Abstract: An optical communication system that enables any deployed fiber-optic cable to function as an earthquake-detection sensor. In an example embodiment, a WDM optical transmitter of one network node operates to transmit a CW optical signal together with legacy data-carrying optical signals. At another network node, a low-complexity, low-latency coherent optical receiver is used to obtain time-resolved measurements of the Stokes parameters of the CW optical signal. The signal-processing chain of the optical receiver employs digital filtering to select frequency components of the measurements streams corresponding to seismic disturbances of the fiber-optical cable connecting the nodes. The selected frequency components are then used to compute values of an earthquake indicator, which are reported to a network controller. Based on such reports from three or more nodes, the network controller can determine the epicenter and magnitude of the earthquake and, if warranted, may generate a tsunami forecast.

Abstract: An optical communication system that enables any deployed fiber-optic cable to function as an earthquake-detection sensor. In an example embodiment, a WDM optical transmitter of one network node operates to transmit a CW optical signal together with legacy data-carrying optical signals. At another network node, a low-complexity, low-latency coherent optical receiver is used to obtain time-resolved measurements of the Stokes parameters of the CW optical signal. The signal-processing chain of the optical receiver employs digital filtering to select frequency components of the measurements streams corresponding to seismic disturbances of the fiber-optical cable connecting the nodes. The selected frequency components are then used to compute values of an earthquake indicator, which are reported to a network controller. Based on such reports from three or more nodes, the network controller can determine the epicenter and magnitude of the earthquake and, if warranted, may generate a tsunami forecast.

Abstract: A direct-detection optical data receiver capable of low-latency SSBI cancellation using one or more FIR filters in the chain of digital signal processing thereof. In an example embodiment, a DSP of the receiver may have first and second serially connected FIR filters whose filter coefficients are updated based on a same feedback signal. An SSBI-cancellation circuit of the DSP is configured to estimate the SSBI by summing a scaled square of the filtered signal generated by the first FIR filter and a scaled square of the filtered signal generated by the second FIR filter. In some embodiments, the SSBI-cancellation circuit may have two or more serially connected stages, each of which incrementally improves the accuracy of the SSBI estimate. In some embodiments, the need for dedicated and/or specialized filter-calibration procedures may beneficially be circumvented.

Abstract: An optical receiver, e.g., for an Optical Supervisory Channel (OSC), whose optical front end comprises a polarization-diversity coherent optical receiver configured to receive a conventional intensity-modulated (e.g., OSC) signal. Four quadrature components of the received OSC signal detected by the polarization-diversity coherent optical receiver are sampled at a relatively high sampling rate and are used to calculate the Stokes parameters of the OSC signal. As a result, the Stokes parameters can be updated at the high sampling rate, which can be suitably selected to enable polarization tracking with a relatively high time resolution and/or at relatively high SOP-rotation speeds. The four detected quadrature components are appropriately combined in the receiver DSP to determine the intensity of the received OSC signal, which is then used in a conventional manner to recover the OSC data encoded therein.

Abstract: A direct-detection optical data receiver capable of low-latency SSBI cancellation using one or more FIR filters in the chain of digital signal processing thereof. In an example embodiment, a DSP of the receiver may have first and second serially connected FIR filters whose filter coefficients are updated based on a same feedback signal. An SSBI-cancellation circuit of the DSP is configured to estimate the SSBI by summing a scaled square of the filtered signal generated by the first FIR filter and a scaled square of the filtered signal generated by the second FIR filter. In some embodiments, the SSBI-cancellation circuit may have two or more serially connected stages, each of which incrementally improves the accuracy of the SSBI estimate. In some embodiments, the need for dedicated and/or specialized filter-calibration procedures may beneficially be circumvented.

Abstract: A PDM-capable coherent optical receiver can be implemented using four high-bandwidth photodiodes connected in a single-ended electrical configuration. The SSBI present in the electrical output of the single-ended photodiodes is effectively canceled in the receiver DSP based on measurements of average optical power of the optical data and local-oscillator signals. In various embodiments, such measurements can be performed using relatively inexpensive circuits/components incorporated into the optical front end of the receiver. For a given signaling interval, the DSP runs an iterative algorithm to compute estimates of the in-phase and quadrature components of the optical data signal and achieve a level of performance comparable to that of a coherent optical receiver having a greater number of high-bandwidth photodiodes connected to form balanced photodetectors. The achieved reduction in the number of high-bandwidth photodiodes can advantageously be used, e.g.