Pattern effects and noise accumulation in concatenated all-optical regenerators

Summary form only given. In future high-speed networks, interferometric structures based on semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs) are strong candidates for wavelength conversion applications and signal regeneration. One of the latest reported interferometric devices is the semiconductor delayed-interference signal-wavelength converter (DISC), which allows for high-speed switching by exploiting the fast carrier-depletion related refractive index changes in the SOA. Here, we use a numerical model of the DISC configuration, including saturation and dynamical effects in the SOA, to generate pattern dependent transfer functions. These transfer functions are used to evaluate the noise accumulation and the BER of concatenated regenerators.