combination with balanced detection is at least 3 dB better
than the system performance for OOK transmission [34], [89].
The increased system margin was used to demonstrate longterm stability of the DPSK transmission system [90], [91].
Fig. 4 schematically shows the experimental setup. The
160-Gb/s transmitter comprised a 40-GHz optical-pulse source,
a pushpull-operated LiNbO3 MachZehnder DPSK phase
modulator driven by a pattern generator, and a fiber-delay-line
MUX providing an SP multiplexed 160-Gb/s PRBS data signal
(sech2 pulses, FWHM 1.4 ps, jitter < 250 fs, almost transform
limited f t = 0.32) at the input of the fiber link. The opticalpulse source was a 10-GHz MLLD followed by a compact
and temperature stabilized 10- to 40-GHz fiber-delay-line pulse
multiplier.
The 160-Gb/s receiver comprised an automatic polarization
controller (PC), the EAM-based 160- to 40-Gb/s DEMUX
consisting of the optical clock recovery [58] and the optical
gate, a 3-nm optical bandpass filter, a DPSK-demodulator (see
Section II-C, a balanced photodetector [94], and a 40-Gb/s BER
analyzer.
Two transmission experiments were performed, one experiment using a 334-km SMF fiber link (upper link in Fig. 4)
and the other experiment using a 320-km SLA/IDF fiber link
(lower link in Fig. 4). This DMF is also known as Ultrawave
fiber. The PRBS word lengths were 27 1 and 231 1 bits in
the experiments. The results showed that the penalty due to the
longer pattern is negligible. Using PRBS sequences, a DPSK
precoder or decoder could be avoided. The dispersion was
carefully compensated for in both transmission links to provide
a pulsewidth below 1.7 ps at the receiver. The reamplification
was realized by EDFAs, and the average power to the spans was
set to 10 dBm in both experiments.
The mean differential group delay (DGD) of the SLA/IDF
fiber link (incl. EDFAs) was 0.7 ps, and PMD mitigation was
not required. In the SMF experiment, the mean DGD was 0.8 ps

Fig. 5. BER-measurements versus decision threshold, back-to-back and after

334 km SMF transmission, and corresponding eye diagrams.

for the SMF link and 1.4 ps for the two DCF modules including
the EDFAs. Because of the high DGD of the DCF, a PMD
mitigation scheme was used in the SMF experiment, as shown
in Fig. 4. It consisted of an automatic PC before the DCF modules and a polarimeter after the DCF modules. The polarization
was controlled such that the degree of polarization (DOP) after
the dispersion compensation was maximum. This is a feasible
concept because the dispersion compensation was realized as
postcompensation and thus was located altogether in front of
the receiver. The described scheme avoided an adjustment to the
principal states of polarization. This scheme was dynamic but
not adaptive. In the worst case, it could not compensate for the
PMD of the SMF. Hence, it was a PMD mitigation but not a full
PMD compensation scheme. A complete PMD compensation
scheme is described in [70].
The BER measurements versus the received power Prec
resulted in a back-to-back sensitivity of 28.4 dBm, a penalty
of almost 3 dB for transmission using the SMF link, and a
penalty below 1.5 dB for transmission using the SLA/IDF fiber
link. More details of these measurements are reported in [90]
and [91]. For the SMF experiment, Fig. 5 shows the BER
over the decision threshold of the receiver. The corresponding
eye diagrams are shown as insets. A wide error-free range
was obtained, even for transmission over the SMF link. The
curves also confirm the good balance of the receiver as the optimum threshold is at about 0 mV. Degradations narrow the
curve but do not change the decision threshold. This enabled
stable operation without realignment or active control of the
decision threshold and is the main cause of the long-term
stability of the DPSK transmission system in combination with
the increased system margin. A BER in the order < 1015 is
expected from these measurements and was confirmed in the
long-term measurements.

4622

Fig. 6. Measurements of absolute number of errors versus time. The dotted

line represents the evolution of the number of errors if a BER = 1012
is assumed.

Fig. 7. Schematic view of set-up in 160 Gb/s DPSK long haul transmission.

