Professional Documents
Culture Documents
VCSEL-based Broadband Wavelength Converter For Ultra-Wideband Exible
VCSEL-based Broadband Wavelength Converter For Ultra-Wideband Exible
VCSEL-based Broadband Wavelength Converter For Ultra-Wideband Exible
A R T I C LE I N FO A B S T R A C T
Keywords: High-speed real-time wavelength conversion at key data centre network nodes is an emerging fundamental
VCSEL functionality requirement for transparent content resolution, wavelength assignment and routing towards better
Optical communication utilization of network resources under dynamic traffic patterns. In this paper, we experimentally demonstrate
Interconnects the first vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL)-based broadband wavelength converter for ultra-wide
Data centre
wavelength routing in Datacom. An 850 nm multimode VCSEL is directly modulated with 8.5 Gbps data and
Wavelength conversion
successfully transmitted error-free over 100 m OM3 multimode fibre (MMF) with a receiver sensitivity of
−16.04 dBm, and a total transmission penalty of 1.14 dB. The received data is then used to run two cascaded
single mode VCSELs at 1550 nm within the network integration node, therefore achieving the first reported real-
time inter-band wavelength converter to C-band. By exploiting VCSEL wavelength tuneability with changing
bias current, we show that the converted wavelengths can be routed over 3.2 nm spectra range for integration
into ITU-T 50 GHz flexible grid and beyond. The newly converted wavelengths are successfully transmitted over
24.7 km of G 655 single mode fibre, achieving a minimum receiver sensitivity of −14.28 dBm, with a maximum
transmission penalty of 2.72 dB. This work offers a viable enabling development technology for broadband
wavelength converters for real-time wavelength routing in optical interconnects to address content resolution
and wavelength assignment problem for current and future Datacom.
⁎
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: george.isoe@nmmu.ac.za (G.M. Isoe).
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yofte.2019.04.013
Received 31 October 2018; Received in revised form 12 April 2019; Accepted 27 April 2019
Available online 16 May 2019
1068-5200/ © 2019 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
G.M. Isoe, et al. Optical Fiber Technology 51 (2019) 107–111
dynamic range and are polarization insensitive. However, opto-elec- fibres and transceiver modules such as multimode VCSELs operating at
tronic converters only operate up to 2.5 Gbps. For wavelength conver- 850 nm transmission window due to their bandwidth advantage.
sion in current and future high-speed optical network operating at data Moreover, service providers need to interlink several other data centres
rates of 10 Gbps and possibly over 100 Gbps in future, power con- situated at different geographical locations within the access network to
sumption and bandwidth limitation of opto-electronic converters may execute tremendous data processing tasks and synchronization. This
be the main limiting factor. Therefore all-optical conversion technolo- implies that enormously huge traffics from the data centre network
gies will be a viable approach for future high-speed optical networks need to be converted in real-time from multimode transceiver modules
[9]. operating at 850 nm transmission window to single mode transceiver
Optical wavelength conversion techniques are among the fastest modules operating at C-band for single mode access network trans-
wavelength conversion technologies known today. Optical wavelength mission over tens of fibre kilometers, due to strict quality of signal
conversion include techniques such as cross-phase modulation, cross- (QoS) requirements for such high bit rate optical links. From Fig. 1, an
gain modulation (XGM), four-wave mixing (FWM) based on semi- 850 nm multimode VCSEL was biased at 5.62 mA, giving an output
conductor optical amplifiers as well as nonlinear optical gating based power of 0.13 dBm and a central emission wavelength of 844.25 nm.
on fibre loops [11–16]. However, each optical wavelength conversion This was then directly modulated with an 8.5 Gbps none-return-to-zero
technology has its attractive feature as well as its limitation. For in- (NRZ) electrical signal with a pseudo-random binary sequence (PRBS)
stance, wavelength converters based on FWM technologies have the of length 27-1. The 8.5 Gbps data rate and the PRBS of length 27-1 re-
ability to support all modulation formats contrary to other types which ported in this work were specifically considered in direct modulation
are only limited to intensity modulation. Moreover, FWM wavelength with 850 nm VCSEL carrier for proof of concept as well as technique
converters are ideal for ultrafast signal applications such as at bitrates demonstration purposes, based on availability of necessary encoding/
above 100 Gbps. However, the main drawback of FWM wavelength decoding, active/passive, electro-optic components in our lab by the
converters is the dependency of the output wavelength on both the time we performed this experiment. However, 850 nm multimode
pump and signal wavelengths, so the pump must be tuneable even with VCSEL operation at much higher bit rates have all-ready been reported.
