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Fiber Optical Parametric Amplier Performance in a 1-Tb/s DWDM Communication System

Nayla El Dahdah, Donald S. Govan, Mehdi Jamshidifar, Nick J. Doran, and Michel E. Marhic, Senior Member, IEEE
(Invited Paper)

AbstractWe have reduced signalsignal four-wave mixing crosstalk in a ber optical parametric amplier (OPA) by using a short nonlinear ber for the gain medium and a high-power pump. This allowed us to obtain less than 1 dB penalty for amplication of 26 dense wavelength-division multiplexed (WDM) channels modulated at 43.7 Gb/s return to zero-differential phase-shift keying, with the OPA placed between transmitter and receiver. We then used the same OPA in several different roles for a longhaul transmission system. We did not insert the OPA within the loop, but investigated this role indirectly by using equivalent results for small numbers of loop recirculations. We found that standard erbium-doped ber ampliers currently hold an advantage over this OPA, which becomes negligible for long distances. This paper shows that at this time OPAs can handle amplication of WDM trafc in excess of 1 Tb/s with little degradation. It also indicates that with further improvements, ber OPAs could be a contender for wideband amplication in future optical communication networks. Index TermsFiber optical parametric oscillators and ampliers, ber optic communication.

I. INTRODUCTION IGH spectral efciency dense wavelength-division multiplexed (DWDM) systems are required to meet the rapidly growing demand in Internet trafc due to emerging multimedia applications [1]. Current systems are limited by the erbiumdoped ber amplier (EDFA) bands, i.e., about 32 nm. To use larger bandwidths, it is, therefore, necessary to investigate other amplier types. Fiber optical parametric ampliers (OPAs) offer prospects for amplication over large bandwidths [2] and outside the EDFA bands, which could be useful for future communication systems. However, the nonlinearity of the amplifying medium,

Manuscript received December 1, 2010; revised May 5, 2011; accepted June 9, 2011. Date of publication June 23, 2011; date of current version March 2, 2012. This work was supported by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, U.K., under Grant EP/E033636/1. N. El Dahdah was with Swansea University, Swansea, SA2 8PP, U.K. She is now with Gennum UK Ltd., Bishops Stanford, CM23 5DB, U.K. (e-mail: nayla.eldahdah@gennum.com). D. S. Govan was with Swansea University, Swansea, SA2 8PP, U.K. He is now with Oclaro Inc., Paington, TQ4 7AU, U.K. (e-mail: donald. govan@oclaro.com). M. Jamshidifar, N. J. Doran, and M. E. Marhic are with the College of Engineering, Swansea University, Swansea, SA2 8PP, U.K. (e-mail: m.jamshidifar@swan.ac.uk; n.j.doran@swan.ac.uk; m.e.marhic@swan.ac.uk). Color versions of one or more of the gures in this paper are available online at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org. Digital Object Identier 10.1109/JSTQE.2011.2160155

coupled with the fact that good phase matching is necessary for parametric amplication, may lead to detrimental nonlinear crosstalk in wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) systems [3]. This crosstalk can be greatly reduced by using highly uniform bers [4], low signal power [5], [6], polarization multiplexing [7], or short bers [8]. Also, by using a one-pump OPA (as opposed to a dual-pump one) it is easier to nd spectral regions that are free of pump-signal four-wave mixing (FWM) [9]; for that reason we used a one-pump OPA in this paper. To date, the highest WDM capacity amplied with low penalty by a ber OPA is 120 Gb/s [5]. Simulations of a long ber OPA have shown its ability to work as a preamplier for 64 10 Gb/s WDM signal, when receiving very low signal powers (35 dBm) [10]. Here, we report a nearly tenfold capacity improvement for low-penalty amplication of wideband WDM signals by means of ber OPAs. This was achieved by reducing signalsignal FWM crosstalk, by using a short (114 m long) highly nonlinear ber (HNLF) in conjunction with a high-power (3 W) pump. The WDM spectrum amplied in this paper consisted of 26 DWDM channels modulated at 43.7 Gb/s return to zerodifferential phase-shift keyed (RZ-DPSK), with a total data rate in excess of 1 Tb/s. This modulation format is known to yield reduced crosstalk levels compared to OOK [7], [11]. Typical communication system signal levels were used throughout. The OPA performance was assessed at different locations in a WDM transmission system. In Section II, we present the results obtained for the OPA placed between the WDM transmitter and receiver: it exhibited less than 1 dB penalty compared to a communication-grade EDFA. In Section III, we consider the role of the OPA at the end of a long-haul transmission system. In Section IV, we introduce the recirculating loop designed to test WDM signal propagation over long distances, with the OPA used as a booster amplier before the loop; we also investigate the performance of the OPA if it was placed in the transmission line, by using results obtained for a smaller number of recirculations. In Section V, the OPA is placed after an EDFA that loaded noise to give the same optical signal-to-noise ratio (OSNR) as was measured at the loop output for various distances. Finally, we conclude in Section VI, and discuss developments required for the evolution toward all-OPA communication networks. II. OPA BETWEEN TRANSMITTER AND RECEIVER In [8], we showed that by using a short HNLF, and correspondingly increasing the pump power to maintain the desired gain, signalsignal FWM crosstalk could be substantially

