In order to increase the channel bit rate of commercial submarine systems from 10Gb/s to 40Gb/s in a cost effective way, new technologies have to be implemented. We will review them including Raman amplification, modulation formats and PMD mitigation techniques. The introduction of Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) has triggered a tremendous capacity growth in submarine systems, both by the increase of the number of WDM channels and by the increase of the channel bit-rate. Starting from 2.5Gbit/s in the mid-nineties, the bit-rate was upgraded to 10Gbit/s by the end of the century in commercial prudcts. The next generation of submarine systems will likely be based on 40Gbit/s bit rate. However, transmissions at 40Gbit/s rate are more challenging than transmission sat 10Gbit/s. The goal of this paper is to provide an overview of the technologies which could be required or used in next-generation submarine systems. In the first part of this paper, an overview of the history of submarine links is provided. Then the technologies used in current Nx10Gbit/s systems are described. Eventually, the challenges to overcome are discussed, whether they concern the type of fiber, the type of optical amplifier, or the nature of the modulation format.

Date Published: 3 October 2006
PDF: 15 pages
Proc. SPIE 6353, Optical Transmission, Switching, and Subsystems IV, 635316 (3 October 2006); doi: 10.1117/12.691521

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 6353:
Optical Transmission, Switching, and Subsystems IV
Chang Soo Park; Shizhong Xie; Curtis R. Menyuk; Ken-ichi Kitayama, Editor(s)