S. Bigo W.
Idler
Multi-terabit/s transmission
over Alcatel TeraLight™ fiber
> Alcatel has demonstrated a transmission capacity of 5.12 Tbit/s over 300 km
of TeraLight™ fiber – comparable to 100 million voice calls or 640 000 high
speed ADSL internet links over a single fiber.
Introduction
he dramatic growth in Inter-
T net traffic is forcing network
operators to deploy ever higher
transmission capacities in their
terrestrial fiber backbone net-
works. It is anticipated that in the
near future it will be necessary to
offer multi-terabit capacities over
a single fiber, based on the use of
Dense Wavelength Division Multi-
plexing (DWDM).
To cope with this demand, it is
likely that the next generation of
Wavelength Division Multiplexing
(WDM) systems will use a 40 Gbit/s
channel rate [1], which is the next
transmission system hierarchy [2].
In mid-2000, two experimental lab-
oratory systems using this channel
rate demonstrated that a total
throughput of 3 Tbit/s [1,3] could
be achieved by making full use of
the C and L bands opened up by
the use of Erbium-Doped Fiber
Amplifiers (EDFA).
At the European Conference on
Optical Communication (ECOC)
in September 2000, even higher
capacities were reported using the
40 Gbit/s channel bitrate. A team
from NEC [4] used polarization
division multiplexing to reach
6.4 Tbit/s over 186 km of fiber,
while a team from Siemens [5]
achieved 7 Tbit/s over a more limi-
ted 50 km using bidirectional trans-
mission. However, the Alcatel con-
tribution to ECOC 2000 [6] reported
the largest ever capacity x dis-
tance product at 40 Gbit/s [7].
This article reports on the trans-
mission of 128 WDM channels
spanning the C and L bands. Each
channel is modulated at 40 Gbit/s,
based on full Electrical Time Divi-
sion Multiplexing (ETDM) terminal
equipment. The total transmission
capacity of 5.12 Tbit/s is achieved
over 3 x 100 km of TeraLight™
fiber, using a combination of
EDFAs and Raman amplifiers.
High Spectral Efficiency DWDM
Systems
Moving from a 10 Gbit/s channel
rate to a 40 Gbit/s channel rate in
WDM systems is expected to offer
cost benefits, not only because
just one quarter the number of
channels is required to provide
the same capacity, but also because
it eases optical network manage-
ment. However, a greater advan-
tage is that operation at 40 Gbit/s
makes it possible to achieve higher
throughputs than at 10 Gbit/s.
In today’s most advanced 10 Gbit/s
DWDM systems, channels are
288
spaced every 50 GHz. In such sys-
tems, the amount of information
per unit optical bandwidth, also
known as the spectral efficiency,
corresponds to h=0.2 bit/s/Hz,
where h = bitrate/spectral spacing
of the optical channels. However,
10 Gbit/s DWDM systems using a
25 GHz channel spacing are now
being considered to realize a spec-
tral efficiency of h=0.4 bit/s/Hz.
With respect to such systems, mov-
ing from the 10 Gbit/s channel
rate to 40 Gbit/s is beneficial in
terms of total capacity only if, at
the same time, the channel spacing
is less than 100 GHz, so that the
efficiency h is increased beyond
0.4 bit/s/Hz.
New DWDM Approach
In this article, we propose a new
wavelength allocation scheme in
combination with Vestigial Side-
Band (VSB)-like demultiplexing
at the receiver to achieve a high
spectral efficiency of h=0.64
bit/s/Hz using the well known Non-
Return-to-Zero (NRZ) format.
Conventional optical demultiplex-
ing of 40 Gbit/s NRZ modulated
channels requires filters with about
60 GHz of optical bandwidth [1,5].
As both optical sidebands of an
NRZ modulated optical spectrum
generally contain redundant infor-

