Abstract

The trend in lightwave transmission systems is towards higher bit rates, higher powers, longer span lengths, and the incorporation of optical amplifiers to replace regenerators. This trend brings with it a number of technical challenges. Optical fibers present limitations due to loss, dispersion, and nonlinearities. Optical amplifier performance is constrained by parameters such as bandwidth, gain magnitude and flatness, output power, and noise figure. In general, capacity upgrades can be accomplished by increasing single-channel bit rates [1,2], and by wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) high speed channels [3].

© 1995 Optical Society of America