Optical implementation of bipolar codes

The physical implementation of a bipolar encoding scheme suitable for WDM fiber-optic networks is reported with both experimental and theoretical results. The power spectrum of an erbium-doped superfluorescent fiber source is encoded, the bipolar correlations of the codes are verified, and rejection of multiple-access interference is demonstrated in a fiber-based testbed. Simulations of the correlation process identify key optical parameters and physical characteristics important to the design of future systems. A modification to the experimental testbed, made according to the theoretical analysis, results in improved correlation performance.