GUI-phase-tracking is a Graphical User Interface Software which supports the development of a new system for the polarization-insensitive phase recovery of the signal transmitted via optical fiber in a frequency metrology dissemination setup. The system is based on a DSP algorithm which elaborates the four signals of a dual-polarization optical hybrid (DPOH). The outputs obtained by the algorithm are the optical phase PH and the two birefringence parameters of the optical fiber DE and TH.

• Python (>=3)

• Tkinter (tested on 8.6 To install tkinter you should use your package manager:

  • Debian:

  apt-get install python3-tk
  

  • openSUSE

  zypper in python3-tk
  

  • To install on other OS (E.G. mac, Windows) refers to:

    tkdocs.com/tutorial/install.html

• NumPy & SciPy python modules

pip3 install numpy scipy

• NumExpr python module (tested on version 2.6.8)

pip3 install numexpr 

• matplotlib python module

pip3 install matplotlib

ACHTUNG! Make sure your python command is a symbolic link to Python3 (not to python2).

You can easily check running:

ls -l $(which python)

if it is not, you HAVE to fix the aliases on .bashrc or run this software with:

python3 GUI_phase.py

The software fully runs out of the box on Win10 in a IDE such as Anaconda/Spyder.
(otherwise for running in CMD console, follow the above linux-like section) .
A dedicated installer for a standalone running is on the way....

Press the green button "Clone or Download" at the project home page in the github website.
Download the zip, if you want to run the software.
Clone the repo if you want to develop and version it.

Open a terminal and go to the GUI-phase-tracking directory.

Next launch GUI_phase.py

python GUI_phase.py

Extract the zip and play GUI_phase.py with the IDE

This tab is in charge of load the four lists of sampled values of the DPOH channels. It can be done by two way:
The Load from file section manages a file (txt,csv,...) of collected experimental data. It must be formatted in five columns respectively |relative time|chx-real|chx-imag|chy-real|chx-imag| with a certain Delimiter which must be specified in the corresponding text box. Other DSP pre-processing features are available: chunking, downsampling, mixing for demodulation.
The Load from simulated data offers the possibility to simulate the transmission system, namely the behavior of the optical fiber with the DE e TE parameters and the optical (demodulated) phase PH.
NOTE! the equations in the textbox must be written following the python/matlab syntax and the independent variable must be called x and it must be always present (e.g. a simple constant K is written as 0*x+K )

This section visualizes the four electric channels. Additional whitenoise can be added for simulation purposes as well as a low pass filter. In case you want to go back, simply uncheck from the unwanted checkbox and press again the REFRESH button

This tab computes the phase noise PSD of each channel using a single-photodiode phase detection method. It should be used for short data collection where the channels have constant module or for a quick estimation of the harmonics affecting the electronic channels.

In this tab the recovery algorithm is performed by pressing the Track button. It can take several minutes, during which the GUI is blocked.
In addition the tab provides the phase PSD of the retrieved phase and the phase residual (the last one is computed only for simulated data)

• SYMPY - Symbolic calculation library
• PAGE - Python Automatic GUI Generator
• NUMPY - Package for scientific computing with Python
• NUMEXPR - Fast numerical expression evaluator for NumPy

• Stefano PARAcchino - Initial work and main developer
• Federico Bassignana - Consultant, troublesolver, implementer of experimental branches