JOURNAL OF LIGHTWAVE TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 20, NO.

12, DECEMBER 2002

2239

Tunable Chromatic Dispersion Compensation

in 40-Gb/s Systems Using Nonlinearly Chirped
Fiber Bragg Gratings
Z. Pan, Y. W. Song, C. Yu, Y. Wang, Q. Yu, J. Popelek, H. Li, Y. Li, and
Alan Eli Willner, Senior Member, IEEE, Fellow, OSA

AbstractChromatic dispersion management and tunable compensation are essential features of 40-Gb/s wavelength-divisionmultiplexed (WDM) systems. In this paper, we demonstrate both
single and multi channel 40-Gb/s tunable dispersion compensation
using nonlinearly chirped FBGs (NC-FBGs). For single channel
compensation, we show that the NC-FBG can be tuned over a mod400 ps/nm) with tolerable third-order dispersion
erate range (
( 200 ps/nm2 ) within the channels data bandwidth (intrachannel
third-order dispersion). For multichannel systems, we demonstrate
40-Gb/s tunable dispersion compensation using sampled
4
NC-FBGs in two configurations. First, we show that a single, sampled NC-FBG with fairly low intrachannel third-order dispersion
induces negligible penalty on all four channels. This solution has a
limited dispersion tuning range because of the deleterious intrachannel third-order dispersion. We show a moderate tuning range
from 300 ps/nm to 700 ps/nm. Second, we demonstrate that
two inverse, concatenated, sampled NC-FBGs can cancel the high
deleterious intrachannel third-order dispersion, thus extending
the dispersion tuning range. This solution provides both positive
and negative dispersion values by stretching the two NC-FBGs
separately. A tuning range of 300 ps/nm to 300 ps/nm with zero
intrachannel third-order dispersion is shown.

Index TermsChromatic dispersion, fiber Bragg gratings

(FBG), fiber-optic components, optical fiber communication.

I. INTRODUCTION

HE ACCURACY required for dispersion compensation techniques increases dramatically as the data rate
increases. While the amount of residual dispersion that is considered tolerable (induces 1 dB penalty) at 10 Gb/s is large [on
the order of 1000 ps/nm (nonreturn-to zero (NRZ) format)], in
40-Gb/s systems this margin shrinks to only 60 ps/nm for the
NRZ format [1]. A compensator must match the fiber dispersion
to within a few percent of the required dispersion value. However, any changes in environmental effects and/or in the signal
power levels may cause significant variations in the dispersion
and system performance. For example, temperature changes
can lead to variations in dispersion that may be significant
Manuscript received June 7, 2002; revised August 27, 2002.
Z. Pan, Y. W. Song, C. Yu, Y. Wang, and A. E. Willner are with the Department of Electrical EngineeringSystems, University of Southern California,
Los Angeles, CA 90089-2565 USA (e-mail: zpan@usc.edu).
Q. Yu was with the Department of Electrical EngineeringSystems, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089-2565 USA. He is now with
Scientera Networks, San Jose, CA 95129 USA.
J. Popelek, H. Li, and Y. Li are with the Phaethon Communications, Fremont,
CA 94538 USA.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/JLT.2002.806773

