Welcome to the Optical Communications Laboratory at the University of Southern California.  Led by Professor Alan E. Willner, this research lab is a member of the Communications Sciences Institute within the department of Electrical Engineering - Systems at USC.

Fondly called "OC Lab," our research group focuses on a wide range of topics in optical fiber communications.  Our research interests include combating fiber-induced signal impairments arising from nonlinearities, chromatic dispersion and polarization mode dispersion.  We also pursue research in the areas of all-optical networking functions, novel applications of RF subcarrier & OFDM transmissions, advanced modulation formats, optical signal processing,  slow light and micoring resonators.  The group presents papers each year at the Optical Fiber Communications conference (OFC),  European Conference on Optical Communi-cations (ECOC), and Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO).  In addition, we publish articles in journals, such as IEEE Photonics Technology Letters (PTL), IEEE/OSA Journal of Lightwave Technology (JLT), Optics Letters and Optics Express.

The laboratory is well equipped with six floating optics tables, a recirculating fiber-loop testbed with accurate PMD statistics, short pulse lasers & 160-Gb/s OTDM system, tunable and static lasers (ECL, DBR, DFB) for WDM systems, 40 Gb/s and  12.5 Gb/s PGs & BERTs, > 40 Gb/s transmission equipment,  a variety of optical and RF test equipment, PMD analyzers, polarization controllers & scramblers, PMD & CD emulators, PMD & CD compensators, fiber modeling software, and an abundant variety of passive optical components.

Our research would not be possible without the generous support of several companies and government organizations. We would like to thank Cisco, DARPA, Intel, NSF, and the Packard Foundation for the invaluable contributions that they make to our laboratory.

The laboratory is located in the basement of the Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Building (EEB) in rooms B20,B22 and B24.

Main Tel.   (213) 740-1488 Tel. 2   (213) 740-0024 Tel. 3   (213) 740-4142 Fax   (213) 740-8729

Mailing Address: EEB 500 3740 McClintock Ave. Los Angeles, CA 90089-2565

Maps of the USC campus may be downloaded from the USC maps web page.