fixed output wavelengths. Consequently, two pumps are needed to For instance, [22] experimentally demonstrated 25.8 Gbps with PRBS
ensure polarization insensitive operation [17]. Cross gain modulated of length 231-1 (PRBS31) on 850 nm VCSEL biased at 8 mA and suc-
(XGM) converter technique on the other hand is easy to ensemble, cessful transmission over 50 m of OM3 multimode fibre. Experimental
power efficient and is polarization insensitive due to SOA gain polar- work in [22] gives a glimpse on the ability of 850 nm VCSEL operation
ization independence. However, the main short coming of this tech- at higher bitrates and longer bit sequence than the one demonstrated in
nique is that the converted signal is inverted relative to the input signal. our work.
XGM wavelength converters are also associated with relatively large A bit error rate tester (X-BERT) from Luceo Technologies with a NRZ
frequency chirps [18]. Moreover, the SOA add spontaneous emission bitrate operation range of 8.5 Gbps–11.3 Gbps and a selectable PRBS
noise to the converted signal therefore degrading the quality of signal pattern ability and a maximum input VPP of 1.0 V was used to generate
(QoS). the 8.5 Gbps electrical signal used in this work, as well as compute the
All-optical wavelength conversion techniques are a key building BER measurements. The X-BERT used had a reference clock frequency
block for design and implementation of optical burst switch (OBS) range between 531 MHz and 707 MHz, with a pattern invert ability
routers, which are preferred in high-speed optical networks with dy- available for all patterns and an 8B10B encoding for precisely accurate
namic ultra-fast data patterns. Research studies on optical packet clock recovery and BER computation. The generated data traffic was
switching have already been presented [19–21]. Photonic packets first transmitted over 100.3 m of OM3 multimode fibre, making the first
switches offer high switching speed, supports high data rates, format section of the network. A 3-dB optical splitter was then used at the fibre
transparency and flexibility of telecommunication networks. Advances end of this first section of the network to separate the incoming optical
in laser technologies have also created new architectural options for power for simultaneous analysis and re-modulation. A positive intrinsic
wavelength converting switches and appear to stand as a promising negative (PIN) photodiode with a typical receiver sensitivity of
consideration for practical optical switching systems. Based on the −18 dBm at 10 Gbps data rate was used to recover the transmitted data
shortcomings of pre-proposed optical wavelength conversion technol- signals for BER measurement computation with X-BERT and eye dia-
ogies, this work experimentally presents the first all-optical VCSEL- gram analysis with an Agilent sampling oscilloscope model number
based broadband flexible wavelength tuneable converter for ultra-wide 86100D, with an electrical module channel number 86112A. The ty-
inter-band wavelength routing in Datacom, exploiting cheap wave- pical channel bandwidth of this module is 12.4–20 GHz, with a tran-
length flexible and power efficient VCSELs. A multimode VCSEL at sition time of 28.2 ps.
850 nm is directly modulated with 8.5 Gbps data and successfully After attaining a successful error free transmission, the first section
transmitted error-free over 100 m MMF. The received data is then used of the network (100.3 m of OM3 multimode optical fibre), the re-
to run two single mode VCSELs at 1550 nm, therefore routing the data covered signal was first split using an electrical power combiner/di-
traffic to C-band successfully for integration into ITU-T 50 GHz flexible vider and used to simultaneously run a second set of two single mode
grid. We further show that the newly converted wavelengths after the VCSELs at 1550 nm at the integration node as shown in Fig. 1. This
integration node are successfully transmitted error free over the second therefore allowed to convert the received data into a second single
section of a 24.7 km of G 655 single mode fibre access network. Our mode fibre for access network transmission, therefore attaining the first
proposed approach is all-optical, comply with strict budget cost and reported VCSEL-based inter-band broadband wavelength converter as
simplified maintenance, can be integrated with existing optical net- shown in Fig. 1. Our proposed VCSEL-based wavelength converter
works, and for implementation purposes does not require customized technique is real-time, broadband (over 3.2 nm spectral range), simple
optics hardware. to implement and does not require any customized optics hardware. To
attain an optimum modulation depth, a 10 GHz low noise electrical
2. Experimental setup description linear amplifier was adopted on each re-modulation link. The adopted
electrical amplifier was from Picosecond pulse labs model 5866, de-
A schematic representation of the full experimental setup used in signed to minimize the variations in gain and phase and to operate at
this work is shown in Fig. 1. This setup represents a typical data centre very low frequencies. This amplifier had a small signal gain of 25.5 dB,
network where enormously huge volumes of data are generated, and a 2.5 kHz–10 GHz bandwidth and a rated maximum noise fig (NF) of
needs to be transmitted between servers, racks and pods located at 6.5 dB.
