An optical technique for bit and packet synchronization

We have demonstrated a new synchronization technique to align the inputs at a fiber-optical switching node. We compensate for the delay induced by the slowly varying ambient temperature at the links with a temperature tuned laser diode in combination with the dispersion of the fiber. This scheme shows excellent linearity and negligible transmission penalty in timing jitter and pulse shape variations. The maximum bit-shift obtained experimentally was 850 ps for a fiber dispersion of 200 ps/nm, implying that bit synchronization can be obtained at bit-rates exceeding 1 Gb/s.>