All-optical wavelength multicasting based on cascaded four-wave mixing with a single pump in highly nonlinear fibers

We theoretically present and experimentally demonstrate all-optical wavelength multicasting based on cascaded four-wave mixing (FWM) in highly nonlinear fibers only using a single pump. The cascaded FWM effect is analyzed based on the sum amplitude method, which overcomes the limitation of the number of analyzed idlers, and the performance of the wavelength multicasting is evaluated. By using a continuous wave pump and a pulse train as the signal, multiple-order idlers are experimentally generated and the patterns of 6 multicasting channels are measured. Regardless of the dynamic region of the tunable filter, this method has the potential to realize more multicasting channels, especially when higher pump and signal powers are used.