43 Gb/s DWDM optical transmission system using NRZ format and electro-absorption modulation

We demonstrate experimentally a 43 Gb/s DWDM optical transmission system over 900km single mode fiber with 100km spans using NRZ format and Raman amplification without FEC. A commercial LiNbO3 modulator and a self-designed 43 Gb/s transmitter based on electro-absorption modulator and are compared in the system, and for the first time the electro-absorption modulation is shown to be able to realize up to 1200km transmission with a power penalty less than 2dB. This system includes 8 channels of 43 Gb/s DWDM signal and can support 40 channels over C band. Transmission over 1500km is also presented and the influence of polarization mode dispersion is shown to be a main limitation. ? 2006 IEEE.EI