Low penalty, dual stage, broadband discrete Raman amplifier for high capacity WDM metro networks

We present a broadband (>70nm), dual stage, discrete Raman amplifier built with small and standard core fibre with ~19.5dB net gain. We transmit 120Gb/s DP-QPSK signals over 3040km with 38 amplifications for a preFEC BER<3.8×10-3

Low transmission penalty dual-stage broadband discrete Raman amplifier

We present a broadband (>70nm), dual stage, discrete Raman amplifier designed with small and standard core fibres to maximize gain and minimize nonlinearity. The amplifier provides ~19.5dB net gain, 22.5dBm saturation output power and a noise figure of <7.2dB. 120Gb/s DP-QPSK transmission over 38x80km at a pre-FEC BER <3.8x10−3 is demonstrated

Advanced raman amplification techniques for high capacity and broadband coherent optical transmission systems

This thesis presents a detailed study of different advanced Raman fibre laser (RFL) based amplification schemes and the development of novel broadband distributed and discrete Raman amplifiers in order to improve the transmission performance of modern high capacity, long-haul coherent optical systems. The numerical modelling of different Raman amplifier techniques including power distribution of signal, pump and noise components, RIN transfer from pump to signal, broadband gain optimization and so on have been described in details.The RIN and noise performances of RFL based distributed Raman amplifiers (DRAs) with different span lengths, forward pump powers and input reflection levels have been characterized experimentally. It has been shown through coherent transmission experiment that, in order to improve pump power efficiency, a low level of input reflection up to ~10% can be allowed without increasing the Q factor penalty > 1dB due to additional signal RIN penalty.A novel broadband (>10nm) first order Raman pump is developed for use as a forward pump in long-haul transmission experiment. Significant signal RIN mitigation up to 10dB compared with conventional low RIN, narrowband sources was obtained for bidirectional DRA schemes. Long-haul coherent transmission experiments with 10×120Gb/s DP-QPSK system were carried out in are circulating loop setup using the proposed broadband pump in bidirectional and backward only pumping configurations. The maximum transmission reach up to ~8330km was reported with first order broadband pumped bidirectional DRA, with transmission reach extensions of 1250km and1667km compared with conventional backward only and first order semiconductor pumped bidirectional pumping scheme respectively.Finally, a novel design of bidirectional broadband distributed DRA is proposed to reduce the noise figure tilt and improve the WDM transmission performances. Furthermore, broadband discrete Raman amplifier schemes in dual stage configuration are also shown for high gain, high output power, low noise and low nonlinear performance

High-capacity multi-span transmission performance characterization of broadband discrete Raman amplifier

The performance of a multi-span transmission link compensated with a >75nm broadband discrete Raman amplifier is experimentally evaluated using multiple DP-x-QAM modulation formats over a multi-channel C + L band WDM grid with up to 182 ×50 GHz spaced channels

Nonlinear Noise of Low Transmission Penalty Dual-Stage Discrete Raman Amplifier

We experimentally characterise the linear and nonlinear performance of a >70nm, dual-stage, 19.5dB average net gain discrete Raman amplifier using different nonlinear fibres in the second stage. We propose an architecture built with a combination of IDF and SMF, and compare its performance with amplifiers built with conventionally used nonlinear fibre types (IDF-IDF, IDF-DCF). The measured FWM product power shows the IDF-SMF architecture to generate less nonlinear interference when compared to other schemes. We test the amplifiers with 5x120Gb/s DP-QPSK WDM signals in a recirculating loop at 10 recirculations of 93.4km SMF fibre, where the power sweep shows up to 2dB optimum launch power difference, with the maximum Q2 factor varying by up to 1.6dB. Using the optimum transmission point we measure a Q2=8.8dB at 35 recirculations of 93.4km transmission (3269km) with the proposed IDF-SMF scheme, which is >460km further than the other tested architectures. All characterised schemes performed similarly in the linear noise regime

Devices and Fibers for Ultrawideband Optical Communications

Wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) has historically enabled the increase in the capacity of optical systems by progressively populating the existing optical bandwidth of erbium-doped fiber amplifiers (EDFAs) in the C-band. Nowadays, the number of channels—needed in optical systems—is approaching the maximum capacity of standard C-band EDFAs. As a result, the industry worked on novel approaches, such as the use of multicore fibers, the extension of the available spectrum of the C-band EDFAs, and the development of transmission systems covering C- and L-bands and beyond. In the context of continuous traffic growth, ultrawideband (UWB) WDM transmission systems appear as a promising technology to leverage the bandwidth of already deployed optical fiber infrastructure and sustain the traffic demand for the years to come. Since the pioneering demonstrations of UWB transmission a few years ago, long strides have been taken toward UWB technologies. In this review article, we discuss how the most recent advances in the design and fabrication of enabling devices, such as lasers, amplifiers, optical switches, and modulators, have improved the performance of UWB systems, paving the way to turn research demonstrations into future products. In addition, we also report on the advances in UWB optical fibers, such as the recently introduced nested antiresonant nodeless fibers (NANFs), whose future implementations could potentially provide up to 300-nm-wide bandwidth at less than 0.2 dB/km loss

