A 320-Gb/s capacity (32-user x 10 Gb/s) SPECTS O-CDMA network testbed with enhanced spectral efficiency through forward error correction

This paper demonstrates a high-performance optical-code-division-multiple-access (O-CDMA) network testbed using the spectral phase encoded time spreading (SPECTS) method. Through additional time and polarization multiplexing, a total of 32 10-Gb/s users are supported while sharing eight O-CDMA spreading codes. User detection is achieved with time gating and nonlinear thresholding to suppress the multiaccess interference of other users. Incorporation of forward error correction successfully reduces the performance loss imposed by coherent beat interference, resulting in error-free performance (BER < 10(-11)), significant per-user power penalty reduction, and the elimination of a bit-error-rate noise floor. The testbed also applies bandwidth suppression within the encoders and decoders, yielding a 52% increase in spectral efficiency.