enough to impact the system. For a temperature change of

C, a distance of
km, and a dispersion slope
ps/nm /km [using single-mode fiber (SMF)],
of
ps/nm
the thermally induced variation in dispersion is
[or the dispersion of 2 km of SMF, or 7.5 km of nonzero-dispersion shifted fiber (NZDSF)] [2]. This amount is relatively
insignificant in 10-Gb/s systems, but becomes significant in
40-Gb/s systems. Moreover, several other vexing issues may
also necessitate tunable dispersion compensation: i) inventory
management, ii) reconfigurable networking for which the path
changes, iii) repairs and maintenance of the fiber plant, and
iv) variable dispersion introduced by in-line components such
as optical filters [1].
It is evident that accurate compensation at 40 Gb/s would
benefit from tunable compensation modules. Tunable dispersion
compensation for 40-Gb/s signals has been previously reported.
In one demonstration, a single fiber Bragg grating (FBG) was
thermally tuned to achieve a change of 900 ps/nm in induced
dispersion [3]. In a second report, two nonlinearly chirped FBGs
(NC-FBGs) were used in tandem to provide wide tunability and
mitigation of any third-order dispersion effects on the signal due
to a dispersion-value curvature over the bandwidth of the signal
itself [4]. However, there are no reports of using an FBG for
tunable multichannel 40-Gb/s dispersion compensation.
Another technique demonstrated at 10 Gb/s employed
stretching of a NC-FBG to successfully compensate for multiple-channel dispersion [5]. When a nonlinearly chirped grating
is uniformly stretched by a single mechanical element, the time
delay curve is shifted toward longer wavelengths and the slope
of the ps-versus-nm curve (i.e., the dispersion compensation)
at a specific channel wavelength changes continuously [6]. It
has been shown that NC-FBGs offer great advantages as tunable
dispersion compensators. However, this single-grating technique
has only been previously shown to compensate for 10-Gb/s
signals.
In this paper, we demonstrate both single channel and multi
channel 40-Gb/s dispersion compensation using NC-FBGs. For
single channel compensation, we show that the NC-FBG can
be tuned over a moderate range ( 400 ps/nm) with tolerable
200 ps/nm ) within the channels
third-order dispersion (
data bandwidth (intrachannel third-order dispersion). The
power penalty is 1 dB for tunable compensation of 120 km
LEAF fiber and an extra dispersion variation of 60 ps/nm. For
40-Gb/s tunable
multichannel systems, we demonstrate 4
dispersion compensation using sampled NC-FBGs in two

0733-8724/02$17.00 2002 IEEE

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JOURNAL OF LIGHTWAVE TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 20, NO. 12, DECEMBER 2002

configurations. First, we show that a single sampled NC-FBG

with fairly low intrachannel third-order dispersion induces
a negligible penalty on all four channels. This solution has
a limited dispersion tuning range because of the deleterious
intrachannel third-order dispersion. We show a moderate
tuning range from 300 ps/nm to 700 ps/nm. Second, we
demonstrate that two inverse, concatenated, sampled NC-FBGs
can cancel the deleterious intrachannel third-order dispersion,
thus extending the dispersion tuning range. With this solution,
both positive and negative dispersion values may be obtained
by stretching the two NC-FBGs separately. The dispersion
tuning range is from 300 ps/nm to 300 ps/nm with zero
intrachannel third-order dispersion. In both the single FBG and
cascaded FBG configurations, 3 dB penalty is achieved for a
4 40-Gb/s wavelength-division-multiplexed (WDM) system,
even though the eye is completely closed prior to compensation.

(a)

II. TUNABLE SINGLE-CHANNEL 40-Gb/s DISPERSION

COMPENSATION
A. Nonlinearly Chirped Fiber Bragg Gratings
In order to realize dynamic dispersion compensation, the
amount of dispersion of the compensating grating should change
as the grating is stretched. Fig. 1(a) shows a typical group delay
curve vs. wavelength for a linearly chirped FBG. The slope of
the curve corresponds to the dispersion at each wavelength.
For a linearly chirped grating, the relative time delay decreases
linearly as the wavelength increases, so the grating-induced
dispersion is constant over the grating bandwidth. When the
linearly chirped grating is stretched, the time delay curve shifts
to longer wavelengths, but the slope remains unchanged. At any
given wavelength, the slope of the time delay curve is constant,
meaning that the grating-induced dispersion will not change
whether the grating is stretched or not.
Fig. 1(b) shows the time delay curve of a nonlinearly chirped
FBG. The time delay decreases nonlinearly versus the wavelength. Hence, the grating-induced dispersion (the slope of the
time delay curve) is different for different wavelengths within
the grating bandwidth. As the grating is stretched, the accumulated delay curve shifts to longer wavelengths while maintaining its shape. At each wavelength, the slope of the time
delay curve (i.e., dispersion) increases from a shallow one to
a much steeper one. Therefore, the amount of dispersion increases as the grating is stretched to longer wavelengths [6].
However, within the signals bandwidth, the dispersion is not
constant, as shown in Fig. 1(c). This intrachannel third-order
dispersion of a NC-FBG can be appreciably large, especially
when the NC-FBG has a relatively large tuning range.
of NC-FBGs is a seIt is unclear if the intrachannel
rious problem at 40-Gb/s. In this paper, we show that the thirdorder dispersion of the FBG induces a negligible penalty while
maintaining a moderate dispersion tuning range. In this section,
we demonstrate that, when the dispersion is varied by up to
60 ps/nm, the power penalty is 1 dB after compensation, even
though an error-free signal could not be obtained prior to compensation [7]. We emphasize that, although our tuning range is
smaller than previously reported results [3], we can expand the
tuning range up to 400 ps/nm within the negligible third-order
dispersion regime ( 200 ps/nm ) for a NC-FBG with a 2 nm

