Code generator using distributed phase shifts applied on a chirped fibre Bragg grating in a semiconductor fibre ring laser

As data traffic increases on telecommunication networks, optical communication systems must adapt to deal with this increasing bursty traffic. Packet switched networks are considered a good solution to provide efficient bandwidth management. We recently proposed the use of spectra amplitude codes (SAC) to implement all-optical label processing for packet switching and routing. The implementation of this approach requires agile photonic components including filters and lasers. In this paper, we propose a reconfigurable source able to generate the routing codes, which are composed of two wavelengths on a 25 GHz grid. Our solution is to use a cascade of two chirped fibre Bragg gratings (CFBG) in a semiconductor fibre ring laser. The wavelength selection process comes from distributed phase shifts applied on the CFBG that is used in transmission. Those phase shifts are obtained via local thermal perturbations created by resistive chrome lines deposited on a glass plate. The filter resonances are influenced by four parameters: the chrome line positions, the temperature profile along the fibre, the neighbouring heater state (ON/OFF) and the grating itself. Through numerical modeling, these parameters are optimized to design the appropriate chrome line pattern. With this device, we demonstrate successful generation of reconfigurable SAC codes.