Error-free, 12-user, 10Gbit=s=user O-CDMA network testbed without FEC

Error-free operation of a 12 10 Gbit=s synchronous, time-slotted spectral phase-encoded time-spreading optical code division multiple access (O-CDMA) network testbed without using forward-error-correction (FEC) is demonstrated. A nonlinear optical loop mirror time gate and nonlinear thresholding minimise multiuser interference. Introduction: Lately, there has been a significant amount of interest in optical code division multiple access (O-CDMA) networks [1]. Many different types of O-CDMA networks have been proposed and studied, including those based on spectral phase encoding [2, 3], 2D or wavelength-time encoding [4], and incoherent sources [5]