Optimizing the performance of high-speed optical fiber communication systems employing multiple-quantum well lasers through dispersion- compensating fibers

Abstract We present a numerical modeling and simulation study on the performance of optical fiber communication systems employing a multiple-quantum-well (MQW) semiconductor laser operating at a wavelength of 1.55 μm with high bit rates ranging between 10 and 40 Gb/s. The performance of the fiber system is assessed through various measures, including the eye diagram of the received signal, the characteristic relationship between the bit error rate (BER) and received power, as well as the limitations on the maximum fiber length imposed by attenuation and dispersion at each specific bit rate. The possibility of enhancing system performance is examined by utilizing dispersion-compensating fiber (DCF) along with standard single-mode fiber (SSMF) to increase the limited length of SSMF. The results reveal that when the bit rate increases from 10 to 40 Gb/s, the dispersion-limited fiber length decreases from 35.1 to 2.6, respectively. The addition of DCF results in a significant increase in the transmission fiber length. This enhancement in the fiber length is remarkable at the highest bit rate of 40 Gb/s, where this length reaches 39 km.