Abstract

Power efficiency of long-haul optical fiber transmission has emerged as a critical challenge to cost-effectively increasing submarine cable capacity. Building on previous experimental work and informed by physical system modeling and optimization, we report on extensive amplified transmission experiments characterizing the metric of fiber capacity per unit pump power over a range of amplifier powers and link distances relevant to power-limited spatial-division-multiplexed submarine systems. We compare experimental results with modeling incorporating optical amplifier physics as well as generalized droop, demonstrating excellent agreement over the range of powers and distances tested. We predict the performance gains achievable by further optimizing the system design and implementation within tolerances ideally achieved in deployed submarine systems, and estimate fiber pair counts and total cable capacities achievable for the link distances investigated. Our results suggest the utility of amplifier pump powers as low as 20 mW and output powers as low as 6.5 dBm in reaching Pb/s cable capacities.

Theoretical investigations of weakly- and strongly-coupled multi-core fibers for the applications of optical submarine communications under power and fiber count limits

Lin Sun, Junwei Zhang, Gai Zhou, Bin Chen, Gordon Ning Liu, Yi Cai, Zhaohui Li, Chao Lu, and Gangxiang Shen
Opt. Express 31(3) 4615-4629 (2023)

Submarine cable monitoring system based on enhanced COTDR with simultaneous loss measurement and vibration monitoring ability

Xiaohong Chen, Ningmu Zou, Lei Liang, Rulong He, Jingxiao Liu, Yunyin Zheng, Feng Wang, Xuping Zhang, and Yixin Zhang
Opt. Express 29(9) 13115-13128 (2021)

Large-Area Low-Loss Fibers and Advanced Amplifiers for High-Capacity Long-Haul Optical Networks [Invited]

B. Zhu, D. Peckham, A. H. McCurdy, R. Lingle, B. Palsdottir, M. F. Yan, P. W. Wisk, and D. J. DiGiovanni
J. Opt. Commun. Netw. 8(7) A55-A63 (2016)

Trans-oceanic class ultra-long-haul transmission using multi-core fiber

Itsuro Morita, Koji Igarashi, Hidenori Takahashi, Takehiro Tsuritani, and Masatoshi Suzuki
Opt. Express 22(26) 31761-31773 (2014)

Optical Fibers for Flexible Networks and Systems [Invited]

John D. Downie, Ming-Jun Li, and Sergejs Makovejs
J. Opt. Commun. Netw. 8(7) A1-A11 (2016)