Improvements in the transmission over optical links of broadband access networks

Future broadband services will utilize millimeter-wave optical links. However, they can be distorted by fiber dispersion. We present an approach to reduce the chromatic dispersion-induced distortions in optical links carrying combined baseband and millimeter wave signals. This new method is based on the interplay of intensity dependent phase modulation in semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs) and fiber nonlinearities. Theoretical and experimental results are presented for optical links with different length. The results show that the frequency notches caused by the dispersion-induced carrier suppression effect may be sharply alleviated and the transmitted digital signal performance can be improved.