A new family of 2-D wavelength-time codes for optical CDMA with differential detection

We develop a new family of high-weight two-dimensional wavelength-time codes for optical code-division multiple-access (OCDMA) that takes advantage of the antipodal signaling enabled by differential detection and uses relaxed auto- and cross-correlation constraints. We analyze the performance of the proposed codes and examine how the code size and correlation properties affect two important system parameters, namely the maximum number of codes that can be generated and the bit error rate as a function of the number of active users. We also show that this new family of codes can be used to implement high-performance OCDMA systems when combined with forward error correction coding: a system with 32 wavelengths and 41 time chips operating at OC-3 transmission rates (155.52 Mb/s) can support an aggregate throughput of /spl ap/41 Gb/s.