43 Gb/s DWDM Optical Transmission System Using NRZ Format and Electro-absorption Modulation

Abstract

We demonstrate experimentally a 43 Gb/s DWDM optical transmission system over 900 km single mode fiber with 100 km spans using NRZ format and Raman amplification without FEC. A commercial LiNbO3 modulator and a self-designed 43 Gb/s transmitter based on electro-absorption modulator and are compared in the system, and for the first time the electro-absorption modulation is shown to be able to realize up to 1200 km transmission with a power penalty less than 2 dB. This system includes 8 channels of 43 Gb/s DWDM signal and can support 40 channels over C band. Transmission over 1500 km is also presented and the influence of polarization mode dispersion is shown to be a main limitation.