75 GHz
10
-10
-30
Power (dBm)
-20 Left sideband demultiplexed
-40
-60
-20 Right sideband demultiplexed
-40
-60
1545 1546
Wavelength (nm)
Figure 1 – Optical spectra (a) channel allocation with alternating spacings of 50 and
75 GHz, (b) and (c) sidebands within the 75 GHz spacing are demultiplexed, while sidebands
within the 50 GHz spacing are rejected
mation, it is tempting to filter out
one of them, using a narrowband fil-
ter, in order to bring the channels
closer together and increase the
spectral efficiency, a technique
known as VSB. However, it is diffi-
cult to implement VSB at the trans-
mitter side because the suppressed
sidebands are rapidly reconstructed
during transmission by the
inevitable fiber nonlinearities. Our
approach is to use VSB filtering
only at the receiver side in con-
junction with a specific frequency
allocation scheme, as illustrated
by the optical spectra shown in Fig-
ure 1. These spectra represent, as
an example, six channels in the
C band modulated with 40 Gbit/s
NRZ data.
The 40 Gbit/s channels are spaced
alternately 75 and 50 GHz apart. At
the receiver side, the VSB of a
given channel is demultiplexed by
a very narrowband optical filter
(30 GHz optical bandwidth), by
tuning it off the channel central fre-
quency towards the 75 GHz-spaced
neighboring channel. Thus, the
sidebands experiencing the small-
est overlap with adjacent channels
Alcatel Telecommunications Review - 4 th Quarter 2000
40 Gbit/s ETDM Transmitter
and Receiver Terminals
50 GHz 75 GHz
(a) For cost-effectiveness, the 40 Gbit/s
channel bitrate with NRZ data
modulation should preferably be
(b) achieved using ETDM at both the
transmitter and receiver [4,5,6,8,9].
Figure 2 shows an electrical 4:1
multiplexer realized using a hybrid
(c)
arrangement of three 2:1 SiGe multi-
1547 1548 1549
plexers successively performing
10:20 Gbit/s and 20:40 Gbit/s elec-
trical multiplexing. Intermediate
decision flip-flops are included to
improve the 40 Gbit/s signal output
quality. Figure 3 shows the very
good eye-pattern quality of the
40 Gbit/s NRZ output Pseudo-Ran-
dom Bit Sequence (PRBS) data of
are demultiplexed, achieving good the multiplexer.
linear crosstalk suppression of more
than 20 dB. While VSBs within the
75 GHz spacing are selected with a
very low system penalty, VSBs
within the 50 GHz spacing are
rejected, as shown in Figure 1.
Finally, this scheme makes it pos-
sible to achieve a high spectral
efficiency of 0.64 bit/s/Hz. The
average channel spacing of this
channel allocation scheme is as Figure 3 – Electrical 40 Gbit/s multi-
low as 62.5 GHz. plexer output
10 Gbit/s 10 Gbit/s
input input
4x
10 Gbit/s
Decision
Circuit
3x
2:1 MUX
Decision
Flip-Flop
40 Gbit/s
outputs
10 Gbit/s 10 Gbit/s
input input
Figure 2 – Configuration of the 4:1 ETDM multiplexer
289
Multi-terabit/s transmission over Alcatel TeraLight™ fiber

Q
D1
Channel no
D2
1 odd channels
D3 4:1 63 M-Z
10 Gbit/s MUX
215 -1 D4 C band
215 -1 2
M-Z even channels
C 64
Q
Pattern drivers
Generators
Q
D1
D2 65 odd channels
127 M-Z
D3 4:1 L band
10 Gbit/s
D4 MUX
223 -1 66 even channels
223 -1 M-Z
128
C*
Q