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Fig. 1. Evaluated system conguration. Left: with OPA. Right: with EDFA (WDM: Wavelength Division Multiplexer, Tx: Transmitter, Rx: Receiver). (a)(d) Measurement points.

Fig. 3. Normalized optical spectra of the data at EDFA output (x) and OPA output (solid line) with some channels OFF (dotted line), measured with 0.5-nm resolution bandwidth.

Fig. 2. Gain spectrum of the evaluated OPA. 1570 nm.

P = 1572.5 nm and 0 =

reduced. As a result, bit-error rate performance was improved for two 10 Gb/s signals simultaneously amplied by the OPA. Here, we increased the data rate of each WDM signal being amplied to over 40 Gb/s, and evaluated the OPA performance as follows. A. Experimental Setup The performance of the OPA was evaluated using the backto-back conguration shown in Fig. 1. The OPA was placed between the transmitter and receiver of the DWDM testbed and its performance was compared with a single-stage EDFA that has 17 dB at gain and 25-dBm maximum output power. The testbed contained 26 channels on the ITU grid with 100-GHz channel spacing starting from 1531.11 nm, with the channels at 1537.40 and 1538.19 nm missing. After multiplexing, the channels were modulated at 43.7 Gb/s by two LiNbO3 MachZehnder modulators. The rst modulator was driven by a 231 1 pseudo-random bit sequence to generate a DPSK signal. The second was driven by a half-rate clock creating RZ-DPSK modulation with 67% duty cycle. The channels were decorrelated through 1.5 km of standard ber (SMF), and then launched into the EDFA or OPA. The OPA used a single pump; the pump power was 35 dBm and its wavelength was 1572.5 nm; its relative intensity noise (RIN) at the HNLF output, measured with a 3-MHz resolution bandwidth, was 63 dB. Pump phase modulation by four RF tones was used for suppressing pump-induced stimulated Brillouin scattering in the HNLF. The gain medium was 114 m of HNLF with 15 W1 km1 nonlinear coefcient and 0.023 ps/nm2 -km dispersion slope. The gain curve of the OPA was tailored by tuning pump wavelength and power in order to obtain as at a gain as possible in the transmission range. Fig. 2 shows the gain spectrum of the OPA. Since the state of the polarization (SOP) of the channels were slightly different

