Ecoc 2015 - ID: 0344

Coherent Optical En/Decoding employing Discrete Prolate

Spheroidal Sequences based Super Structured FBGs
(1)

(2)

Daniel Pastor , Cristian Triana , Roco Baos

(1)

(1)
(2)

Universidad Politcnica de Valencia, Camino de Vera s/n, Valencia, Espaa,dpastor@dcom.upv.es

CMUN research group, Univ. Nacl. Colombia, Cra 30 #45-06, 111321 Bogot DC, Colombia

Abstract We present the first experimental verification of the coherent optical en/decoding employing
Super-Structured Fibre Bragg Gratings performing Discrete Prolate Spheroidal Sequences (DPSS).
These devices present promising spectral and temporal characteristics for OCDMA networks and
optical encryption applications.
Introduction
Optical Coding and Decoding (OC) techniques
have been extensively proposed in order to
face the exponential data traffic growth at every
network level. These techniques have been
considered as a next natural step to be added to
WDM and TDM in future heterogeneous optical
1
networks scenaries . In the other hand, network
security is a very important issue, where
2
Quantum key distribution (QKD) and chaotic
3
cryptography have been implemented. In order
to avoid the high cost and technical complexity
of these techniques, Super-Structured Fibre
Bragg Gratings (SSFBGs) have been proposed
4,5
as optical encryption devices . In this case the
security is provided by the transformation of the
transmitted signals into noise-like patterns in the
optical domain, hiding every data signal
structure to the non-authorized users. Djordjevic
5
et. al. have proposed SSFBGs whose impulse
responses belong to the class of Discrete
Prolate Spheroidal Sequences (DPSS), which
are mutually orthogonal regardless of the
sequence order, while occupying a fixed optical
bandwidth. They proposed these devices
theoretically and demonstrated numerically for
different applications such as: all-optical
encryption, OCDMA, optical steganography, and
orthogonal-division multiplexing (ODM).
In this paper we present for the first time, to our
knowledge, an experimental verification of the
DPSS optical en/decoding where a set of 3
encoder and decoder couples from the N=128
family were fabricated and tested to validate
their autocorrelation and cross-correlation
features.
Devices design and fabrication
DPSS are simultaneously time-limited to a given
design value (i.e. symbol duration) and
bandwidth-limited to target optical band as
DWDM channelling. In a simplified description,
DPSS codes present an oscillating shape with
alternated positive and negative lobes in time
(impulse response). The code generation is

computed straightforward numerically by fixing

the integer parameter N (number of orthogonal
codes) and the discrete frequency covering
range [- , ]. Each one of the N orthogonal
sequences (fixed ) can be obtained directly as
one of the N eigen-vectors of a three-diagonal
with dimensions NxN as:
matrix

(1)

For the experimental verification we have

. So we have 128
selected N=128 and
orthogonal codes of 128 chip length. A basic
parameter to be defined is the time sampling ( )
defined as the time separation between adjacent
values of the discrete sequence. In our case we
fixed the separation between two consecutive
sequence values along the SSFBG to
so the sampling time was
. Fig. 1 shows the time and spectral
responses, according to the indicated , for the
code numbers = 10, 15 and 20. The encoders
are named c10, c15 and c20 and the respective
decoders c10*, c15* and c20*, which are the
. The ordering
time/space inverted version (
of the codes inside the family from = 1 to N
corresponds with the degree of concentration of
the energy in the spectral and temporal axis and
with the number of alternating lobes. More
specifically, codes present 10dB optical
,
and
bandwidth of
respectively, being the SSFBG`s total
length of ~22, ~26 and ~30 mm. Increasing
code number inside the N=128 family will
provide progressively wider sequences both in
time and spectrum covering the entire time
and frequency range
range 128*
.
This feature of variable time and spectral width
from one code to another can be exploited in

Ecoc 2015 - ID: 0344

encryption where a random switching of different

codes can be employed to generate a masking
signal and to hide the data structure to the
eavesdropper in both time and spectral5
domains .
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same z-position, only changing the relative

phase of the Bragg period between them by the
proper displacement of the Bragg pattern. In this
way, the averaged UV flux is constant and the
averaged value of the refractive index remains
6-7
unaltered . After fabrication en/decoders were
spectrally characterised by a direct power
spectral measurement employing an Amplified
spontaneous emission (ASE) source and an
Optical Spectrum Analyser (OSA) with 10 pm
resolution. Fig. 2 shows the comparison
between the measured and theoretical spectra
with a very good agreement. Results in Fig. 2
are normalised to the maximum but measured
maximum reflectivities were between ~3-5%.

