Mixed Fiber Infrastructures in Long Haul WDM-Transmission

The existing global fiber infrastructure consists of different fiber types like standard single-mode fiber (G.652) and non-zero dispersion shifted fiber (NZDSF). With the introduction of transparent networking, however, optical communication signals when transmitted over such inhomogeneous fiber links, consisting of different fiber types, may exhibit unpredictable transmission performance. In an example of such an inhomogeneous fiber network, consisting of G.652 and Corning® LEAF® fiber, it is shown that by optimizing the transmission performance of the individual fiber sections, transmission over inhomogeneous network links with a mixed fiber infrastructure can be performed without incurring any additional penalties. Long-haul 10 Gbit/s NRZ WDM transmission over standard single-mode fiber, NZDSF and a mixed fiber infrastructure is simulated and experimentally demonstrated. For optimized operation parameters it is demonstrated that 2500 km error-free transmission is feasible for all scenarios without use of FEC and Raman-amplification.