after passing through the decorrelator ber, it was possible to further atten the gain by polarization controlling so that all the channels experienced almost the same gain of 20 dB. The OPA was compared with an EDFA with a at gain of 17 dB, a noise gure of 5 dB, and a maximum output power of 25 dBm. The channel powers were leveled at the output of the ampliers by adjusting the input channel powers. The total power at the OPA (EDFA) input was 1.5 dBm (4.8 dBm). The signals were received using a tunable at-top lter with a bandwidth of 0.6 nm to demultiplex the selected channel, followed by a MachZehnder delay interferometer and balanced photodiodes. B. Results and Discussion The performance of the OPA was evaluated by measuring bit error rate (BER) versus power and OSNR at the receiver input (points (b) and (d)). We used throughout a 0.5-nm resolution bandwidth for measuring OSNR, to ensure that the entire signal spectrum was included in the resolution bandwidth. We rst measured the back-to-back performance of the OPA. Next we substituted the OPA with the EDFA ensuring that the input and output OSNRs measured at points (c) and (d) were equal to those measured at points (a) and (b), which required a reduction of the total input power using a variable optical attenuator (VOA). The normalized optical spectra of the transmitted channels at the output of the OPA and EDFA are shown in Fig. 3. It is seen in this gure that the noise level is different on either sides of the spectrum. This tilt in noise is the same for OPA and EDFA and increases for increased total power or number of channels for the OPA. The tilt in the noise level for the EDFA is caused by the nonat gain when it is used outside its optimum gain level. Moreover, by turning OFF channels in pairs across the band, e.g., 4 and 5, 16 and 17, we measure different levels of noise. Indeed, the OPA-induced noise is generated by nonlinear crosstalk due to FWM which is greater at short wavelengths because of stronger phase matching. This is in agreement with simulation results obtained using the split-step Fourier method. Fig. 4 shows the simulated output spectrum obtained with the

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Fig. 6. Received power penalty versus wavelength of the channels 1, 4, 9, 12, 16, 20, and 26 amplied by OPA compared with EDFA. Fig. 4. Simulated OPA output spectrum for four equal power input signals, with wavelengths 1540, 1540.8, 1545, and 1545.8 nm.

Fig. 7. System conguration (WDM: Wavelength Division Multiplexer, Tx: Transmitter, Rx: Receiver). (a)(c) Measurement points.

III. OPA AS A RECEIVER AMPLIFIER The assessment of the OPA at the receiver, e.g., destination node, was achieved by decreasing the OSNR at its input and measuring the BER, and assuming that the residual chromatic dispersion-induced penalty is negligible. A. Experimental Setup The performance of the OPA was evaluated using the conguration shown in Fig. 7. The OPA was placed at the receiver input of the DWDM testbed. Its performance was compared with a single-stage EDFA that has 30-dB at gain and 24-dBm maximum output power. The testbed transmitter was as previously. The OSNR at point (a) was set by a VOA followed by a dual-stage EDFA (used in xed output power mode, 19 dBm) with a VOA at the mid stage. The channel powers were leveled at the output of the dual-stage EDFA, by adjusting the input channel powers. The total power at the OPA/EDFA input (point (a)) was set to 1 dBm using a VOA. B. Results and Discussion We rst assessed the performance of the OPA by measuring BER versus OSNR at the input and the output of the receiver ampliers (points (a) and (b)), with 1-dBm constant input power (point (a)). This was carried out using the mid channels 4 and 16. The OSNR at the receiver input was decreased by attenuating input power of the dual-stage EDFA and was measured by turning the channel OFF. The OSNR values chosen correspond to those recorded at the output of the recirculating loop detailed in the next section. Hence, the input OSNR was varied between 14.2 and 7 dB (0.5-nm resolution bandwidth). The BER measured at point (c) against the input OSNR (point (a)) at a constant received power (0.5 dBm) for channels 4 and 16

Fig. 5. BER measurements versus received power of the data amplied by the EDFA (solid line) and OPA (dotted line) at channels 1 (diamond), 4 (square), 9 (triangle), 12 (x), 16 (star), 20 (circle), and 26 (+ ).

parameters used in our experiments, and four equal-power input signals. The results clearly veried that crosstalk level is higher for shorter wavelengths. With 34-dB input OSNR (0.5-nm resolution bandwidth) at points (a) and (c), the BER variations of channels 1, 4, 9, 12, 16, 20, and 26, measured at points (b) and (d), respectively, versus the received power, measured at points (b) and (d), respectively, are shown in Fig. 5. The accuracy on the received power level was 0.3 dB; therefore, both cases exhibit similar performance variation with channel wavelength. The penalty on the received power was plotted against wavelength in Fig. 6. We found 0.7-dB average penalty across the channels. The origin of the measured penalty at the OPA output is partly due to the coherent nature (FWM crosstalk) of the induced noise. Indeed, we veried that the channels amplied by the OPA contain additional intrinsic noise, i.e., they have higher RIN. It originates from the pump and is independent of the signals characteristics [12][14]. These results show that OPAs can be suitable ampliers for DWDM systems. In the following section, we assess the OPA as a receiver amplier.

