Tunable all-optical wavelength conversion and wavelength multicasting using orthogonally polarized fiber FWM

All-optical wavelength conversion and multicasting with input and output wavelength tunability is a desired component for reconfigurable wavelength-division-multiplexed (WDM) networks for improving the efficiency and performance. In this paper, we propose a novel tunable all-optical wavelength-conversion-and-wavelength-multicasting schemes by using orthogonally polarized nondegenerate four-wave mixing (FWM) in highly nonlinear fiber. The input signal is amplified and serves as one of the two pumps. Wide tunability is obtained by placing a dummy pump and dummy signals at appropriate wavelengths with respect to the input wavelength and desired output wavelengths. For a 10-Gb/s NRZ system, 1:3 multicasting is demonstrated with a less than 0.6-dB power penalty, over a 25-nm tuning range for both input and output signals.