different data centre network nodes. This therefore utilizes multimode The wavelength tuneability with changing bias current of each
108
G.M. Isoe, et al. Optical Fiber Technology 51 (2019) 107–111
Fig. 1. Experimental demonstration Experimental demonstration of 850 nm multimode VCSEL to 1550 nm single mode VCSEL broadband wavelength converter for
ultra-wideband data routing: VOA-variable optical attenuator, PD-photo detector, EA-Electrical linear amplifier, MUX-wavelength division multiplexer, DEMUX-
wavelength division de-multiplexer, BER-bit error rate tester.
109
G.M. Isoe, et al. Optical Fiber Technology 51 (2019) 107–111
Fig. 4. Extinction ratio (ER) optimization of a 1550 nm single mode VCSEL after a successful re-modulation with the recovered data traffic for broadband data
routing to C-band (a), 3-D surface plot of VCSEL receiver sensitivity at different bias and drive currents (b).
110
G.M. Isoe, et al. Optical Fiber Technology 51 (2019) 107–111
network system where splitting ratio, reach, and aggregated capacity [3] G. Isoe, S. Wassin, A. Leitch, T. Gibbon, 60 Gbps 4-PAM VCSEL-based Raman as-
can be traded off against one another to maximize system performance. sisted hyper-scale data centre: in context of spectral efficiency and reach extension,
Opt. Commun. 428 (2018) 164–168.
[4] G. Isoe, S. Wassin, R. Gamatham, A. Leitch, T. Gibbon, Capacity upgrade in short-
4. Conclusion reach optical fibre networks: simultaneous 4-PAM 20 Gbps data and polarization-
modulated PPS clock signal using a single VCSEL carrier, J. Mod. Opt. 64 (2017)
2245–2254.
This work has demonstrated experimentally the first reported ver- [5] G.M. Isoe, S. Wassin, R.R.G. Gamatham, A.W.R. Leitch, T.B. Gibbon, A high capacity
tical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL)-based broadband converter data centre network: simultaneous 4-PAM data at 20 Gbps and 2 GHz phase
for ultra-wide wavelength routing in Datacom. A directly multimode modulated RF clock signal over a single VCSEL carrier, J. Mod. Opt. 64 (2017)
2336–2344.
VCSEL at 850 nm been shown to successfully transmit error-free over [6] H.-Y. Kao, C.-T. Tsai, S.-F. Leong, C.-Y. Peng, Y.-C. Chi, H.-Y. Wang, et al., Single-
100 m MMF, making the first section of the network attaining a receiver mode VCSEL for pre-emphasis PAM-4 transmission up to 64 Gbit/s over 100–300 m
sensitivity of −16.04 dBm and a total transmission penalty of in OM4 MMF, Photon. Res. 6 (2018) 666–673.
[7] F. Karinou, C. Prodaniuc, N. Stojanovic, Performance assessment of VCSEL-based
1.14 dBm. The received data was then used to run two single mode
systems for next-generation datacenter switching architectures, Photonics Society
VCSELs at 1550 nm, therefore routing the data traffic to C-band suc- Summer Topical Meeting Series (SUM), IEEE, 2017 pp. 205–205.
cessfully for integration into ITU 50 GHz flexible grid, therefore making [8] A. Larsson, E. Simpanen, J. Gustavsson, E. Haglund, E. Haglund, T. Lengyel, et al.,
the first reported VCSEL-based broadband wavelength converter. The 1060 nm VCSELs for long-reach optical interconnects, Opt. Fiber Technol. 44
(2018) 36–42.
newly rerouted wavelengths after this integration node have success- [9] K.E. Stubkjaer, A. Kloch, P.B. Hansen, H.N. Poulsen, D. Wolfson, K.S. Jepsen, et al.,
fully been transmitted error free over the second section of a 24.7 km of Wavelength converter technology, IEICE Trans. Electron. 82 (1999) 338–348.