(b)

(c)
Fig. 1. Tunable dispersion compensation using chirped FBGs. (a) Linearly
chirped FBG, (b) nonlinearly chirped FBG, and (c) nonzero intrachannel
third-order dispersion.

bandwidth. Furthermore, our technique is simpler to implement

and provides a range of dispersion values that enables robust
system operation under the majority of conditions.
B. 40-Gb/s Experimental Setup
Fig. 2 shows the experimental setup of our 40-Gb/s transmission system using an NC-FBG as the tunable dispersion
compensator. Fig. 2(a) is the 40-Gb/s transmitter. A 10-Gb/s
return-to-zero (RZ) signal generated by two external modulators at 1553.5 nm is compressed down to 10 ps using a phase
modulator followed by fiber-induced dispersion of 80 ps/nm.
A two-stage optical multiplexer is used to generate a 40-Gb/s
data stream. Note that a polarization interleaver is used in the
second stage to reduce coherent crosstalk. At the receiver,
shown in Fig. 2(b), 10% of the incident light is tapped off and
fed to the clock recovery unit. An injection-locked electrooptic
oscillator is used to recover the 10 GHz clock from the 40-Gb/s
data stream [8]. The bit error rate measurement is performed
at 10-Gb/s after demultiplexing the 40-Gb/s data with an electroabsorption modulator electrically driven by the recovered
10 GHz clock. Fig. 2(c) shows the entire transmission setup.

PAN et al.: TUNABLE CHROMATIC DISPERSION COMPENSATION IN 40-Gb/s SYSTEMS USING NC-FBGs

2241

(a)

(b)

(c)
Fig. 2. 40-Gb/s experimental setup for evaluation of the tunable dispersion compensator. (a) Transmitter (Tx), (b) receiver (Rx), EA: Electroabsorption modulator,
and (c) the entire transmission setup with tunable dispersion compensation.

After 120 km LEAF fiber with an extra 1 to 5 km of SMF

to vary the accumulated dispersion, a mechanically stretched
NC-FBG is used for tunable dispersion compensation. The
250 ps/nm, intraFBG has a tunable dispersion range of
channel third-order dispersion of 150 ps/nm over the entire
bandwidth, and peak-to-peak ripple of 20 ps.
C. Simulation and Experimental Results
In 40-Gb/s optical transmission systems, the NC-FBGs
used for dispersion compensation must be carefully designed.
They must have both a wide tuning range and negligible
third-order-dispersion. Fig. 3 shows the simulated effects of
dispersion and intrachannel third-order dispersion at 40-Gb/s.
PTDS simulation tool is used to calculate the penalty of a
40-Gb/s, chirp-free NRZ/RZ signal, which is launched into a
fiber link with both nonzero second-order chromatic dispersion
(ps/nm) and intraband third-order dispersion ps/nm . The
rise-fall time of the transmitter is 0.25 bit period, and the
electrical bandwidth of the receiver is 30-GHz. The penalty
induced by a given second-order chromatic dispersion or intraband third-order dispersion is calculated from the simulated bit
error rate (BER) as a function of the received optical power;
we assume that amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) is the
dominant noise source and the intraband third-order dispersion
equals to zero when considering the second-order chromatic
dispersion, and vice versa. In order to have a negligible
slope-induced penalty for both NRZ and RZ formats, the intrachannel third-order dispersion should be 200 ps/nm . In the
meantime, the dispersion tuning range should be 120 ps/nm

(a)

(b)
Fig. 3. (a) Simulated power penalty as a function of dispersion at 40-Gb/s.
(b) Simulated power penalty of the 40-Gb/s signals as a function of intrachannel
third-order dispersion.

