A. Brinton Cooper III
Research Interests

Coded Fiber Optic Communications

             Demands for fiber-optic communication are rapidly approaching limits posed by  available bandwidths.  The most efficiently useable fiber-optic spectrum is already in sufficiently high demand that the cost per unit bandwidth could increase as more applications are introduced. Meanwhile, fiber-optic bandwidth efficiency continues to hover at between 1.0 and 2.0 bps/Hz, an order of magnitude less than that achieved by wireless technology.

             Increasing optical bandwidth efficiency is hindered by our inability to measure optical amplitude and phase independently, so that coherent schemes are not generally accessible to fiber-optic applications. Hence, most optical communications transceivers use noncoherent intensity modulation with direct detection (IM/DD).  However, we have begun to devise coherent optical processing methods that will improve spectral efficiency.  One example is found here: 

A.B. Cooper III, J.B. Khurgin, S. Xu, and J.U. Kang, "Minimizing Multiple Access Interference in OCDMA with Phase and Polarization Diversity," IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics, special issue on "Code in Optical Communications and Networks," v. 13, no. 5, Sep/Oct 2007, pp 1386-1395,

             We are working on several other problems in this area.

 

Other Interests