Brillouin fiber ring laser based in-band OSNR monitoring method for transparent optical networks.

We propose a novel approach for in-band OSNR monitoring based on the Brillouin fiber ring laser seeded by the optical channel to be monitored. This technique is demonstrated experimentally and numerically for various bit rates and modulation formats and shows a reduction of the required input power into the monitor along with a large and tunable dynamic monitoring range. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]