Optical fiber communication system employing wavelength converter for broadband transmission

摘要

The present invention uses wavelength conversion to increase the bandwidth of optical communication systems. In an exemplary embodiment, a combination of wavelength conversion and amplification with a discrete optical amplifier (OA) to allow communications systems to operate in wavelength bands λ' outside the gain bandwidth of the OA. A transmitter launches signal channels (λ₁', λ₂',...,λ'_N) that are outside the gain bandwidth λ. A wavelength conversion device upstream of the amplifier maps channels λ'₁, λ'₂,...λ'_N to corresponding wavelengths λ₁, λ₂, ...λ_N within λ. The OA directly amplifies the converted signals and a second wavelength conversion device downstream of the amplifier maps the amplified signals back to the original channels λ'₁, λ'₂,...λ'_N. This increases the capacity of the optical communication systems by facilitating the use of both signals that lie within the OA gain bandwidth λ and signals that can be converted to wavelengths within λ. Associated wavelength converters, transmitters and receivers are also described.;This approach applies not only to the use of EDFAs, but also to gain-flattening elements, dispersion-compensating fibers, variable attenuators, and any intermediate components having bandwidths smaller than the transmission fiber.