Optical noise and dispersion monitoring with SOA-based optical 2R regenerator

Optical performance monitoring is demonstrated using the nonlinear response of a semiconductor optical amplifier. The monitoring device is derived from a recently proposed all-optical wavelength converter for 10- and 40-Gb/s return-to-zero (RZ) modulated signals. We show experimental results for both optical signal-to-noise ratio monitoring and dispersion monitoring on 40-Gb/s RZ signals and Q factor correlation on a 10-Gb/s RZ signal. The performance monitor signal correlates with the Q factor and can provide an unambiguous signal quality measure with potential application to quality of service and fault management.