All-Raman ultralong-haul single-wideband DWDM transmission systems with OADM capability

In this paper, we present a comprehensive experimental investigation of an all-Raman ultrawide single-band transmission system for both 10 and 40 Gb/s line rates. Enabling technologies include forward-Raman pumping of the transmission fiber, counter-Raman pumping of the fiber spans and dispersion compensation modules, wideband dispersion, and dispersion-slope compensation, and modulation formats resistant to both linear and nonlinear impairments. Ultralong-haul (ULH) 128×10 Gb/s return-to-zero (RZ) and ultrahigh-capacity (UHC) 64×40 Gb/s carrier-suppressed (CS) RZ transmission are demonstrated for commercially deployed fiber types, including both standard single-mode fiber (SSMF) and nonzero dispersion shifted fibers (NZDSF). The span losses of 23 dB (NZDSF) and 20 dB (SSMF) are consistent with those encountered in terrestrial networks. The optical reaches for 10 Gb/s rate are 4000 km (NZDSF) and 3200 km (SSMF). Using the same distributed Raman amplification (DRA) scheme, UHC over 2.5 Tb/s at a 40-Gb/s per channel rate is also demonstrated for all of the tested fiber types and for optical reaches exceeding 1300 km. We then study the impact of including optical add/drop modules (OADMs) in the transmission system for both 10 and 40 Gb/s channel rates. System performance is characterized by the system margin and the transmission penalty. For all of the experiments shown in this paper, industrial margins and small transmission penalties consistent with operation in commercially deployable networks are demonstrated, showing the feasibility of practical implementation of all-Raman amplified systems for ULH and UHC optical backbones. Attractive features of single-wideband transmission enabled by DRA include simplicity of design, flexible gain and gain-ripple control, good noise performance, and a small system footprint.