Fig. 6 depicts the results of the long-term measurements

without any manual readjustment for the transmission over
both fiber links. The polarization to the DCF were tracked and
aligned by a computer control (only for the SMF experiment).
The plot shows the absolute number of bit errors, which happened during the time interval of 10 h. For a period of more
than 5 h, the system was running without any bit error for
both fiber links. This indicates a bit-error floor due to intrinsic
transmission impairments in the order of 1015 , which confirms
the results in Fig. 5. Since the laboratory system did not include
any automatic feedback (in contrast to a commercial system), a
slight drift of the system started after some time. However, even
the steep increase still corresponds to a bit-error ratio of 1012
(plotted as dotted line on the left-hand side). As the system can
be adjusted by using power monitors (mainly the in- and output
powers of the EDFAs), the adjustment can be easily automated.
These results suggest that this 160-Gb/s DPSK transmission
system can be used in deployed systems and can be operated
error-free for years if some feedback for compensating the slow
drifts and FEC is implemented.
C. 160-Gb/s Ultralong Haul Transmission
Fig. 7 shows schematically the experimental setup of a
170-Gb/s (160 Gb/s + 7% FEC) DPSK transmission experiment using a recirculating loop arrangement [5]. Transmis-

JOURNAL OF LIGHTWAVE TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 24, NO. 12, DECEMBER 2006

sion was investigated using SP signals and AP signals. The

170-Gb/s transmitter and receiver were similar to those of
the long-term stability experiment in Section III-B. The loop
comprised six 80-km-DMF spans (480 km) of SLA/IDF
(Ultrawave) fiber (see Section II-D). Using commercial Raman
pump modules (RPM1 to RPM6) with pump lasers operating
around 1444 and 1456 nm, the span losses including Raman
couplers were fully compensated. The average span loss including couplers was 19.3 dB, and the average span noise figure
was 16.6 dB. The dispersion slope at the operating wavelength
of 1551.5 nm was only 0.1 ps/nm2 , and the residual dispersion
was minimized by inserting short SMF fiber pieces in the loop
(DC in Fig. 7). The 2-ps (FWHM) data pulses were broadened
to 2.6 ps after 4320-km propagation.
The average DGD of the 480-km setup was 0.9 ps. Transmission of 170-Gb/s data signals significantly beyond this
distance requires PMD compensation or suitable polarization
adjustment in the loop. To mitigate PMD effects, the SP signal
must propagate in one of the principal states of polarization
of the transmission link for each round trip in the loop. We
obtained this by maximizing the DOP using the PCs PC1 and
PC2 and a polarization analyzer with high temporal resolution
(microsecond range). For the AP signal, PC2 was adjusted for
minimum BER after the ninth roundtrip. In this case, the slow
and fast DGD axes seem to interchange after each round trip.
Otherwise, the accumulated DGD would cause a shift of the
relative temporal position of adjacent orthogonally polarized
OTDM tributaries, yielding a degradation of the transmission
performance, because no polarization demultiplexing was used
in the receiver.
The BER was measured for SP- and AP signals using a PRBS
231 1 sequence. In both cases, no polarizing filter was used at
the receiver. For the SP signal, BER values of 5 109 and 1.6
104 were obtained after 960 and 2880 km, respectively. For
the AP signal, the optimum launched power was consistently
23 dB higher than for the SP signal due to smaller nonlinear
degradations. This enabled longer transmission distances. For
a distance of 1920 km (four round trips), a BER of 2 109
was obtained. At 4320-km transmission distance, a minimum
BER value of 5 105 was achieved. Using advanced FEC, the
BER values for transmission distances up to 4320 km can be
corrected to values below 1012 .
D. Beyond 160-Gb/s Transmission
OTDM data transmission beyond 160 Gb/s was first performed in the NTT laboratories. Examples of this work are
the following single wavelength channel, single polarization
(SP) transmission experiments: 200 Gb/s over 100-km DSF
[73], 400 Gb/s over 40-km SMF [74], 640 Gb/s over 60- and
92-km SMF [46], [47], and the OTDM/WDM experiment:
1.4 Tb/s (200 Gb/s 7 channel) over 50-km DSF [75]. In
these experiments, OOK modulation format was used, and the
terminal equipment mainly comprised fiber devices. The pulse
source in the transmitter was either an MLFL (see Section II-B)
followed by an optical-pulse compressor or a pulse source
based on supercontinuum generation (SC-pulse source). The
DEMUX in the OTDM-receiver was an optical gate-based

WEBER et al.: ULTRAHIGH-SPEED OTDM-TRANSMISSION TECHNOLOGY

Fig. 8.