Figure 4 – Configuration of the 40 Gbit/s ETDM transmitter

Four additional 10 Gbit/s decision
circuits can optionally be used to
reshape the 10 Gbit/s input signals
to enhance sensitivity. However,
these were not required for the
5.12 Tbit/s experiment.
ETDM/WDM Transmitter
Configuration
Figure 4 shows the transmitter
configuration. Two different PRBSs
are generated electrically by two
10 Gbit/s pattern generators with
different pattern lengths and uncor-
related clocks. Each generator deliv-
ers four 10 Gbit/s tributaries, which
are combined in the 4:1 multiplexer
(see Figure 2). Both 40 Gbit/s
multiplexes have two complemen-
tary outputs (Q and Q) delivering,
at 40 Gbit/s, a real PRBS with 215-1
and 223-1 bits, respectively. These
sequences are boosted by four elec-
trical drivers, which supply four
LiNbO3 Mach-Zehnder modulators
with a 5 to 6 V swing.
The WDM transmitter sources are
128 continuous light emitting Dis-
tributed Feedback (DFB) lasers
with wavelengths ranging from
1529.94 to 1561.22 nm in the C band
(channels 1 to 64) and 1569.59 to
1602.53 nm in the L band (chan-
nels 65 to 128). In each band, two
sets of 125 GHz-spaced channels,
consisting of the odd and even chan-
nels, are combined by arrayed
waveguide gratings. The optical
modulators are arranged so that
the interleaved odd and even chan-
nels from the C and L bands have
different modulation patterns to
guarantee perfect decorrelation of
all neighboring channels, as required
for a realistic WDM system demon-
strator. The channel spacing is
unequal (50 GHz and 75 GHz) and
the achieved spectral efficiency is
0.64 bit/s/Hz.
ETDM Receiver Configuration
Figure 5 shows the configuration of
the 40 Gbit/s ETDM receiver, which
incorporates an EDFA to boost the
received optical power to 10 dBm on
the 40 Gbit/s PIN photodiode feed-
ing directly the decision circuit with-
out any electrical preamplification.
The 40 Gbit/s data signal is elec-
tronically demultiplexed by two cas-
caded SiGe flip-flops which sample
at 20 GHz and 10 GHz repetition
rates. At the receiver output, the
10 Gbit/s Bit Error Ratio (BER)
detector monitors the overall trans-
mission performance. A separate
PIN photodiode supplies the clock
recovery circuit with PRBS data.
The clock is recovered by nonlinear
signal processing followed by a
phase-locked loop which locks itself
onto one of the four 10 Gbit/s trib-
utaries and delivers the 10 GHz
clock for the BER detector.
Alcatel TeraLight™ Fiber
Generally, a high spectral efficiency
for DWDM systems increases non-
linear interactions between optical
channels as a result of fiber nonlin-

290
 Alcatel Telecommunications Review - 4 th Quarter 2000

sion experiment. The odd and

40 Gbit/s 20 Gbit/s 10 Gbit/s
even channels are modulated inde-
SiGe- SiGe- pendently by two Mach-Zehnder
DFF DFF (M-Z) modulators fed by a 215-1 bit
40 Gbit/s
optical PIN PRBS for the set including the
data coupler Diode channel under test, and a 223-1 bit
BER PRBS for the other set. The odd
Detector
and even channels are then inter-
EDFA leaved with orthogonal polariza-
CLK f/2
tions through Polarization Beam
rec 20 GHz 10 GHz Splitters (PBS) and amplified to
PIN Diode achieve a total power of 21.5 dBm
(0.5 dBm average power per chan-
nel). They are then launched into
Figure 5 – Configuration of the 40 Gbit/s ETDM receiver the first 100 km span.
CLK rec: Clock Recovery DFF: Decision Flip-Flop The EDFA is a dual-band amplifier
consisting of two separate ampli-
fiers, each operating within a dedi-
earities. These interactions, which earities [10]. TeraLight™ is the most cated wavelength range, in a dual-
stem mainly from Kerr nonlineari- advanced type of Non-Zero Disper- stage configuration consisting of a
ties, are four-wave mixing and cross- sion Shifted Fiber (NZDSF) (see box low noise first stage and high
phase modulation, both of which are p 296). power second stage. Power bud-
challenging phenomena to combat in gets of 6 dB and 9 dB, respectively,
DWDM systems with a very narrow are allocated within the two stages
channel spacing. To minimize these Multi-terabit/s Transmission to allow for the insertion of Dis-
Experiment
nonlinear effects, Alcatel has devel- persion Compensating Fiber
oped its TeraLight™ fiber, a dis- (DCF). C-L band multiplexers and
persion-optimized fiber which is Figure 6 shows the experimental demultiplexers are needed at the
particularly tolerant to fiber nonlin- setup for the 5.12 Tbit/s transmis- input and output of each 100 km

C band
EDFAs
Q 1x
32 M-Z
C band
40 Gbit/s 100 km EDFAs
215 -1 Teralight™
PBS DCF
1x
Q 32 M-Z
C C DCF C
Rx
DCF
L L L
1x VSB Filter
Q 32 M-Z DCF
PBS
40 Gbit/s
223 -1 L band
Raman Pumps EDFAs
1x M-Z
Q 32 L band x3
EDFAs

Figure 6 – Block diagram of the 5.12 Tbit/s transmission experiment over 300 km of TeraLight fiber