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(a)

(a)

(b)
Fig. 4. The FBG used as the tunable dispersion compensator. (a) Reflection
spectrum and (b) time delay curve.

to assure the penalty is 1 dB. There is a tradeoff between the

of the NC-FBG. For a 2-nm bandtuning range and the
width FBG, the tuning range can go up to 400 ps/nm within
the negligible third-order-dispersion regime. It is believed that
400 ps/nm tuning range will enable robust system operation
under the majority of conditions.
Fig. 4 shows the reflected power spectrum [see Fig. 4(a)]
and time delay curve [Fig. 4(b)] of the FBG. By stretching the
grating, the dispersion varies nonlinearly and smoothly from
250 to 500 ps/nm over the 2-nm bandwidth. The intra150 ps/nm over the whole
channel third-order dispersion is
tuning range. Therefore, the penalty induced by intrachannel
third-order dispersion is negligible and we observe no penalty
caused by this slope value in our experiment. By increasing
the bandwidth of the grating, the dispersion tuning range of the
NC-FBG can be increased while the intrachannel third-order dispersion remains less than 200 ps/nm . Note that the peak-to-peak
group delay ripple and polarization mode dispersion (PMD)
of this single channel NC-FBG is about 20 ps and 10 ps,
respectively. And the loss profile of the NC-FBG is not uniform
within the passband. Using apodization technique can reduced
the ripple and improve the profile uniformity dramatically.
Fig. 5 shows the tunable dispersion compensation results
for transmission over 120 km LEAF plus 1 to 5 km of SMF
fiber. After demultiplexing the 40-Gb/s signal to four 10-Gb/s

(b)
Fig. 5. Tunable dispersion compensation for different dispersion variations.
(a) Compensation result for
ps/nm and (b) compensation result for
ps/nm.

1D = 60

1D = 35

channels, the worst 10-Gb/s channel is measured. Compared

to the back-to-back sensitivity of 32.8 dBm for this channel,
compensation of the total fiber link (120 km LEAF 5 km
SMF) has 1 dB power penalty. Reducing the link dispersion
2 km SMF) without tuning
by 35 ps/nm (by removing
the FBG causes 1.8 dB penalty. Optimally stretching the
grating reduces the penalty to 1 dB [see Fig. 5(a)]. If the
link dispersion is changed by 60 ps/nm (by removing 4 km
SMF) without tuning the grating, the system cannot be error
free. However, stretching the grating again corrects the system
back to 1 dB penalty [see Fig. 5(b)]. Note that the nonideal
characteristics of the NC-FBG, such as nonuniform loss
profile, group-delay ripple and PMD, may distort the signal
(asymmetric eyediagram) thus cause nonzero residual penalty.

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2243

(a)

(a)

(b)
Fig. 6. (a) Setup for multi- dispersion compensation using a single NC-FBG.
(b) Tunability of multi- dispersion compensation achieved by mechanically
stretching a single FBG with negligible intrachannel third-order dispersion.

III. TUNABLE DISPERSION COMPENSATION FOR 4

USING A SINGLE SAMPLED NC-FBG

40-GB/S

To achieve multiple channel operation, one solution is to

sample (or modulate) the phase profile of the single channel
grating design. As known from Fourier analysis, sampling a
function in real space (here, along the length of the grating)
leads to repeated spectra in Fourier space (here, in the wavelength domain) [9]. One report that was demonstrated at
10-Gb/s employed stretching of a sampled NC-FBG that
enables simultaneous multiple channel dispersion compensation [5]. In this section, we demonstrate 4 40-Gb/s tunable
dispersion compensation using a single sampled NC-FBG. We
show that a sampled NC-FBG with fairly low intrachannel
third-order dispersion induces a negligible penalty on all four
channels. This solution provides a moderate tuning range from
300 ps/nm to 700 ps/nm. Less than 3 dB penalty is achieved
for all four channels whereas the system is completely down
without compensation.
A. Experimental Setup of Tunable 4
Compensation

