FDMA-FSK star network with a tunable optical filter demultiplexer

Abstract

An optical frequency-division-multiple-access (FDMA) star network is analyzed and demonstrated experimentally using two 45-Mb/s frequency-shift-keyed (FSK) laser channels at 1.5 mu m. A tunable fiber Fabry-Perot (FFP) filter is used to select channels and convert FSK to intensity modulation for direct detection. The analysis predicts and experiment supports a minimum channel spacing of about six times bit rate B for a single FFP. These constraints are similar to those for more complex heterodyne demultiplexing. Estimates show that a network with 1000 users, independent of bit rate, is feasible with a tandem FFP. For B=1 Gb/s per channel the network capacity would be 1 Tb/s.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>