Long-haul DWDM transmission systems employing optical phase conjugation

In this paper, we review the recent progress in transmission experiments by employing optical phase conjugation (OPC) for the compensation of chromatic dispersion and nonlinear impairments. OPC is realized with difference frequency generation (DFG) in a periodically poled lithium-niobate (PPLN) waveguide, for transparent wavelength-division multiplexed (WDM) operation with high conversion efficiency. We discuss extensively the principle behind optical phase conjugation and the realization of a polarization independent OPC subsystem. Using OPC for chromatic dispersion compensation WDM 40-Gb/s long-haul transmission is described. As well, transmission employing both mixed data rates and mixed modulation formats is discussed. No significant nonlinear impairments are observed from the nonperiodic dispersion map used in these experiments. The compensation of intrachannel nonlinear impairments by OPC is described for WDM carrier-suppressed return-to-zero (CSRZ) transmission. In this experiment, a 50% increase in transmission reach is obtained by adding an OPC unit to a transmission line using dispersion compensating fiber (DCF) for dispersion compensation. Furthermore, the compensation of impairments due to nonlinear phase noise is reviewed. An in-depth analysis is conducted on what performance improvement is to be expected for various OPC configurations and a proof-of-principle experiment is described showing over 4-dB improvement in Q-factor due to compensation of nonlinear impairments resulting from nonlinear phase noise. Finally, an ultralong-haul WDM transmission of 22×20-Gb/s return-to-zero differential quadrature phase-shift keying (RZ-DQPSK) is discussed showing that OPC can compensate for chromatic dispersion, as well as self-phase modulation (SPM) induced nonlinear impairments, such as nonlinear phase noise. Compared to a "conventional" transmission link using DCF for dispersion compensation, a 44% increase in transmission reach is obtained when OPC is employed. In this experiment, we show the feasibi