Transmission of an ASK-Labeled RZ-DPSK Signal and Label Erasure Using a Saturated SOA

We demonstrate am optically labeled signal based on return-to-zero (RZ) differential phase-shift keying (DPSK) for payload at 10-Gb/s and amplitude-shift keying (ASK) for label at 622-Mb/s. Receiver sensitivity of ~36 dBm and penalty-free transmission over 30-km SSMF are achieved for both the payload (with dispersion compensation) and the label. This labeling scheme allows the use of a deeply saturated semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) to perform polarization-insensitive label erasure. Label swapping is demonstrated with moderate penalty to both the payload and new label.