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Fig. 8. BER versus OSNR of channels 4 (left) and 16 (right) at the input of the EDFA (close diamond) and OPA (open diamond).

Fig. 10. BER versus received OSNR of the data amplied by EDFA (closed diamond) and OPA (open diamond) at channel 4 after input OSNR degradation (dots + line) and input power increase (scatter dots).

Fig. 11. Evaluated system conguration (WDM: Wavelength Division Multiplexer, Tx: Transmitter, T-DCM: Tunable DCM, Rx: Receiver). (a)(d) Measurement points. Fig. 9. Normalized noise power versus wavelength at the output of the OPA.

are shown in Fig. 8 for both ampliers. The estimated accuracy on the OSNR and BER measurements was 5%, represented by error bars. We note different performance variations with channel wavelength and input OSNR for both ampliers. Indeed, at channel 16, both ampliers perform similarly. At channel 4, there is a large difference in performance for high OSNRs (BER 108 ) giving a 3-dB OSNR penalty. However, this penalty decreases and the results converge as the input OSNR is reduced. The difference in performance at the start is due to the tilt in the OPA-induced noise across the band (see Fig. 9) resulting in different OSNRs. This was measured by turning the channels OFF in pairs with a 16-dB input OSNR. As expected, the OPA-induced noise, mainly generated by FWM, is greater at short wavelengths because of stronger phase matching. However, by degrading the input OSNR, the generated amplied spontaneous emission (ASE) noise dominates the OPA noise and is responsible for the results converging. In Fig. 10, we display the results for channel 4 by plotting the BER against the corresponding OSNR at the receiver input (point (b)). It illustrates clearly how the relationship between the OSNR and BER is altered by the nature of the OPA-induced noise, predominantly coherent. We veried that it is not affected by the increase of the input power leading to the growth of the OPA-induced noise (see Fig. 10, open dots). In addition, the relationship between the input and output OSNRs is different with each amplier.

In the next section, the OPA is assessed as a transmitter amplier and as an intermediate amplier in a WDM transmission line. IV. OPA USED WITH RECIRCULATING LOOP We then inserted the OPA in a WDM system containing a recirculating loop. We rst performed tests to evaluate the OPAs performance when placed before the loop. We then used the results of measurements obtained with different loop lengths to estimate the OPAs performance if it was placed at different locations, i.e., between two transmission lines. The OPA was not placed in the loop as it had highly polarization-dependent gain. A. Experimental Setup The performance of the OPA was evaluated using the conguration shown in Fig. 11. It is similar to that of Fig. 1, except for the insertion of a recirculating loop DWDM testbed in the middle. The OPA was placed between the transmitter and the recirculating loop. Its performance was compared with a singlestage EDFA that has 17-dB at gain and 25-dBm maximum output power. The channels were decorrelated (by 6 bits per channel) and precompensated through a dispersion compensating ber (DCF) with dispersion of 166.5 ps/nm before being amplied in the OPA or EDFA. The channel powers were leveled at the output of the OPA/EDFA by adjusting the input channel powers. The

