Robustness estimation of software-synchronized all-optical sampling for fiber communication systems

The robustness of the software-synchronized all-optical sampling for optical performance monitoring is estimated for 10-Gb/s fiber communication systems. It reveals that the software-synchronized algorithm is sensitive to the signal degradation caused by chromatic dispersion and nonlinearity in optical fibers. The influence of timing jitter and amplitude fluctuation of the sampling pulses is also investigated. It is found that stringent requirements are imposed on the quality of the sampling pulse and the tolerance of 1-dB Q penalty is measured. Considering the practically available optical sampling pulse sources, the results indicate that the amplitude fluctuation of the sampling pulses has the dominant impacts on the software-synchronized method.