4623

Schematic view of the experimental set-up for 1.28 Tb/s and 2.58 Tb/s DQPSK transmission over a 160 km or 240 km SLA/IDF (Ultrawave) fiber link.

either on a NOLM or on FWM in fiber. An exception was the

optical clock-recovery device, which comprised a PLL with a
phase comparator based on FWM in a SOA. EDFAs were used
as inline amplifiers.
Of particular importance is the 1.28 Tb/s, AP multiplexing, single -channel transmission experiment over 70-km
SMF + RDF performed in 2000 [48]. This experiment included generation of pedestal-free femtosecond optical pulses,
compensation of higher order CD up to the fourth order, and
ultrafast demultiplexing employing a NOLM with vanishing
walk off. The experiment combined all achievements in highspeed data transmission technology using the modulationformat OOK.
There are also a few transmission experiments at data rates
beyond 160 Gb/s, which do not use fiber-based optical signal
processing in the terminal equipment in particular for the optical gate in the DEMUX. Some 320-Gb/s transmission experiments using AP multiplexing and a polarizer either before or
behind the DEMUX require essentially 160-Gb/s optical signal
processing in the terminal equipment [87], [88]. In another
experiment, the 160-Gb/s OTDM technology (MLLD, EAM
for DEMUX, and CLOCK) was used to realize 640 Gb/s
transmission by applying the modulation-format DQPSK and
AP multiplexing [95]. The 640-Gb/s DQPSK data signal was
transmitted over 480-km SLA/IDF (Ultrawave) fiber error-free
(BER 109 ). In a WDM/OTDM experiment, 10 channels
(spectral efficiency 0.8 b/s/Hz), each carrying a 320-Gb/s OOK
SP signal, were transmitted over 40-km SMF [49]. In this
paper, the optical gate comprised a hybrid-integrated SOA-MZI
DEMUX, and an SC-pulse source was used.
Recently, DQPSK transmission with AP multiplexing was
also realized at the data rates of 1.28 and 2.56 Tb/s [6]. Fig. 8
shows the experimental setup of these transmission experiments. In the transmitter, a 10-GHz MLSL (1550 nm, 2.1 ps,
see Section II-B) and a pulse-compression unit (dispersiondecreasing fiber soliton compression followed by a dispersion
imbalanced loop mirror) provided a 10-GHz optical-pulse train
with a pulsewidth of 0.42 ps. An optical bandpass filter centered
at 1556 nm defined the final pulsewidth for transmission. An
important requirement for the pulse-compression unit was to
preserve the phase coherence of the pulse train, as required
for a DQPSK modulated data signal. Data generation based on
10 GBd was used in order to improve the pulse compression
and data modulation. This pulse train was modulated and
multiplexed to generate an 80-Gb/s DQPSK signal (symbol rate
40 GBd, see Section II-B). Finally, the 80-Gb/s DQPSK signal
was multiplexed by a delay-line MUX (OTDM-MUX) to an AP
signal with the data rate 1.28 or 2.56 Tb/s.
The data signal was transmitted over two or three 80-kmDMF spans of SLA/IDF (Ultrawave) fiber (see Section II-D).

Fig. 9. BER measurements for 2.56 Tb/s and 1.28 Tb/s back-to-back (solid
symbols) and 160 km fiber transmission (hollow symbols) experiment.

