All-optical 80-Gb/s add-drop multiplexer using fiber-based nonlinear optical loop mirror

We propose and demonstrate a novel scheme of the all-optical, high-speed add-drop multiplexer (ADM) for the optical time-division multiplexed signal. The ADM employs a single nonlinear optical loop mirror (NOLM) composed of an optical fiber. The key technical point of this scheme is the simultaneous use of the reflection mode (add function) and the transmission mode (drop function) of the NOLM, which results in significant simplification of the overall ADM configuration. Experimental results show that simultaneous add-drop operation at 80 Gb/s can be successfully achieved without bit errors.