Experimental test of dense wavelength-division multiplexing using novel, periodic-group-delay-complemented dispersion compensation and dispersion-managed solitons

In an all-Raman amplified, recirculating loop containing 100-km spans, we have tested dense wavelength-division multiplexing at 10 Gbits/s per channel, using dispersion-managed solitons and a novel, periodic-group-delay-complemented dispersion-compensation scheme that greatly reduces the timing jitter from interchannel collisions. The achieved working distances are approximately 9000 and approximately 20,000 km for uncorrected bit error rates of <10(-8) and <10(-3), respectively, the latter corresponding to the use of "enhanced" forward error correction; significantly, these distances are very close to those achievable in single-channel transmission in the same system.