291
Multi-terabit/s transmission over Alcatel TeraLight™ fiber

over 300 km of fiber. Figure 8

5 shows the optical SNR after 300 km
Channel
transmission at the input of the
Optical Power (dBm)

-5 receiver preamplifier in a 0.1 nm

-15
-25
-35
C band
-45
1525 1545
Figure 7 – Optical DWDM spectrum showing all 128 channels after transmission over
300 km of TeraLight™ fiber (measured with 0.2 nm resolution)
fiber span for separate amplifica-
tion of the C and L band channels.
The transmission line consists of
three 100 km spools of TeraLight™
fiber, with an average chromatic
dispersion of 8 ps/nm.km at
1550 nm, a dispersion slope of
0.057 ps/nm2.km and an attenua-
tion of 0.205 dB/km. At the end of
each span, the optical power from
four semiconductor Raman pumps
is launched backwards into the
transmission fiber to provide
Raman amplification and to
improve the overall Signal-to-Noise
Ratio (SNR).
After transmission over three 100
km fiber spans, the C and L band
L band
1565 1585
Transmission System Results
The optical spectrum after trans-
mission over 300 km of Teralight
fiber is depicted in Figure 7. All
128 channels have been transmit-
ted with an overall gain flatness of
about 4 dB across the C and
L bands. The SNR of the channels
was measured by switching on and
off the channel being evaluated.
The target was to achieve a BER of
better than 10-9 with a SNR of bet-
ter than 30 dB after transmission
10 -8
10 -9
BER
resolution bandwidth. It varies
between 27.3 and 30.3 dB in the
C band and 28.5 and 32.3 dB in the
L band. The BERs for all 128 chan-
nels are also shown in Figure 8.
Channels with VSBs filtered by
the left sideband and right side-
1605 band exhibit very similar perfor-
mances, with the BERs always
being better than 2 x 10-9. The
worst affected channels are those
with SNRs of less than 28 dB; with
SNRs higher than 30 dB, it was
possible to achieve a BER of better
than 10-11 in the C band.
Equipment Arrangement for the
5.12 Tbit/s Experiment
Various preparations and system
pre-tests were conducted at the
Alcatel Corporate Research Cen-
ters in Stuttgart and Marcoussis.
The transmission experiment was
finally installed and tested in Mar-
coussis. Figure 9 shows the exten-
sive experimental equipment
arrangement in the laboratory.
From left to right are the Teralight
Left-side filtering
Right-side filtering

EDFAs act as optical preampli- 10-10

fiers. The VSB filter in front of 10-11
the receiver (Rx) is a narrowband 10-12 C band L band
tunable filter for optical demulti- 33
SNR 0.1 nm (dB)

plexing (filtering) of either the

31
left or right VSB of the 128 chan-
nels. The VSBs between the 29
75 GHz spacing are demulti- 27
plexed, while the VSBs between 1525 1545 1565 1585 1605
the 50 GHz spacing are rejected, Wavelength (nm)
as shown in Figure 1. In this way,
it is possible to achieve a high
crosstalk suppression of more
than 20 dB between neighboring Figure 8 – BER and optical SNR across all 128 channels after transmission over 300 km
channels. of fiber

