Filtering effects in a spectrum-sliced WDM system using SOA-based noise reduction

We present an experimental investigation into the effects of receiver filtering on the intensity noise in a spectrum-sliced incoherent light system incorporating semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) based noise reduction. Spectral filtering of the SOA output degrades the signal quality, reducing the benefit offered by the SOA. However, narrow filters are required to reduce the crosstalk in high channel density systems. We characterize this tradeoff and find the optimum receiver bandwidth for varying channel spacing configurations in a spectrum-sliced wavelength-division multiplexed (WDM) system.