40-Gb/s Dispersion

The experimental setup for tunable dispersion compensation

using a single, sampled NC-FBG is shown in Fig. 6(a). We used
the same transmitter and receiver setup as for single channel
experiment, shown in Fig. 1(a) and (b). Fig. 6(b) shows low
intrachannel third-order dispersion across all WDM channels
and how tunability for multichannel dispersion compensation
may be achieved by mechanically stretching the NC-FBG.
B. Tunable 4

40-Gb/s Dispersion Compensation Results

Fig. 7 shows the reflected power spectrum [Fig. 7(a)] and

time delay curve [Fig. 7(b)] of the sampled NC-FBG. When the
grating is stretched, the dispersion varies nonlinearly from 800
to 200 ps/nm over the entire 2.5 nm channel bandwidth for all
four channels. Considering the 40-Gb/s RZ data bandwidth, the
actual usable bandwidth of the NC-FBG for multiple channels
is 1.5 nm, corresponding to a tuning range from 300 ps/nm
to 700 ps/nm. Fig. 7(b) also illustrates that the dispersion is
not uniform within each channels bandwidth. The intrachannel

(b)
Fig. 7. The sampled NC-FBG used for tunable dispersion compensation.
(a) Reflection spectrum, and (b) time delay curve.

third-order dispersion is 200 ps/nm over the whole tuning

range, which is below the intrachannel third-order dispersion
limit. Therefore, the penalty induced by intrachannel third-order
dispersion is negligible.
40-Gb/s WDM
System performance is measured in a 4
system. After the dispersion compensator, the 40-Gb/s signal is
demultiplexed to 10-Gb/s to take BER measurements for each
of the four channels at the receiver. Fig. 8 shows the tunable
compensation results at 320 and 640 ps/nm dispersion
values using a single NC-FBG for compensation. Less than
3 dB penalty is obtained for all channels, even though the eye
is completely closed without compensation. Note here that the
residual power penalty may be due to the group delay ripple and
PMD of the NC-FBG. In our systems, the sampled NC-FBG
has 30 ps of group delay ripple and 10 ps of PMD. Since
the group delay ripple is more severe in the sampled NC-FBG
than in the single channel NC-FBG, higher residual penalty
remains in the 4 40-Gb/s systems. Another important issue for
sampled NC-FBG is the channel spacing. There is a trade-off
between the tuning range and channel spacing in order to
have tolerant intrachannel third-order dispersion. For example,
100 GHz channel spacing will limit the dispersion tuning range
to 150 ps/nm. For the total channel number, it is possible to
compensate up to 16 channels simultaneously by using one
sampled NC-FBG.

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Fig. 8.

JOURNAL OF LIGHTWAVE TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 20, NO. 12, DECEMBER 2002

Tunable dispersion compensation results for all four channels at different dispersion values (320 ps/nm and 640 ps/nm).

IV. TUNABLE SLOPE-FREE DISPERSION COMPENSATION FOR

4 40-Gb/s USING TWO INVERSE SAMPLED NC-FBGs
One report has shown that, for a single channel, the higher
order dispersion of an NC-FBG may be canceled by using two
such gratings in cascade with inverse curvatures [4]. Moreover,
two such gratings enable a compensator that can be tuned to
both negative and positive dispersion values. In this section, we
demonstrate that two inverse concatenated sampled NC-FBGs
can cancel the deleterious higher order dispersion for tunable,
multichannel, 40-Gb/s dispersion compensation. The dispersion tuning range is from 300 ps/nm to 300 ps/nm with zero
3 dB penalty is
intrachannel third-order dispersion. Again,
achieved for a 4 40-Gb/s WDM system even though the eye is
completely closed without compensation for both positive and
negative accumulated dispersion.

(a)

A. Concept and Experimental Setup

Fig. 9(a) shows the configuration of two cascaded NC-FBGs
for dispersion compensation. The signal is launched into a
four-port circulator and is reflected off two identical FBGs in
turn. The two FBGs are inversely cascaded so that the higher
order dispersion of the NC-FBGs is canceled. Fig. 9(b) is
a conceptual diagram showing the tuning of two cascaded,
sampled NC-FBGs for multichannel dispersion compensation.
This configuration can compensate dispersion for many WDM
channels simultaneously and can provide both negative and
positive dispersion values via separately stretching or compressing the two NC-FBGs. Furthermore, the intrachannel
third-order dispersion induced by the first NC-FBG is canceled
by the second NC-FBG for all WDM channels.
B. Tunable 4