292

TeralightTM Fibers Raman Pumps C and L Band
EDFAs
Figure 9 – Arrangement of the 5.12 Tbit/s transmission experiment in the CRC laboratory in Marcoussis
fiber spools, Raman pump lasers,
EDFAs, 40 Gbit/s ETDM equip-
ment together with two pattern
generators and a BER detector,
two racks with the L band DFB
lasers (behind the ETDM equip-
ment) and two racks with the
C band DFB lasers.
Challenges on Optical
Amplification and Dispersion
Compensation
Raman Amplification
Raman amplification was used in
combination with the EDFAs to
improve the overall SNR. This
amplification technology has long
been used for unrepeatered sub-
marine systems and is now viewed
as a necessary step in many other
transmission applications. In front
of each amplifier, a strong contin-
uous wave is launched backwards
into the transmission fiber at a spe-
cific wavelength. This wave serves
as a pump to provide gain to the
WDM channels propagating in the
opposite direction through a para-
metric process known as Stimu-
Alcatel Telecommunications Review - 4 th Quarter 2000
40 Gbit/s ETDM 64 L band Lasers 64 C band Lasers
Tx and Rx
lated Raman Scattering (SRS). about 20 km before the next
This process can improve the repeater. At this point, the power
SNR because it is a distributed level is δP=6 dB higher than at
process, in contrast to the lumped the input of a regular EDFA. This
scheme involved in EDFAs. A bet- minimum power level in the span
ter insight into this phenomenon mainly sets the amount of noise
can be obtained by simulating generated by the overall amplifi-
the relative change in signal cation process. Therefore, deploy-
power along a 100 km span, as ing Raman amplifiers effectively
depicted in Figure 10. In the reduces the span loss by several
presence of 10 dB Raman ampli- dB (typically 5 dB), or else effec-
fication, the power decay result- tively increases the SNR by the
ing from fiber loss is stopped at same amount.
Distance (km)
0 20 40 60 80 100
0
Relative Power (dBm)
-5
-5
Raman + EDFA
-10 -10
EDFA
-15 -15
δP
-20 -20
Figure 10 – Typical variation of power as a function of distance in the presence of
Raman amplification
293
Multi-terabit/s transmission over Alcatel TeraLight™ fiber
-5
-10
-15
5 (b)
Optical Power (dBm)
0
-5
-15
-20
-25
-8
-13
-18
1525
Figure 11 – Gain flatness management; the objective is that the spectrum at (a) and the spectrum at (d) should be identical: (a) EDFA
input, (b) EDFA output, (c) Raman pumps off and (d) Raman pumps on. The SI-SRS-induced gain/loss is given by (c) – (b) + (x)
Raman amplifiers provide maxi-
mum gain at about 100 nm away
from the pump wavelength. In our
experiment, to achieve a flat gain
simultaneously over the C and
L bands, we launched the light
from four multiplexed semicon-
ductor lasers, used as pumps, at
wavelengths of 1427, 1439, 1450
and 1485 nm. By varying the
power of each laser, it was possi-
ble to tune the overall Raman
amplifier gain to maintain a fairly
good flatness throughout the link.
Gain Flatness Management
It is difficult to maintain an overall
flat gain distribution because of the
presence of Self-Induced Stimu-
lated Raman Scattering (SI-SRS),
a nonlinear phenomenon specific to
WDM systems that utilize a large
number of wavelengths. This effect
originates from the same physical
phenomenon as that used for
Raman amplification, but is caused
by the sole propagation of the
channel multiplex. SI-SRS transfers
energy from shorter wavelength
(a) (a) (b) (c) (d)
EDFAs Raman EDFAs
(C and L band) Pumps (C and L band)
(c)
(x) Fiber Loss
25
Loss
(dB)
20
(d) 15
5
loss/gain (dB)
-(b)+(x)+(c)
SI-SRS
0
1545 1565 1585 1605
-5
1525 1545 1565 1585 1605
Wavelength (nm)
Wavelength (nm)
channels to longer wavelength inputs of all the EDFAs. To com-
ones, resulting in strong spectral pensate for SI-SRS, the length of
distortion. We characterized this Erbium-doped fiber in each C and
effect in our link for each fiber L band EDFA was carefully
span. By evaluating the measured adjusted to provide higher gain
spectra (b) and (c) and taking the (approximately 3 dB) in the
fiber loss into account (see Fig- shorter wavelength region than in
ure 11), the SI-SRS loss/gain vari- the longer wavelength one, as illus-
ation was shown to be very linear trated in Figure 11b. Under these
as a function of wavelength conditions, the spectrum in each
Taking into account SI-SRS is like band is flat at the next amplifier
passing through a filter which is input when the Raman pumps are
free of loss, on average, that is, the off (Figure 11c), but the C band
number of photons lost by shorter is depleted by 4 dB to the benefit
wavelength channels is equal to of the L band. With the Raman
the number of photons gained by pumps on (Figure 11d), the
longer wavelength channels. The depletion is partly corrected, as
major property of this filter is Raman amplification provides an
that it is remarkably linear in dB average gain of 12 dB in the C band
as a function of wavelength and 10 dB in the L band. Thus, the
throughout both the C and relatively flat power distribution of
L bands, in close accord with ana- Figure 11a is recovered, within
lytical predictions [11]. Here the satisfactory limits, as shown in
total power ratio between chan- Figure 11d.
nel 1 and channel 128 is just 6 dB,
or 3 dB per band. Dispersion Management
The strategy for controlling the In the booster, line amplifiers and
power distribution of the DWDM preamplifier, the length of DCF in
channels was to keep it flat at the each band was optimized using a
294

