Optimum conditions of the laser power P and the scan speed V were investigated experimentally so as to burn and remove the jacket of a 4-fiber ribbon completely by a system with a CO2 laser. It has been clarified that the optimum region can be given by 3 lines, which represent 2 lower limits of the laser power, depending on the scan speed, and an upper limit of the laser power to avoid soot from remaining on the fibers at high laser power region. The optimum conditions enable us to remove the jacket effectively by the system to provide excess-fiber-free compact packaging of optical components.

A stackable reconfigurable optical add/drop multilplexer has been proposed to give wavelength transparency to IP-over-CWDM networks. It was clarified by experiments that the proposed structure was wavelength transparent.

We investigate in detail the scattering properties and heating characteristics in various commercially available optical fibers and fiber cables when a bubble train forms in the middle of the fiber as a result of the fiber fuse phenomenon that occurs when a high power signal is launched into the fiber. We found theoretically and experimentally that almost all the optical light is scattered at the top of the bubble train. The scattered light heats UV coated fiber, nylon jacketed silica fiber, fire-retardant jacketed fiber (PVC or FRPE jacketed fiber) and fire-retardant fiber cable (PVC or FRPE fiber cable), to around 100, over 200 and over 600, respectively, and finally the fiber burns and is destroyed at a launched optical power of 3 W. Furthermore, it is confirmed that the combustion does not spread when we use fire retardant jacketed fibers.

A bidirectional amplification module has been proposed for use in IP-over-CWDM networks. The module is based on a bidirectional erbium-doped fiber amplifier. The loss compensation characteristics of the module obtained in a bidirectional IP transmission experiment confirmed that the losses of the optical node and the transmission fiber in the network can be compensated for effectively by the module making it possible to increase the number of nodes and the total fiber length of the network.

A new optical fan-out adapter is proposed and fabricated by applying the jacket removing system with a CO2 laser. The fan-out adapter has both the multi-fiber connection function and the fiber separating function for single-fiber connections. In order to remove the jacket of a fiber ribbon to connectorize and fabricate the fan-out adapter, the optimum conditions of the laser power P and the scan speed V are clarified for the jacket removing. Based on the optimum conditions, the fan-out adapter was fabricated successfully. Individual fibers could be taken out from the MT connector of the fan-out adapter. The connection losses of the fabricated fan-out adapter were comparable with the values of commercially available MT connectors and SC connectors. The length of the fabricated fan-out adapter was 27 mm, including 2 MT connectors. This result clarifies that the size of the connection with a fan-out can be reduced dramatically by the proposed fan-out adapter.

Remote control scheme for the ROADMs (Reconfigurable Optical Add/Drop Multilplexers) were designed, and 3 sets of the ROADM were manufactured for use in IP-over-CWDM networks. The control performance was examined, and lightpaths could be reconfigured successfully by the control.

A novel fiber jacket removing system by a CO2 laser has been proposed to realize compact packaging of optical components. It has been clarified experimentally that excess-fiber-free MT connectorization is possible for 4-fiber ribbon.