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total power at the OPA/EDFA input (point (a)) was 1 dBm (137 13 dBm per wavelength). The amplied channels were launched into the recirculating loop. The loop was controlled by two acousto-optic switches that were synchronized by a digital delay generator (DDG). The loop consisted of four spans, with a total transmission distance of 360 km per recirculation. The rst span comprised 60 km of SMF followed by a dual-stage EDFA including DCF. The second and third spans were 100 km of SMF also with dual-stage EDFAs containing DCF. The fourth span also contained 100 km of SMF; however, the dual-stage EDFA had a leveler in the mid stage. The average dispersion range per recirculation across the channels is between 0.057 and 0.071 ps/nm/km leading to [20.5, 25.6]-ps/nm residual dispersion range per recirculation. The power level at the loop input (point (b)) was equalized with the transmission power level using a VOA. After transmission, the signals were dispersion compensated with a tunable DCM. Following an EDFA, they were received using a tunable at-top lter with a bandwidth of 0.6 nm to demultiplex the selected channel, a MachZehnder delay interferometer, and balanced photodiodes. The receiver amplier was a single-stage EDFA with 30-dB at gain and 24-dBm maximum output power. The receiver was operated in its optimal power range [1, 1] dBm, giving the best BER. The test equipment was triggered by the DDG. B. Results and Discussion The performance of the OPA was evaluated in two scenarios, source node amplier and intermediate node amplier. It was assessed by measuring BER versus recirculation number and OSNR at the input of the recirculating loop and the receiver (points (b) and (c)). The maximum transmission distance was determined by the forward error correction (FEC) limit, i.e., 2 103 BER. We rst measured the performance of the OPA before replacing it by the EDFA, ensuring that the input power and OSNR (0.5-nm resolution bandwidth optical spectrum analyzer) measured at point (a) remained constant. C. Source Node Amplier With 17.6-dB input OSNR at point (a), the BER variations after 2, 4, 6, and 8 recirculations measured at point (d) with a constant received power (0.5 dBm) for channels 1, 4, 9, 12, 16, 20, and 26, are shown in Fig. 12 for both ampliers. We note similar performance variations with channel wavelength and transmission distance for both ampliers. Despite a difference in BER for short distances, the results for both ampliers converge with increasing number of recirculations. In Figs. 13 and 14, we display the results for channel 4 by plotting the BER against number of recirculations and the corresponding OSNR at the receiver input (point (c)), respectively. The estimated accuracy on the OSNR and BER measurements was 5%, represented by error bars. Fig. 13 illustrates that for short-haul transmission, the OPA performance as source node amplier is equivalent to the EDFA performance on the subsequent recirculation due to the OPAs back-to-back perfor-

Fig. 12. BER versus channel number for the OPA (left) and EDFA (right) after 2 (square), 4 (diamond), 6 (triangle), and 8 (star) recirculations.

Fig. 13. BER versus recirculation of the data amplied by OPA (open diamond) and EDFA (closed diamond) at channel 4.

Fig. 14. BER versus received OSNR of the data amplied by OPA (open diamond) and EDFA (closed diamond) at channel 4.

mance [15]. However, the gap decreases with distance as the loop EDFAs noise dominates. In order to assess the difference in performance between the ampliers in terms of OSNR penalty, we plotted the BER against OSNR at the recirculating loop output (see Fig. 14). As expected, we found that for the same BER we measured different OSNR values with the EDFA and OPA. This difference can be explained by the different nature of the noise generated by the OPA which is predominately coherent resulting from pump-noise transfer, creating an altered relationship between the OSNR and BER as illustrated in previous section. Therefore, to be able to measure a meaningful OSNR penalty we must rst extrapolate the required EDFA OSNR for each BER measured with the OPA.

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Fig. 15. OSNR average penalty versus recirculation of the data amplied by OPA compared with EDFA.

Fig. 16. Maximum number of postrecirculation versus equivalent pretransmission distance of the data amplied by OPA (open diamond) and EDFA (closed diamond).

The average OSNR penalty across the channels was calculated after each recirculation (see Fig. 15). This decreases from 0.9 dB to zero. After ve recirculations, the penalty is negligible and the OPA performance converges with that of the EDFA across the channels. Therefore, despite differences at short distances, an equal maximum distance, 2880 km, was obtained with either amplier at the source node. This distance was taken to be the distance where all channels were within the FEC limit. D. Intermediate Node Amplier The assessment of the OPA at an intermediate node was achieved by decreasing the OSNR at its input (point (a)), and measuring as previously the maximum number of recirculations, referred to as postrecirculation. This approximation is only valid for short distances with relatively low nonlinear penalties and negligible residual chromatic dispersion. The OSNR values chosen correspond to those recorded with the EDFA after the rst three recirculations in the previous section. The effective distance equivalent to each OSNR used, referred to as pretransmission distance, was found using numerical models based on the split-step Fourier method to assess the nonlinear penalties. The OSNR was set by a VOA followed by a dual-stage EDFA with a VOA at the mid stage. The decrease in OSNR induced a tilt in the spectrum at the loop input (point (b)), with either amplier, to the extent that the channel powers could no longer be perfectly leveled. This increased the power level at short wavelengths. The tilt is larger with the EDFA as it is used in xed output power mode. The evaluation was carried out with channels 4 and 16. The resulting maximum number of postrecirculations is plotted against the equivalent pretransmission distance in Fig. 16. In this scenario, the OPA exhibits a better performance than the EDFA as a result of the atter channel power prole at the OPA output. Indeed, when the OPA had an increased tilt, a penalty was observed. The minimal decrease of postrecirculation with pretransmission distance demonstrates that the level of ASE noise before the OPA does not limit its performance, particularly where phase modulated signals are used in reducing the penalties associated with cross-gain modulation.