C band
Dispersion (ps/nm)
1200
800
400
0 0
-400 100 200
-800
Transmission Distance (km)
Figure 12 – Dispersion mapping for C and L band transmission
simulation tool based on the split-
step Fourier transform, to realize
the best achievable performance.
Its predictions were in excellent
agreement with the experimental
results. The cumulative fiber dis-
persion for channels 1, 64, 65 and
128 along the link is illustrated in
Figure 12, which shows that
nearly full in-line dispersion com-
pensation was achieved for the
central channel in each band.
Variable channel-by-channel post-
compensation was carried out at
the receiver end, in steps of
20 ps/nm, so that the residual dis-
persion falls within the 100 ps/nm
acceptance window required by
the receiver. This channel-by-
channel compensation could be
avoided by using a DCF that com-
pensates fully for the slope of the
TeraLight™ fiber.
Conclusion
We have realized a DWDM system
demonstrator with an ultra-high
capacity of 5.12 Tbit/s based on four
main technologies: 40 Gbit/s ETDM
terminals, a new DWDM approach,
advanced broadband optical ampli-
fiers (EDFAs and Raman) and Alca-
tel TeraLight fiber.
A total of 128 WDM channels,
each operating at 40 Gbit/s, span-
L band
#128
#64
#65
#1
300 100 200
ning the entire C and L bands,
have been transmitted over three
100 km spans of TeraLight™ fiber.
A new technique has been pro-
posed to achieve a high optical
spectral efficiency of 0.64 bit/s/Hz
without the use of polarization
demultiplexing or bidirectional
transmission. We achieved a world
record capacity times distance
product of 1500 Tbit/s x km for a
40 Gbit/s DWDM system.
As a simple comparison, trans-
mission at 5.12 Tbit/s over a single
fiber is sufficient to support one
hundred million voice calls or six
hundred and forty thousand high
speed ADSL links. ■
References
1. T. Nielsen et al: “3.28 Tbit/s
(82 x 40Gb/s) transmission over
3 x 100 km nonzero-dispersion
fiber using dual C- and L-band
hybrid Raman/Erbium-doped
inline amplifiers”, OFC 2000,
Baltimore, post-deadline paper
23.
2. A. Bonati, J. Chesnoy,
M. Erman, P.M. Gabla, B. Pia-
centini, C. Reinaudo: “Global
Turnkey Solutions for Back-
bone Transmission Networks”,
Alcatel Telcommunications
Review, 3rd Quarter, 1999.
295
Alcatel Telecommunications Review - 4 th Quarter 2000
3. J.P. Elbers et al: “3.2 Tbit/s
(80 x 40 Gbit/s) bidirectional
DWDM/ETDM transmission“,
ECOC’99, Nice, post-deadline
paper 2-5.
4. T. Ito et al: ”6.4 Tbit/s (160 x 40
300 Gb/s) WDM transmission exper-
iment with 0.8 bit/s/Hz spectral
efficiency“, ECOC 2000, post-
deadline paper 1.1.
5. Färbert et al: “7 Tbit/s (175 x 40
Gb/s) bidirectional interleaved
transmission with 50 GHz chan-
nel spacing”, ECOC 2000, post-
deadline paper 1.3.
6. S. Bigo et al: “5.12 Tbit/s
(128 x 40 Gbit/s WDM) trans-
mission over 3 x 100 km of Ter-
aLight Fiber, ECOC 2000, post-
deadline paper 1.2.
7. “R&D news from ECOC 2000”,
Fiber Systems Europe, Octo-
ber 2000.
8. S. Bigo et al: “1.28 Tbit/s WDM
transmission of 32 ETDM chan-
nels at 40 Gbit/s over 3 x 100km
distance”, ECOC 2000, Munich,
paper 10.1.3.
9. Y. Miyamoto et al: “1.2Tb/s
(30x42.7 Gbit/s ETDM optical
channel) WDM transmisison
over 376 km with 125 km spac-
ing using forward error correc-
tion and carrier-suppressed RZ
format”, OFC 2000, Baltimore,
post-deadline paper 26.
10. S. Bigo et al: “1.5 Terabit WDM
transmission of 150 channels at
10 Gbit/s over 4 x 100 km of
TeraLight fiber“, ECOC 99,
Nice, post-deadline paper 2-9.
11. A. Bertaina et al: “Fiber infras-
tructure impact in WDM trans-
mission”, Alcatel Telecommu-
nications Review, 3rd Quarter,
1998.
12. S. Gurib et al: Electronics Let-
ters, volume 36, no 11, 2000,
p 959.
13. S. Bigo et al: IEEE Photonics
Technology Letters, volume 11,
no 6, pp 671–673, 1999.
Multi-terabit/s transmission over Alcatel TeraLight™ fiber

