AN OPTICAL FREQUENCY SCALE IN EXACT MULTIPLES OF 100 GHZ FOR STANDARDIZATION OF MULTIFREQUENCY COMMUNICATIONS

Absolute laser frequency assignment in projected dense wavelength divi sion multiplexing (DWDM) networks has become a very important issue fo r standardization purposes. Recently, a proposal was made to the Inter national Telecommunication Union suggesting a set of standard waveleng ths in the 1550 nm communications band, It recommended the use of a Kr ypton line at 193.686 25 THz as an absolute frequency reference and a set of 32 wavelengths evenly spaced by 100 GHz around that value, In t his paper, we propose the use of an optical frequency scale with marke rs at exact multiples of 100 GHz for standardization. Our proposed sca le Is independent of the atomic or molecular species used for calibrat ion (and thus accessible to any user), and moreover is uniformely appl icable to all spectral regions, We show one way of implementing such a scale in the 1550 nm band through the use of an absolutely calibrated Fabry-Perot resonator set with a free spectral range of 100 GHz.