In the next section, we attempt to evaluate the impact of multiple OPAs in a WDM system. V. OPA CASCADING The assessment of using multiple OPAs (i.e., cascading) was achieved by increasing the power at the OPA input to induce an increase in the noise and, therefore, a decrease of the OSNR at its output. We then measured the maximum transmission distance (determined by the FEC limit) with the recirculating loop. A. Experimental Setup The performance of the OPA was evaluated using the conguration shown in Fig. 11. The OPA was placed between the transmitter and recirculating loop of the DWDM testbed. The average OSNR at the OPA input (point (a)) was 16.5 dB. B. Results and Discussion The assessment of OPA cascading was achieved by increasing the OPA input power (point (a)) and, hence, the OSNR at its output (point (b)), and measuring the maximum number of recirculations referred to as postrecirculation. Indeed, in the case of two OPAs separated by a transmission ber, the channels at the input to the second OPA will be differently aligned following transmission through a ber span. As a result, the amplier-induced noise will be different at each amplier, i.e., random, acting as incoherent noise. Therefore, simply reducing the OSNR by 3 dB with the same OPA induces a greater penalty than doubling the number of OPAs. In Fig. 17, we show the variation of the output OSNR with the input power for a constant input OSNR (16 dB) and channels 4 and 16. The relationship between the OPA output OSNR and input power is different with wavelength. Indeed, the OSNR at short wavelength is lower as expected as the OPA-induced noise at short wavelength is higher. However, a 3-dB OSNR decrease is obtained at both channels 4 and 16 for same input power, 7 dBm. In addition, the relationship between OPA output OSNR and BER is not altered by the increase of the input power as mentioned in the previous section (see Fig. 16). In Fig. 18, we plot the resulting maximum number of postrecirculations against the input power. Again, as anticipated,

