Experimental demonstration of OCDMA transmission using a three-dimensional (time-wavelength-polarization) codeset

We experimentally demonstrate a three-dimensional (3-D) optical code-division multiple-access (OCDMA) transmission system that encodes data on time, wavelength, and polarization. Such a system may be ideal for use in short-distance optical local area networks (LANs), where polarization states remain fairly stable. This type of coding can increase the number of potential users, by a factor of approximately 2(K), over a conventional two-dimensional (2-D) code given the same code constraints, where K, is the number of collisions the codeset will allow. We encode 1-Gbit/s, 11-Gchip/s data with an 11-chip, 4-wavelength, weight-4 (per polarization) code using free-space and fiber delay lines and polarization beam combiners and decode using a polarization beam splitter, wavelength demultiplexers, and additional fiber/free-space delays. After threshold detection using independent detectors for each polarization state, we obtain 1-Gbit/s nonreturn to zero (NRZ) output data. Encoding, transmission decoding, and detection carry a penalty of 1.8 dB.