4-CHANNEL POLARIZATION-INSENSITIVE OPTICALLY TRANSPARENT WAVELENGTH CONVERTER

Multichannel wavelength converters may be important components in the crossconnects in future wavelength-division multiplexed (WDM) transpor t networks. We demonstrate a multichannel, polarization-insensitive, o ptically transparent wavelength converter, based on four-wave mixing i n two semiconductor optical amplifiers in a polarization-diversity arr angement. Bit-error-rate (BER) measurements with four input 2.5-Gb/s W DM channels, spaced by 2 nm, show penalties for wavelength conversion less than 2.6 dB at 10(-9) BER. Changes in the state of polarization o f the input signals cause the output power to change by less than 1.2 dB, and the corresponding power penalties change by less than 0.9 dB.