Adaptive output selection in a chaotic optical ring and its application to communication networks

Abstract

A novel adaptive output selection scheme has been proposed for searching among a large number of multistable oscillation modes in a chaotic optical ring. The modes correspond to digital bit sequences, and the optical ring is potentially useful for generating digital optical signals. The adaptation is based on the collision avoidance between peaks in the oscillation pattern and pulses from another signal source. The collision signal is optically fedback into the optical ring and drives the system into a weakly chaotic regime until a fit oscillation mode which results in no collision in the output is obtained through chaotic mode transitions. Experiments have been performed using 21-bit oscillation modes and the results show that fit oscillation modes can be autonomously chosen with the proposed method. In particular, it was shown that the method can be successful even if the periods and pulse widths of the colliding signals are not the same and shown how the condition for successful collision avoidance can be determined in terms of the power in the collision pulses. Potential applications of the proposal in optical communication networks are discussed.