Long-haul WDM transmission using higher order fiber dispersion management

We propose a fiber dispersion management scheme for large-capacity long-hau l wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) transmission systems that consider s not only second- but also third-order dispersion characteristics using tr ansmission fibers with opposite dispersion signs, It eliminates the wavefor m distortion of WDM signals that originates from the existence of third-ord er dispersion, which is a constraint placed on WDM capacity in conventional dispersion management, while reducing the interchannel interaction caused by the interplay of fiber nonlinearity and second-order dispersion. Design concept of the scheme is discussed to show the feasibility of using actual fiber parameters. An experimental investigation on transmission performance regarding the signal pulse format, nonreturn-to-zero (NRZ) and return-to z ero (RZ), and interchannel interaction caused by four-wave mixing (FWM) and cross-phase modulation (XPM) is described for optimizing WDM system perfor mance. It is experimentally shown that RZ pulse transmission is possible wi thout significant spectral broadening over a wide wavelength range in dispe rsion managed fiber spans. Using these results together with a wideband opt ical amplifier gain-bandwidth management technique, yields long-distance WD M transmission with the capacity of 25 x 10 Gb/s over 9288 km.