Sébastien Bigo is deputy head Wilfried Idler is in charge of

of the terrestrial transmission multi-terabit DWDM terrestrial
group at the Alcatel Corporate transmission systems at the
Research Center in Marcous- Alcatel Corporate Research
sis, France. Center in Stuttgart, Germany.

Characteristic Features of TeraLight™ fiber

With respect to the first generation of NZDSF, Teralight™ has
a larger effective area Aeff at 65 µm2 (measured at
1.55 µm). This parameter characterizes the energy con-
finement within the fiber core. The larger the effective area,
the lower the impact of nonlinear effects.
Teralight™ also has a higher chromatic dispersion at
8ps/nm.km (measured at 1.55 µm) than first generation
NZDSF. From the point of view of linear propagation, this
could initially appear as a drawback, but chromatic dis-
persion is an issue that system designers have learnt to deal
with by periodically inserting Dispersion Compensating Fiber
(DCF), a fiber with dispersion opposite to that of the trans-
mission fiber. Conversely, from the point of view of nonlinear
WDM propagation, a larger chro-
also for its slope D’. To cope with this issue, some com-
mercially-available DCFs exhibit a negative slope D’DCF. With
such DCF fibers, the important issue is not so much the value
of the dispersion slope but the ability to compensate for
it. In particular, because of its larger chromatic dispersion,
it is easier to compensate for the slope of TeraLight™
fiber than for other NZDSF fibers. As an example, assume
a typical 100 km span of this fiber. A DCF fiber of length
L DCF=10 km and with a dispersion D DCF=-80 ps/ nm.km
exactly compensates for the dispersion. It also compen-
sates for its slope provided that the DCF has D’DCF=
0.057 x 100/ 10=–0.57 ps/nm2.km dispersion slope. Two
simultaneous conditions are then met:

matic dispersion becomes a significant advantage. Indeed, D L = -DDCF LDCF

the traveling speed of WDM channels is directly proportional
to the chromatic dispersion. The higher the speed, the
smaller the interaction time between the symbols “1” and
“0” from neighboring channels, and thus the lower the
impact of cross-nonlinearities [11, 12].
TeraLight™ fiber also has a smaller chromatic dispersion
slope than first-generation NZDSFs, which is also beneficial
for WDM operation. For a large multiplex, it is usually not
possible to provide identical dispersion compensation for
all the channels, because the dispersion depends on wave-
length. This dependence, which is characterized by the dis-
persion slope D’, is referred to as third-order dispersion and
has a positive sign over all transmission fibers. With its
smaller dispersion slope of 0.058 ps/ nm2.km, TeraLight™
fiber is less affected by this phenomenon. However, to trans-
mit multiplexes spanning several tens of nanometers, DCF
should ideally not only compensate for the dispersion D, but
D’L = -D’DCF LDCF.
In this case, all the channels around 1.55 µm experience
the same zero GVD at the end of the link. If the same DCF
fiber were to compensate a 100 km span of NZDSF with a
dispersion equal to one half of that of TeraLight™ fiber, that
is, 4 ps/nm km, a module only 5 km long would be required,
but the DCF slope would have to be twice as large at
–1.14 ps/nm2.km. A DCF fiber with such a large negative
slope remains to be developed. Should this development be
based on existing fiber technology, it can be predicted that
the slope would be obtained at the expense of a higher loss
and smaller effective area.
In summary, we chose to carry out our experiment over Ter-
aLight™ fiber, because we believe that the effective area,
dispersion and dispersion slope of this fiber make it espe-
cially suitable for this type of large-scale transmission.

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