Abstract

This paper introduces a subcarrier multiplexed (SCM) optical transport system^1,2 which enables 20 Gb/s per wavelength, which represents the highest capacity commercial SCM system demonstrated to date. The system provides OC-3 (622 Mb/s) to OC-48 (2.5 Gb/s) granularity; each individual subcarrier transports independent traffic, enabling multi-service and protocol transparency (per subcarrier). Thus, it is suited to meet the diverse requirements of the metro environment. Performance is shown after 2 × 82 km spans of dispersion compensated SMF. BER < 10^–15 is maintained and results suggest that more spans can be supported with this technology.

© 2002 Optical Society of America