Bit rate flexible quality monitoring of 10 to 160Gbit/s optical signals based on optical sampling technique

Bit rate flexible quality monitoring of 10 to 160 Gbit/s RZ optical signals up to the bit error rate of 1 × 10-13 based on an ultrafast optical sampling technique is demonstrated. In addition, a compact optical signal monitoring unit that uses a readily available gain-switched laser diode as the optical sampling pulse source is reported.