Crosstalk in WDM Communication Networks

The use of advanced transmission and switching techniques such as reconfigurable WDM optical crossconnects is enabling high capacity and flexible optical networking at ultra bit-rates reaching multi-terabits per second. These techniques also offer creative ways to improve the network connectivity and survivability against any form of link failures. One of the major impairments in optical networks incorporating advanced optical crossconnects and WDM transmission is optical crosstalk. Crosstalk in WDM Communication Networks is devoted to the study of optical crosstalk in WDM crossconnected networks. A mathematical framework is presented to analyze crosstalk efficiently and accurately. Several techniques to estimate the effect of interferometric crosstalk in optical WDM systems are presented. Experimental verifications of the proposed models are elaborated. Several techniques to mitigate the destructive effect of optical crosstalk are mentioned and discussed. Finally, techniques to monitor and estimate the performance of WDM systems using low-cost optical devices are described.