Abstract

The dispersion effect in an optical network is utilized in several applications. The pattern of the received signal is matched to a pre-prepared data bank. Useful data can be retrieved from this by data matching. It is demonstrated that in a Time-Division-Multiplexing configuration, not only that the data can be retrieved but also the data of the adjacent detectors, i.e., this method can be utilized for optical eavesdropping. Moreover, it is also shown that this method can be utilized as an affordable method to synchronize the data stream and to find the length of the dispersive fiber (or, for a given fiber length, this method can be used to measure the fiber's dispersion coefficient). One of the benefits of this method is that it can operate, while the network is running without deteriorating its performances. The conclusions are based on theoretical and numerical analysis as well as on experimental results.

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