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systems. At this time these OPAs are still not equivalent to EDFAs, and so cannot replace them entirely in long-haul systems. To arrive at this stage, it will be necessary to improve the OPAs, particularly by further reducing the nonlinear crosstalk between WDM channels. ACKNOWLEDGMENT The authors thank Sumitomo Electric Industries, Japan, for supplying the HNLFs. REFERENCES
Fig. 17. Received OSNR versus total power at OPA input for channels 4 (open diamond) and 16 (open square). [1] J. Altgeld and J. D. Zeeman, Whitepaper IPTV/VoD: The IPTV/VoD challengeUpcoming business models, Int. Eng. Consortium, pp. 3 16, 2005. [2] M. Jamshidifar, A. Vedadi, and M. E. Marhic, Continuous-wave onepump ber optical parametric amplier with 270 nm gain bandwidth, in Proc. IEEE 35rd Eur. Conf. Opt. Commun., Vienna, Austria, Sep. 2024, 2009, Paper Mo. 1.1.4, pp. 12. [3] T. Torounidis, H. Sunnerud, P. O. Hedekvist, and P. A. Andrekson, Amplication of WDM signals in ber-based optical parametric ampliers, IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett., vol. 15, no. 8, pp. 10611063, Aug. 2003. [4] J. M. Chavez Boggio, F. A. Callegari, J. D. Marconi, A. Guimaraes, and H. L. Fragnito, Inuence of zero dispersion wavelength variations on crosstalk in single-pumped ber optic parametric ampliers, Opt. Commun., vol. 242, pp. 471478, 2004. [5] J. M. Chavez Boggio, E. A. M. Fagotto, M. E. Marhic, F. A. Callegari, and H. L. Fragnito, Amplication of 12 10 Gb/s WDM signals with negligible FWM crosstalk in a double-pumped ber optical parametric amplier, Opt. Commun., vol. 280, pp. 468471, 2007. [6] J. L. Blows and P. Hu, Cross-talk-induced limitations of two-pump optical ber parametric ampliers, J. Opt. Soc. Amer.-B, vol. 21, no. 5, pp. 989 995, May 2004. [7] K. K. Y. Wong, G.-W. Lu, and L.-K. Chen, Polarization-interleaved WDM signals in a ber optical parametric amplier with orthogonal pumps, Opt. Exp., vol. 15, pp. 5661, 2007. [8] M. Jamshidifar, A. Vedadi, and M. E. Marhic, Reduction of four-wavemixing crosstalk in a short ber-optical parametric amplier, IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett., vol. 21, no. 17, pp. 12441246, Sep. 2009. [9] M. E. Marhic, Fiber Optical Ampliers, Oscillators and Related Devices. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge Univ. Press, 2007. [10] J. M. Chavez Boggio, P. Dainese, and H. L. Fragnito, Performance of a two-pump ber optical parametric amplier in a 10 Gb/s 64 channel dense wavelength division multiplexing system, Opt. Commun., vol. 218, pp. 303310, 2003. [11] B. P.-P. Kuo, P. C. Chui, and K. K.-Y. Wong, A comprehensive study on crosstalk suppression techniques in ber optical parametric amplier by modulation format, IEEE J. Sel. Topics Quantum Electron., vol. 14, no. 3, pp. 659665, May/Jun. 2008. [12] P. Kylemark, P. O. Hedekvist, H. Sunnerud, M. Karlsson, and P. A. Andrekson, Noise characteristics of ber optical parametric ampliers, J. Lightw. Technol., vol. 22, no. 2, pp. 409416, Feb. 2004. [13] P. Kylemark, P. O. Hedekvist, H. Sunnerud, M. Karlsson, and P. A. Andrekson, Correction to noise characteristics of ber optical parametric ampliers, J. Lightw. Technol., vol. 23, no. 6, p. 2192, Jun. 2005. [14] M. E. Marhic, Fiber Optical Ampliers, Oscillators and Related Devices. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge Univ. Press, 2007, ch. 10. [15] M. Jamshidifar, N. El Dahdah, D. S. Govan, N. J. Doran, and M. E. Marhic, 1-Tb/s DWDM amplication in a ber optical parametric amplier, in Proc. IEEE Opt. Fiber Commun. Nat. Fiber. Opt. Eng. Conf., San Diego, CA, Mar. 2125, 2010, Paper OWT1, pp. 12. Nayla El Dahdah received the M.Sc. degree in physics and the Ph.D. degree in optics from the University of Paris XI, Orsay, France, in 1999 and 2003, respectively. She was a Research Engineer at Laboratoire de Photonique et Nanostructures, CNRS, Marcoussis, France, where she stayed until 2004. She was a Research Engineer at France Telecom R&D, Lannion, France, before joining the Institute of Advanced Telecommunications, Swansea University, Swansea, U.K., as a Research Assistant. She is currently at Gennum UK, Bishops Stanford, U.K. Her research interests include transmission systems, optical signal processing, and optical components.

Fig. 18. Maximum number of recirculation versus total power at OPA input for channels 4 (open diamond) and 16 (open square).

channel 16 exhibits a better performance than channel 4 as a result of a better OSNR at the OPA output. However, channel 4 performance is worse than expected for 7-dBm input power. Indeed, we were anticipating the maximum number of recirculation to decrease by 1 as measured with EDFA with a similar change in the OSNR. This can be explained by the coherent nature of the noise instead of incoherent. Besides, the minimal decrease of postrecirculation with power increase of channel 16 indicates that with a shorter HNLF a similar degradation of performance is expected at channel 4. These results show that using multiple OPAs in an optical transmission system with phase-shift keying modulation format will not introduce any signicant additional penalties. VI. CONCLUSION We have demonstrated, for the rst time to our knowledge, the amplication with a ber OPA of 26 RZ-DPSK DWDM channels with a net capacity of 1.04 Tb/s. We have also demonstrated that using this ber OPA at either the transmitter or an intermediate node in a recirculating loop induces no further limitation on the maximum transmission distance of this WDM spectrum. We have also shown that OPA performance at the receiver is not altered when predegraded signals are used. These experiments indicate that ber OPAs exhibit sufcient performance to be used at several locations in long-haul WDM