The dispersion was precisely matched by the insertion of short

SMF pieces, while the dispersion slope was compensated for
by the SLA/IDF-combination and combining different spans
with opposite residual slope. The span input power was set to
12 dBm. The average DGD of the link was below 0.7 ps
for three spans. To mitigate the detrimental effects of PMD,
the input polarization was adjusted to the principal states of
polarization of the fiber.
In the receiver, a polarization DEMUX (polarization beam
splitter, PBS) was followed by a NOLM (300-m HNLF) as
the optical gate. An MLFL (40 GHz, 1.0 ps, see Section II-B)
provided the control pulses for the NOLM. This laser was
synchronized to the data signal by a clock-recovery unit, which
operated well up to a symbol rate of 320 GBd [58]. In the
2.56-Tb/s experiment, this clock recovery could also be operated at the symbol rate of 640 GBd. We attributed this to
small imperfections of the optically multiplexed data signal.
At the output of the NOLM, the signal passed a 6-nm filter to
separate the data signal from the control pulses. The 80-Gb/s
DQPSK receiver comprised a delay-line interferometer as
phase demodulator, a balanced photodetector, a 40- to 10-Gb/s
DEMUX, and a BER analyzer.
Fig. 9 shows the results of BER measurements of the
2.56 Tb/s and the 1.28-Tb/s AP signals versus the received
signal power at the input of the receiver (as indicated in Fig. 8)
after transmission over 160-km SLA/IDF (Ultrawave) fiber
(two spans) and in back-to-back measurements. This figure also
shows the results of back-to-back measurements of 80- and
640-Gb/s SP signals for comparison. The results for 2.56 Tb/s
cover the dashed area in Fig. 9, because the overlapping

4624

JOURNAL OF LIGHTWAVE TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 24, NO. 12, DECEMBER 2006

pulse tails caused coherence crosstalk resulting in variations

of the performance. The pulsewidth was 0.65 ps at the output
of the transmitter. The pulsewidth after 160-km transmission
was 0.75 ps. For the 2.56-Tb/s transmission, shorter pulses
are desirable. However, the reduction of the pulsewidth in
the present setup was limited by the bandwidth of the cascaded nongain-flattened EDFAs, fourth-order CD, and higher
order PMD.
For 2.56-Tb/s transmission, the system performed nearly
error-free (BER 109 ) in the back-to-back configuration and
revealed BER values 105 after 160-km transmission. BER
values of less than 104 result in an effective BER < 1012
if standard FEC (assuming a 7% overhead) is used. This FEC
would reduce the payload to 2.4 Tb/s. For 1.28 Tb/s, error-free
(BER < 109 ) transmission was obtained. At this data rate,
error-free transmission was also possible over a fiber link of
240-km Ultrawave fiber (three spans) for all tributaries of the
1.28-Tb/s data signal (not shown in Fig. 9).
IV. C ONCLUSION
OTDM-transmission technology at 160 Gb/s is already a mature technology. Combined with the modulation-format DPSK
and balanced detection, it provides very stable operation, which
seems to be already appropriate for deployed systems if wellestablished techniques like forward-error correction and Raman
amplification are implemented to further increase the system
margin.
There are several optical-signal-processing technologies
available for 160-Gb/s transmission. Currently, the optimum
terminal equipment includes an optical gate and a clockrecovery device based on EAMs in the receiver and an MLLD
as a pulse source in the transmitter. These components are
commercially available today.
We think that OTDM technology for 160 Gb/s will be an
interim technique, which will be replaced by ETDM as soon
as electrical signal processing becomes available at 160 Gb/s
and will be less expensive than optical signal processing. On
the other hand, some OTDM components may find applications in ETDM systems. This is probably true for monolithically integrated MLLDs as transmitter pulse sources. OTDM
DEMUXs perform better than ETDM receivers already at data
rates of 80 Gb/s. We may expect communication networks to
be based on an appropriate combination of WDM, ETDM, and
OTDM technologies. Also, OTDM components, such as pulse
sources, optical gates, and clock-recovery devices are already
being employed in optical sampling systems for waveform and
signal-quality monitoring.
The 160-Gb/s OTDM-transmission experiments also revealed some limitations for data transmission over deployed
fiber links. Many old fiber links have very high PMD values,
which make 160-Gb/s data transmission impractical even if
PMD-compensators are implemented. The investigation of the
feasibility of ultrahigh-speed data transmission is a main task
with regard to OTDM technology.
This task is important in particular in the studies of ultrahighspeed data transmission beyond 160 Gb/s. An OTDM data rate
of 2.5 Tb/s is currently not applicable for installed systems.