G 655 single mode fibre back-bone network, attaining a receiver sen- [10] J. Hecht, All-optical converters promise improved networks, Laser Focus World
(2001) 159–164.
sitivity of −14.28 dBm, with a maximum transmission penalty of [11] J.M. Elmirghani, H.T. Mouftah, All-optical wavelength conversion: technologies
2.72 dB. Our proposed inter-band VCSEL-based broadband wavelength and applications in DWDM networks, IEEE Commun. Mag. 38 (2000) 86–92.
conversion technique is relatively simple to implement, and for ex- [12] Y. Ueno, S. Nakamura, K. Tajima, S. Kitamura, 3.8-THz wavelength conversion of
picosecond pulses using a semiconductor delayed-interference signal-wavelength
perimental purposes does not require any customized electronics. converter (DISC), IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett. 10 (1998) 346–348.
Therefore, this technique proves a key concept for adoption in high [13] Y. Wu, X. Xiong, Y. Zhu, J. Meng, J.-J. He, All-optical wavelength conversion using
capacity wavelength flexible optical interconnects such as densely optical injection induced wavelength switching in V-cavity laser, PIERS
Proceedings, (2014).
packed data centres. [14] K. Chow, K. Kikuchi, T. Nagashima, T. Hasegawa, S. Ohara, N. Sugimoto, Four-wave
mixing based widely tunable wavelength conversion using 1-m dispersion-shifted
Acknowledgments bismuth-oxide photonic crystal fiber, Opt. Express 15 (2007) 15418–15423.
[15] B.G. Lee, A. Biberman, A.C. Turner-Foster, M.A. Foster, M. Lipson, A.L. Gaeta, et al.,
Demonstration of broadband wavelength conversion at 40 Gb/s in silicon wave-
We are grateful for Research Funding and support from: Telkom, guides, IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett. 21 (2009) 182–184.
South Africa, Dotcom, Ingoma, CISCO, United States,DST, South Africa, [16] C. Meuer, C. Schmidt-Langhorst, H. Schmeckebier, G. Fiol, D. Arsenijević,
CSIR, South Africa, NLC, South Africa, NRF, South Africa, THRIP and C. Schubert, et al., 40 Gb/s wavelength conversion via four-wave mixing in a
quantum-dot semiconductor optical amplifier, Opt. Express 19 (2011) 3788–3798.
ALC, South Africa. [17] F. Martelli, A. D’Ottavi, A. Mecozzi, S. Scotti, P. Spano, R. Dall’Ara, et al.,
“Semiconductor optical amplifiers for very efficient frequency conversion by four-
Appendix A. Supplementary data wave mixing, International Quantum Electronics Conference, (1996) p. ThN2.
[18] T. Durhuus, C. Joergensen, B. Mikkelsen, R.J.S. Pedersen, K. Stubkjaer, All optical
wavelength conversion by SOA's in a Mach-Zehnder configuration, IEEE Photon.
Supplementary data to this article can be found online at https:// Technol. Lett. 6 (1994) 53–55.
doi.org/10.1016/j.yofte.2019.04.013. [19] D.J. Blumenthal, P.R. Prucnal, J.R. Sauer, Photonic packet switches: architectures
and experimental implementations, Proc. IEEE 82 (1994) 1650–1667.
[20] P. Gambini, M. Renaud, C. Guillemot, F. Callegati, I. Andonovic, B. Bostica, et al.,
References Transparent optical packet switching: network architecture and demonstrators in
the KEOPS project, IEEE J. Sel. Areas Commun. 16 (1998) 1245–1259.
[21] Francesco Masetti, Photonic Networks, Springer London, London, 1997, pp.
[1] X. Chen, J.E. Hurley, A.R. Zakharian, J.S. Stone, W.A. Wood, B. Chow, et al.,
331–346, , https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-0979-2_27.
Multimode and single-mode transmission over universal fiber for data center ap-
[22] C. Xie, J. Kan, S. Huang, L. Wang, N. Li, C.C. Chen, et al., 850 nm VCSEL and PD for
plications, Opt. Fiber Technol. 44 (2018) 53–60.
ultra high speed data communication over multimode fiber, SEI Technol. Rev. 77
[2] C.-H. Cheng, C.-C. Shen, H.-Y. Kao, D.-H. Hsieh, H.-Y. Wang, Y.-W. Yeh, et al., 850/
(2013) 69–73.
940-nm VCSEL for optical communication and 3D sensing, Opto-Electron. Adv. 1
(2018) 180005.
111