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Fig. 1:Theoretical DPSS (c10, c15 & c20) (N=128, W=0.5).

a) Discrete Sequence in time (ts=3.95ps), b) Spectrums; real
part(blue), imaginary part (red), amplitude (dotted black).

Other important feature of the DPSS sequences

as optical en/decoders for OCDMA applications
is their natural wavelength channelling, which
provides sharp lateral edges and very high outband rejection enabling good spectral efficiency
if employed in a WDM grid.
For the DPSS en/decoders design we employ
the Discrete Layer Peeling (DLP) synthesis
method, starting from the objective ideal spectral
response in Fig. 1 and fixing the maximum
reflectivity to 5%. Although the length of the
sequences is N=128 this information was
linearly interpolated after de DLP process to
obtain a complex (modulus and phase) index
sampled each 85.6
perturbation profile
that was fabricated at this step basis. Each
discrete point was performed by a Ultra-Violet
(UV) laser beam exposition after a Phase
Mask(PM) to obtain the Bragg pattern. UV beam
.
was focused before the PM up to 40
The amplitude and phase control of each
was achieved by a double UV
sample of
(50mW UV beam) over the
exposition of

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Fig. 2: Measured and theoretical en/decoders spectrums.

En/decoding experimental verification

The complete en/decoding process was verified
employing the experimental set up shown in
Fig. 3. We employ a fibre Mode Locking Laser
(MLL) generating ~10 ps pulses at 10 GHz
repetition rate. This signal was modulated by an
Electro-Optical Modulator (EOM) reducing its
rate to 1.25GHz and providing an 800ps time
delay between pulses. Pulsed signal was
amplified by a 20dB flat gain Erbium Doped
Fibre Amplifier (EDFA) before being applied to
the encoder and the decoder.
10 GHz

DPSS-SSFBG

PPG
MLL

1.25 GHz

c10,c15,c20
A

EOM
EDFA

c10*,c15*,c20*
Optical Sampling
Oscilloscope

EDFA

Fig. 3:Measurement setup.

Ecoc 2015 - ID: 0344

No additional losses due to fibre length were

employed between encoder and decoder sets.
Finally we employed a variable EDFA with low
gain to preamplify the signal before detection.
For the correct en/decoding process an accurate
spectral alignment between devices is
mandatory. Spectral misalignments higher than
~ 2-4 pm leads to the Auto-Correlation Peak
(ACP) suppression. This precise spectral
adjustment was carried out by active thermal
control packaging of the SSFBG en/decoders.
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Conclusions
We have demonstrated experimentally the
encoding and decoding process employing
SSFBGs that reproduce the Discrete Prolate
Spheroidal Sequences. This family of codes
provide very interesting features in time and
frequency domain with very high cardinality for
encryption and OCDMA applications.

150

This work was supported from the

Government project TEC2013-42332-P.

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Optical Power(a.u.)

Fig. 5 shows the experimental results compared

to the theoretical simulations for decoder sets
c10* and c15*. ACP signals were normalized to
1 to easily read XC/ACP ratios, and XC traces
have been displaced down in Fig. 5 for clarity.
Notice that ACP signals are composed of the
peak and a pedestal area called the wings and
XC is a reduced amplitude signal extended
twice the encoded signals (Fig. 4). Also the XC
signals presentalmost zero values in a certain
range around the center. This feature can be
very convenient in synchronous OCDMA
applications.

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Acknowledgements

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Fig. 4:Measured and theoretical encoded signals c10, c15

and c20.

Fig. 4 shows the encoded signals at the encoder

set output (point A in Fig. 3) measured with an
80 GHz electrical bandwidth optical sampling
oscilloscope. The measured traces are
compared to the theoretical ones with a very
good agreement for all the codes. The complete
en/decoding process was verified carrying out
the different combinations of encoder-decoder
pairs, for example employing decoder c10* the
ACP signalis obtained connecting c10->c10*
(ACP1010), being the Cross-Correlation (XC)
signals c15->c10* (XC1510) and c20->c10*
(XC2010).
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1
ACP10
XC1510
XC2010

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ACP15
XC1015
XC2015

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Fig. 5: Measured and theoretical ACP and XC signals