However, it is a challenging task for OTDM technology to

investigate the physical limits of high-speed fiber transmission
and to search for appropriate techniques for data generation,
transmission, and demultiplexing to extend these limits.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to thank S. Watanabe and F. Futami
from Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd., Kawasaki, Japan, as well as
S. Weisser from Lucent Technologies Nuremberg, Germany,
for their cooperation in several common research activities in
the field of OTDM technology. The authors would also like to
thank M. Nakazawa from the Research Institute of Electrical
Communication of Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan, for many
fruitful discussions.
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4625

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[75] S. Kawanishi, H. Takara, K. Uchiyama, I. Shake, O. Kamatani, and

H. Takahashi, 1.4 Tb/s (200 Gb/s 7 ch) 50 km optical transmission
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J. E. Johnson, G. Shtengel, A. Bond, D. G. Moodie, and A. D. Ellis,
160 Gb/s single-channel transmission over 300 km nonzero-dispersion
fiber with semiconductor based transmitter and demultiplexer, presented
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Advanced 160 Gb/s OTDM system based on wavelength transparent
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H. Yokoyama, Single channel 160 Gb/s (40 Gb/s 4) 300 km
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Commun. (ECOC), Copenhagen, Denmark, 2002, Paper 2.1.4.
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Unrepeatered 320 Gb/s (8 40 Gb/s) OTDM transmission over 80 km
TeraLightTM-reverse TeraLightTM fiber link, presented at the Eur. Conf.
Optical Commun. (ECOC), Rimini, Italy, 2003, We.4.P.117.
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V. Marembert, M. Kroh, and H. G. Weber, 160 Gb/s OTDM longhaul transmission with long-term stability using RZ-DPSK modulation
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2005.
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(0.53 bit/s/Hz) WDM transmission of 160 Gb/s per wavelength over

WEBER et al.: ULTRAHIGH-SPEED OTDM-TRANSMISSION TECHNOLOGY

400 km of fiber, presented at the Optical Fiber Commun. Conf. (OFC),

Anaheim, CA, 2001, Paper ThF2-1.
[93] K. Schuh, M. Schmidt, E. Lach, B. Junginger, A. Klekamp, G. Veith,
and P. Sillard, 4 160 Gb/s DWDM/OTDM transmission over
3 80 km TeraLightTM-Reverse TeraLightTM-fibre, presented at the
Eur. Conf. Optical Commun. (ECOC), Copenhagen, Denmark, 2002,
Paper 2.1.2.
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C. Schubert, C. Boerner, B. Schmauss, J. Berger, C. Schmidt,
U. Troppenz, and H. G. Weber, Monolithically integrated balanced photodetector and its application in OTDM 160 Gb/s DPSK transmission,
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and H. G. Weber, 640 Gb/s DQPSK single-channel transmission over
480 km fibre link, Electron. Lett., vol. 41, no. 22, pp. 12341235, 2005.

Hans-Georg Weber received the Dr. rer. nat. and

Dr. habil. degrees in physics from Marburg University, Marburg, Germany, and from Heidelberg
University, Heidelberg, Germany, in 1971 and 1976,
respectively.
From 1977 to 1978, he served as a Max-KadeFellow at Stanford University, Standford, CA, and
from 1979 to 1984, he was a Heisenberg Fellow at
the University Heidelberg. He became Head of a
research group at the Fraunhofer Institute for Telecommunications, Heinrich-Hertz-Institut, Berlin,
Germany, in 1985, and also in 1985, he became Professor of physics with the
Technical University of Berlin. Since 2006, he has been Retired Professor
and has been serving as Consultant for the Heinrich-Hertz-Institut, Berlin.
He is author and coauthor of more than 400 journal articles in the field of
optical communications. He is coeditor of the Journal of Optical and Fiber
Communications Reports.
Prof. Weber received the Philip Morris award in 1999, and he was nominated
for the Innovation Award of the German Bundespraesident.

Reinhold Ludwig was born in Lahnstein, Germany,

in 1952. He received the Ing. grad. degree from
the Fachhochschule Koblenz, Koblenz, Germany, in
1974 and the Dipl.-Ing. and Dr.-Ing. degrees from the
Technical University of Berlin, Berlin, Germany, in
1985 and 1993.
He joined the Heinrich Hertz Institute (HHI),
Berlin, in 1985, where he is involved in research
on photonic components and systems. He worked
as a Visiting Scientist at Nippon Telephone and
Telegraph Company (NTT), Japan, in 1991, and at
Bell Labs in 1993. Since 1985, he has authored and coauthored more than 300
scientific papers. He is the holder of several patents. In 1996, he founded the
first HHI spin-off company (LKF Advanced Optics GmbH) and served as CEO
until the merger of LKF and u2t Innovative Optoelectronic Components GmbH
in 2001.
Dr. Ludwig is a member of the Verband Der Elektrotechnik Elektronik
Informationstechnik (VDE). In 1999, his group received the Philip Morris
Research Award, and he was nominated for the Innovation Award of the
German Bundespraesident.

