Abstract

Internet traffic has been increasing at a rate faster than what one would expect on the basis of Moore’s law, generating an urgent need for the development of technologies that can serve as an alternative to conventional WDM transmission based on erbium-doped fiber amplifiers (EDFAs). Since the percentage of data traffic exceeds the percentage of voice traffic, networks worldwide must evolve from voice-centric systems to data-centric systems. The trend translates into a need for higher capacity and longer distance transmission than can be supplied by conventional WDM.

© 2002 Optical Society of America