Abstract

An important advantage of optical amplifier based transmission systems is that both the transmission capacity and performance can be greatly improved by making changes to the terminal equipment. In this work we give a dramatic demonstration of this fact by reporting 9100 km error-free transmission of 100 Gb/s over a relatively simple transmission line, using several performance improvement techniques at the transmitter and receiver. These techniques include the first report of Forward Frror Correction'(FEC) in a circulating loop experiment. In addition we introduce the technique of pair-wise orthogonal synchronous polarization scrambling. This new technique removes the polarization hole-burning problem, while reducing the effects of nonlinear channel cross-talk through Four Wave Mixing (FWM). Finally, we introduce the idea of placing an overhead AM modulation on the NRZ data signal to limit pulse broadening.

© 1996 Optical Society of America