Data regeneration for an all-photonic digital radio over fibre

Abstract

All-photonic digital radio over fibre (AP-DRoF) is a suitable candidate for a digital optical link. In this study, the system and simulation modelling of the proposed photonic data regeneration architecture for the generated return to zero (RZ) pulses of an AP-DRoF link is presented. The proposed data regeneration architecture is based on time stretching, optical sampling and optical hard limiting. Based on the system model, a comprehensive analysis and performance evaluation of the proposed system is presented. The results of simulations carried out to evaluate the performance of the system show that using the proposed regenerator in an AP-DRoF link for regeneration of the ultra-short RZ pulses at 65 Gbit/s reduced rootmean- squared timing jitter by about 90%, while the regenerated pulse eye opening height is improved by 65%.