40-Gb/s Dispersion Compensation Results

Fig. 10(a) and (b) show the measured time delay curves
for the two NC-FBGs. When the gratings are stretched, the
dispersion varies nonlinearly from 800 to 200 ps/nm or
800 to 200 ps/nm over the entire 2.5 nm channel bandwidth
for the first and second NC-FBGs, respectively. Fig. 10(a) and
(b) also illustrate that the dispersion is not uniform within each
channels bandwidth. When two cascaded NC-FBGs are used
as a tunable dispersion compensator, the usable bandwidth is
1 nm. Fig. 10(c) shows the measured resultant time delay
when the two cascaded NC-FBGs are tuned to achieve either

(b)
Fig. 9. Dispersion compensator using two cascaded sampled FBGs. (a) Configuration and (b) illustration of tunability and zero intrachannel third-order
dispersion.

of the two extreme dispersion values from 300 ps/nm to

300 ps/nm, as well as when tuned to zero dispersion. It is
clear that the intrachannel third-order dispersion is canceled
within the signals bandwidth after cascading two inverse
NC-FBGs. Moreover, the overall tuning range is increased and
ranges from both positive to negative dispersion values.
Again, the system performance is measured in a 4 40-Gb/s
OTDM-WDM system. Fig. 11 shows the tunable compensation results for both positive ( 300 ps/nm) and negative
( 200 ps/nm) dispersion using two cascaded NC-FBGs. In
each case, 3 dB penalty is obtained for all channels, while the
system cannot be error free without compensation. Note here
that the residual power penalty may be due to the group delay
ripple and PMD of the NC-FBGs, an effect that can be more
significant here than in a single grating compensator. The two
sampled NC-FBGs we used have 30 ps of group delay ripple
10 ps of PMD. It is clear that higher residual penalty
and
remains compared to the single grating solution. However,
since the intrachannel third-order dispersion is canceled by
cascading the two FBGs, there is no limitation on the tuning
range even for 100 GHz channel spacing. In order to cascaded

PAN et al.: TUNABLE CHROMATIC DISPERSION COMPENSATION IN 40-Gb/s SYSTEMS USING NC-FBGs

2245

more NC-FBGs, the group delay ripple and PMD have to be

decreased to 10 ps and 1 ps, respectively.
V. SUMMARY

(a)

Chromatic dispersion is a critical issue which can severely

influence system performance at 40 Gb/s. Tunability is considered a key enabler for 40-Gb/s systems, and such a tunable
compensator should accommodate multiple WDM channels.
We demonstrated tunable dispersion compensation for single
and multichannel 40-Gb/s systems using NC-FBGs in different
schemes. The advantages of our method include: 1) wide tuning
range for 40 Gb/s, 2) negligible intrachannel third-order dispersion, and 3) both positive and negative dispersion values. We
believe that this technique may offer one of the most cost-effective dispersion compensation solutions for 40-Gb/s systems.
REFERENCES

(b)

(c)