Sebastian Ferber was born in 1975. He received

the degree in physics from Technische Universitt
Berlin, Germany, in 2001. He is currently working toward the Ph.D. degree at the Heinrich-HertzInstitut, Berlin.
He joined the OTDM group at the Heinrich-HertzInstitut, where he is currently finishing his Ph.D.
thesis on the topic of advanced modulation formats
in high-speed transmission systems. He is author or
coauthor of more than 40 papers.
Mr. Ferber has received several awards.

4627

Carsten Schmidt-Langhorst was born in Berlin,

Germany, in 1972. He received the diploma (Dipl.Phys.) and the Ph.D. degrees (Dr. rer. nat.) in physics
from the Technical University of Berlin, in 1997 and
2004, respectively.
He has been with the Fraunhofer Institute for
Telecommunications, Heinrich-Hertz-Institute, Berlin, since 1998 and has been engaged with all-optical
transmission, processing, and detection of optical
data signals at a picosecond time scale, and, in particular, all-optical sampling techniques. He is currently
heading several projects in the field of ultrafast optical transmission technology.
Dr. Schmidt-Langhorst is a member of the Deutsche Physikalische
Gesellschaft. He received the Philip Morris Research Award in 1999.

Marcel Kroh was born in Berlin, Germany, in 1972.

He studied physics at the Technical University of
Berlin. From 1996 to 1997, he stayed at The University of Manchester (UMIST), Manchester, U.K.,
and received the B.Sc. degree in physics. Afterwards,
he received the Dipl.-Phys. degree from the Technical University of Berlin, in 2000. He is currently
working toward the Ph.D. degree in semiconductor
laser processing, pulse generation with mode-locked
lasers, and fiber-based pulse compression for optical
signal processing at Technical University of Berlin.
He joined the Heinrich-Hertz-Institute, Berlin, in 1999 and worked on the
topics of semiconductor laser processing, pulse generation with mode-locked
lasers, and fiber-based pulse compression for optical signal processing.

Vincent Marembert was born in Bourges, France,

in 1977. He received the Diploma degree from Ecole
Nationale Suprieure de Physique de Marseille,
Marseille, France, in 2001. He was an exchange student at the Technische Universitt Berlin, Germany,
from 2000 to 2001.
He worked as a Research Student with the
Fraunhofer Institute for Telecommunications,
Heinrich-Hertz-Institut, Berlin. He is currently with
the Fraunhofer Institute for Telecommunications,
Berlin, working on optical switches for optical-timedivision-multiplexed (OTDM) networks.

Christof Boerner was born in Wuerzburg,

Germany, in 1966. He studied physics at the
Technische Universitt Braunschweig and the Freie
Universitt Berlin, Germany, where he received
the Dipl.-Phys., in 1995. Currently, he is working
toward the Ph.D. degree on the topic clock recovery
for optical high bit-rate signals at the Technical
University of Berlin.
He worked with the Center for Public Understanding of Science, Spectrum, Berlin, and in a start-up
company in the field of spectroscopy. In 2001, he
joined the Heinrich-Hertz-Institut, Berlin, working mainly on clock recovery
for optical high bit-rate signals.

Colja Schubert was born in Berlin, Germany, in

1973. He received the Dipl.-Phys. and Dr. rer. nat. degree in physics from Technische Universitaet Berlin
in 1998 and 2004, respectively.
He was an exchange student at Strathclyde University, Glasgow, U.K., from 1996 to 1997. During
his diploma thesis in 19971998, he worked with the
Max-Born-Institute for Nonlinear Optics and Short
Pulse Spectroscopy, Berlin. Since 2000, he has been
a member of the scientific staff at the Fraunhofer
Institute for Telecommunications, Heinrich-HertzInstitut, Berlin, doing research on high-speed transmission systems and alloptical signal processing.
Dr. Schubert is a member of the German Physical Society.