Fibre Optic Parametric Amplifiers For Transient Limited Optical Fibre Systems

The thesis explores fibre optical parametric amplifiers (FOPAs) to implement and develop the FOPA ability to provide transient free burst mode signal amplification, presenting potential applications in reach extended access networks and time-varying optical transmission systems. This document experimentally demonstrates FOPA as a potential drop-in amplifier candidate for transient limited optical systems by experimentally investigating and comparing transient effects in conventional fibre amplifiers. For example, future reach extended optical access networks. Additionally, this work provides evidence for transient free burst traffic amplification enabled by FOPA. A number of experimental techniques were implemented to demonstrate an ultra- fast response, high burst signal gain, and the ability to simultaneously amplify bi- directionally transmitted signals in a dual telecom band. Novel polarisation-insensitive FOPA employed in a 50 km reach extended access network link to achieve clean burst mode signal amplification. PI-FOPA targeted varied burst durations and burst traffic density amplification to evaluate performance compared to a commercial erbium-doped fibre amplifier (EDFA) and a discrete Raman amplifier. FOPA enhances link receiver sensitivity by >3 dB compared to EDFA and Raman amplifier for a varied burst duration amplification from 70 µs to 5 µs. For high burst traffic density amplification from 5% to 97%, FOPA allows burst traffic amplification up to 97% traffic, while EDFA and discrete Raman amplifier traffic density amplification was limited to 15% and 30%. We first presented a bi-directional non- burst and burst signal amplification by implementing a novel dual-band FOPA setup. FOPA achieved polarisation insensitive net gain of >16 dB for >50 nm apart signals in C and L bands. FOPA's ability to provide a wide broadband gain of ~10THz is utilized to amplify a non-burst and bursty signal in a dual-band transmission with a single in-line PI-FOPA amplifier simultaneously

Assessment on the Achievable Throughput of Multi-band ITU-T G.652.D Fiber Transmission Systems

Fiber-optic multi-band transmission (MBT) aims at exploiting the low-loss spectral windows of single-mode fibers (SMFs) for data transport, expanding by ∼11× the available bandwidth of C-band line systems and by ∼5× C+L-band line systems'. MBT offers a high potential for cost-efficient throughput upgrades of optical networks, even in absence of available dark-fibers, as it utilizes more efficiently the existing infrastructures. This represents the main advantage compared to approaches such as multi-mode/-core fibers or spatial division multiplexing. Furthermore, the industrial trend is clear: the first commercial C+L-band systems are entering the market and research has moved toward the neighboring S-band. This article discusses the potential and challenges of MBT covering the ITU-T optical bands O → L. MBT performance is assessed by addressing the generalized SNR (GSNR) including both the linear and non-linear fiber propagation effects. Non-linear fiber propagation is taken into account by computing the generated non-linear interference by using the generalized Gaussian-noise (GGN) model, which takes into account the interaction of non-linear fiber propagation with stimulated Raman scattering (SRS), and in general considers wavelength-dependent fiber parameters. For linear effects, we hypothesize typical components' figures and discussion on components' limitations, such as transceivers,' amplifiers' and filters' are not part of this work. We focus on assessing the transmission throughput that is realistic to achieve by using feasible multi-band components without specific optimizations and implementation discussion. So, results are meant to address the potential throughput scaling by turning-on excess fiber transmission bands. As transmission fiber, we focus exclusively on the ITU-T G.652.D, since it is the most widely deployed fiber type worldwide and the mostly suitable to multi-band transmission, thanks to its ultra-wide low-loss single-mode high-dispersion spectral region. Similar analyses could be carried out for other single-mode fiber types. We estimate a total single-fiber throughput of 450 Tb/s over a distance of 50 km and 220 Tb/s over regional distances of 600 km: ∼ 10 × and 8× more than C-band transmission respectively and ∼ 2.5× more than full C+L

Performance Evaluation of Raman Amplifiers in Fibre Optic Communication Systems

This thesis presents an overview of Raman amplifiers in fibre optic transmission systems. Detailed analysis of the nonlinear accumulated noise and relative intensity noise (RIN) induced penalties are evaluated in discrete and distributed Raman amplifiers. In addition to these the thesis also includes different architectures of Raman amplifiers enabling multiband transmission. The parametric dependency of fibre chromatic dispersion (CD) on the accumulated nonlinear noise in discrete Raman amplifiers (DRAs) was studied both theoretically and experimentally. Analytical modelling was performed over different fibre types that are widely used as a gain medium in DRAs. It was found that systems using Raman gain fibres with a positive value of CD induce lower accumulated nonlinear noise in comparison to systems using Raman gain fibres with a negative value of CD. The results obtained from the analytical model were then validated experimentally over a long-haul transmission system with DRAs as an inline amplifier using a recirculation loop. RIN-induced penalties in distributed Raman amplifiers (DiRAs) were experimentally studied in two standard single-mode fibre (SSMF) G.654.E©TXF and G.652.D with different pumping schemes. Signal RIN for G.654.E© TXF was found to be lower in comparison to its counterpart G.652.D. The impact of RIN on the short-haul system was validated using both the test fibres pumped in a forward-pumped distributed Raman. Similarly, backward and bidirectional pumping was performed over a long-haul transmission system using a recirculation loop. It was experimentally observed that RIN-induced transmission penalties for G.654.E are lower in comparison to G.652.D making it a better choice of SSMF type for distributed amplification. Experiments on novel architectures such as cascaded dual-stage and dual-band designs were demonstrated over a coherent transmission system with S-, C- and L-band signals. It was observed that the dual-stage design requires a guard band of ~10 nm to prevent overlapping of the pumps and signal, reducing the overall transmission capacity. In contrast, for dual-band design, no such guard band was required, but this benefit comes at a cost of the additional pump requirement increasing the overall amplifier power consumption. The performances of novel multistage Raman amplifier structures were also evaluated over the E-, S-, C- and L-band. Experimental studies were performed independently using DRAs only, hybrid bismuth-DRA and hybrid distributed-DRA. The E- and S-band signals were seen to have higher performance penalties in comparison to C- and L-band signals in the case of DRAs only and hybrid bismuth-DRA. In contrast, for the hybrid distributed-discrete design, the E-band signals were seen to have a similar penalty as C- and L-band signals