Dynamic range of an optical amplifier cascade in an ASK system with significant phase noise

The authors present detailed results concerning the dynamic range of an amplitude-shift keyed (ASK) heterodyne optical communication system where the transmitted signal is impaired by significant amounts of laser phase noise. Theoretical results are evaluated for a system with up to ten in-line optical amplifiers and a significant influence of the laser phase noise is found for the maximum allowable transmission span and the dynamic range. With ten amplifiers, a linewidth of 11% of the bit rate causes the span to be reduced by 12.2 dB and the dynamic range to be reduced by 5.7 dB. The results have been confirmed using two amplifiers in a field trial experiment at a bit rate of 636 Mb/s with an IF linewidth of 70 MHz.<>