Optical monitoring using data correlation for WDM systems

We demonstrate a new technique for monitoring channel wavelength and power in a wavelength-division-multiplexed lightwave system. This technique uses a dispersive delay line to map wavelength into time and data correlation to determine the time shift of the channels. The technique was experimentally demonstrated for three 2.5-Gb/s channels spaced by 100 GHz using a set of concatenated fiber Bragg gratings as the dispersive delay.