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Donald S. Govan received the B.Sc.(Hons.) degree in laser physics and optoelectronics from the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, U.K., in 1995, and the Ph.D. degree from the Photonics Research Group at Aston University, Birmingham, U.K., in 1999, where he was a Contact Research Fellow until 2000. He joined Marconi Company as a Senior Development Engineer in May 2000, where he was part of the team that developed the UPLx160 product, Marconis ultralong haul (> 3000 km) dense wavelength-division multiplexed photonic line system. From June 2004 to May 2006, he was at the George Green Institute for Electromagnetics Research, Nottingham University, Nottingham, U.K. In May 2006, he joined the Institute of Advanced Telecommunications, Swansea University, Swansea, U.K., as a Research Assistant. He is currently at Oclaro Inc., Paington, U.K. His research interests include numerical modeling of optical networks, subsystems, and components.

Nick J. Doran received the B Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in physics from Reading University in 1970 and 1974, respectively. He is currently a Professor of photonics at Swansea University, Swansea, U.K., where he headed the Institute of Advanced Telecommunications, Swansea University, which is now merged in the College of Engineering, Swansea University. He was the CTO and Founder of Marconi-Solstis, which developed and installed the worlds longest land-based ultrahighcapacity optical communications system in 2003. From 1991 to 2000, he was a Professor of photonics at Aston University, cofounding the Photonics Research Group there and, prior to that, he was the Leader of the Ultrafast Communications Group at BT Laboratories, Martlesham Heath. He has more than 200 publications and numerous patents on nonlinear and ultrafast transmission and optical devices.

Mehdi Jamshidifar was born in Oroumieh, Iran, in August 1981. He received the B.Sc. degree in electrical and electronic engineering from the Institute of Electro-technique, Tehran University, Tehran, Iran, in 2005, and the M.Sc. degree (with Distinction) in photonics and telecommunication systems from Swansea University, Swansea, U.K., in 2007. He received the Ph.D. degree from the College of Engineering, Swansea University, Swansea, U.K., in 2010, where he was involved in research on ber optical parametric ampliers and nonlinear ber optics. He is currently a Postdoctoral Researcher at Swansea University, Swansea, where he has been conducting research on next-generation optical systems, in collaboration with Oclaro Inc. His research interests include nonlinear ber optics, coherent systems, and optical parametric ampliers. Dr. Jamshidifar is a member of the Optical Society of America.

Michel E. Marhic (M78SM87) received the Diplome DIngenieur from Ecole Superieure DElectricite, Metz, France, the M.S. degree from Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, and the Ph.D. degree from the University of California, Los Angeles, all in electrical engineering. He was on the Faculty of the Department of Electrical Engineering, Northwestern University (19741998), and on sabbatical leaves at USC (197980) and Stanford University (19841985 and 19931994). From 1998 to 2006, he was a Consulting Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering, Stanford University. He is currently a Chair Professor at the Institute of Advanced Telecommunications, School of Engineering, Swansea University, Swansea, U.K. He cofounded Holicon, Holographic Industries, and OPAL Laboratories. Over the past 15 years, his emphasis has been on optical communication systems and on nonlinear optical interactions in bers. He has written the rst book on Fiber Optical Parametric Ampliers, Oscillators and Related Devices (Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge Univ. Press, 2007). He is the author or coauthor of more than 300 journals and conference papers, and his 9 patents are awarded. His research spans areas of applied optics, including nonlinear interactions in plasmas, optical ber measurements, hollow infrared waveguides, holography, phase conjugation, and ber networks. Dr. Marhic is a Fellow of the Optical Society of America and an Eminent Member of Tau Beta Pi. He was the recipient of the Ameritech Research Professorship (19901991) from the Institute for Modern Communications.