Simulations of an OSNR-limited all-optical wavelength conversion scheme

We present simulations of a scheme to perform wavelength conversion of signals that eliminates phase-noise transfer from the pump to the converted signal. Nondegenerate four-wave mixing in a semiconductor optical amplifier is used to convert the signal to a new wavelength, and if an optical comb generator is used as the multiple-pump source, then the signal can be converted without incurring any phase-noise transfer from the pumps. We highlight the capabilities of this scheme by simulating the conversion of 16-QAM signals at 10 GBd and showing that errors due to phase-noise accumulation are eliminated, thus enabling conversion whose only impairment would be the total additive optical noise. © 2013 IEEE.