[1] A. E. Willner and B. Hoanca, Fixed and tunable management of fiber

chromatic dispersion, in Optical Fiber Telecommunications IV, I. P.
Kaminow and T. Li, Eds. New York: Academic, Mar. 2002.
[2] T. Kato, Y. Koyano, and M. Nishimura, Temperature dependence of
chromatic dispersion in various types of optical fibers, in Proc. Optical
Fiber Commun., OFC00, 2000, Paper TuG7, pp. 104106.
[3] T. N. Nielsen, B. J. Eggleton, J. A. Rogers, P. S. Westbrook, P. B. Hansen,
and T. A. Strasser, Dynamic Post dispersion optimization at 40 Gb/s
using a tunable fiber Bragg brating, IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett., vol.
12, pp. 173175, Feb. 2000.
[4] J. A. J. Fells, S. E. Kanellopoulos, P. J. Bennett, V. Baker, H. F. M.
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B. J. Pugh, S. J. Clements, and A. Hadjifotiou, Twin fiber grating tunable dispersion compensator, IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett., vol. 13, pp.
984986, Sept. 2001.
[5] J.-X. Cai, K. Feng, A. Willner, V. Grubsky, D. Starodubov, and J. Feinberg, Sampled nonlinearly-chirped FBG for tunable dispersion compensation of many WDM channels simultaneously, in Proc. Optical
Fiber Commun., OFC99, 1999, Paper FA7.
[6] K.-M. Feng, J.-X. Cai, V. Grubsky, D. S. Starodubov, M. I. Hayee, S.
Lee, X. Jiang, A. E. Willner, and J. Feinberg, Dynamic dispersion compensation in a 10-Gb/s optical system using novel voltage tuned nonlinearly-chirped fiber Bragg grating, IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett., vol. 11,
pp. 373375, 1999.
[7] Z. Pan, Q. Yu, Y. W. Song, and A. E. Willner, 40-Gb/s RZ 120-km
transmission using a nonlinearly-chirped fiber Bragg grating (NL-FBG)
for tunable dispersion compensation, in Proc. Optical Fiber Commun.,
OFC02, 2002, Paper ThGG50, pp. 682683.
[8] B. Mikkelsen, G. Raybon, R.-J. Essiambre, A. J. Stentz, T. N. Nielsen,
D. W. Peckham, L. Hsu, L. Gruner-Nielsen, K. Dreyer, and J. E.
Johnson, 320-Gb/s single-channel pseudolinear transmission over 200
km of nonzero-dispersion fiber, IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett., vol. 12,
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[9] M. Ibsen, M. K. Durkin, M. J. Cole, and R. I. Laming, Sinc-sampled
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Fig. 10. Group velocity dispersion for (a) FBG1, (b) FBG2, and (c) two
cascaded FBGs for three tuning cases (negative, zero, and positive dispersion).
Z. Pan, photograph and biography not available at the time of publication.
Y. W. Song, photograph and biography not available at the time of publication.
C. Yu, photograph and biography not available at the time of publication.
Y. Wang, photograph and biography not available at the time of publication.
Q. Yu, photograph and biography not available at the time of publication.
J. Popelek, photograph and biography not available at the time of publication.
H. Li, photograph and biography not available at the time of publication.
Fig. 11. Tunable dispersion compensation results for all four channels at
positive ( 300 ps/nm) and negative ( 200 ps/nm) accumulated dispersion.

Y. Li, photograph and biography not available at the time of publication.

2246

Alan Eli Willner (S87M88SM93) received the B.A. degree from Yeshiva
University, New York, NY, and the Ph.D. degree in EE from Columbia University, New York, NY.
He has worked at AT&T Bell Labs and Bellcore and is Professor of Electrical
Engineering at USC. He has more than 300 publications, including one book.
His research is in optical fiber communication systems.
Dr. Willner is a Fellow of the Optical Society of America (OSA) and
was a Fellow of the Semiconductor Research Corporation. He has received
the NSF Presidential Faculty Fellows Award from the White House, the
David and Lucile Packard Foundation Fellowship, the NSF National Young
Investigator Award, the Fulbright Foundation Senior Scholar Award, the
IEEE LEOS Distinguished Lecturer Award, the USC/Northrop Outstanding
Junior Engineering Faculty Research Award, the USC/TRW Best Engineering
Teacher Award, and the Armstrong Foundation Memorial Prize. His activities
have included Vice-President for Technical Affairs for IEEE LEOS, Elected
Member of the LEOS Board of Governors, Cochair of the OSA Science and
Engineering Council, Photonics Division Chair of the OSA, General Chair
of the IEEE LEOS Annual Meeting, Program Cochair of the OSA Annual
Meeting, Program Cochair of CLEO, Steering and Technical Committee of
OFC, and Program Committee Member of ECOC. He is Editor-in-Chief
of the JOURNAL OF LIGHTWAVE TECHNOLOGY; Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE
JOURNAL OF SELECTED TOPICS IN QUANTUM ELECTRONICS; Guest Editor
of the JOURNAL OF LIGHTWAVE TECHNOLOGY Special Issue on Wavelength
Division Multiplexing; and Guest Editor of the IEEE JOURNAL OF QUANTUM
ELECTRONICS.

JOURNAL OF LIGHTWAVE TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 20, NO. 12, DECEMBER 2002