Dynamic Optical Arbitrary Waveform Generation and Measurement to Increase the Flexibility, Fidelity and Bandwidth of Optical Networks

We review spectral-slice dynamic optical arbitrary waveform generation and measurement (OAWG and OAWM) for bandwidth scalable and flexible bandwidth networking. OAWG and OAWM generate and measure wideband waveforms (terahertz) in many spectral slices that are less than 100 GHz wide with electronics. Within the system bandwidth, the OAWG transmitter and OAWM receiver can accommodate waveforms in a variety of modulation formats, variable channel spacings, and without any spectral guard bands. We demonstrate continuous generation of 60-GHz bandwidth optical waveforms using 5.5-GHz electronics and measurements of waveforms with 160 GHz of bandwidth using 20-GHz electronics.