Optical Multiplexing of Metrological Time and Frequency Signals in a Single 100-GHz-Grid Optical Channel

In this article, the concept of co-locating all metrological time and frequency signals in a single optical channel of a standard, 100-GHz-spaced optical grid is presented and evaluated. The solution is intended for situations where only a narrow optical bandwidth is available in a fiber heavily loaded with standard data traffic. We localized the optical reference signals in the middle of the channel, with signals related to RF reference and time tags shifted ±12.5 GHz apart. In the experimental evaluation with a 260-km-long fiber, we demonstrate that the stability of frequency signals and the calibration of time tags remained at the very same level of stability and accuracy as for systems utilizing separate channels: the fractional long-term instability for the optical frequency reference was below 5 ×10^-20 , that for the RF reference at the level of 10^-17, and the mismatch of the time tag calibration was not more than 10 ps. We also identify possible issues, mainly related to a risk of unwanted Brillouin amplification and scattering.