Field transmission of 8 /spl times/ 170 gb/s over high-loss SSMF link using third-order distributed Raman amplification

This paper reports on the field transmission of N/spl times/170-Gb/s over high-loss fiber links using third-order distributed Raman amplification (DRA) in a commercially operated network of Deutsche Telekom. It gives an overview of the key technologies applied for the realization of an 8 /spl times/ 170 Gb/s (1.28 Tb/s) dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) system demonstrator and summarizes long-haul transmission experiments with terabit-per-second capacity over European fiber infrastructure. Third-order DRA enabled repeaterless transmission of 1 /spl times/ 170 Gb/s and 8 /spl times/ 170 Gb/s over links of 185- and 140-km field fiber, respectively. Including an additional 25 km of lumped standard single-mode fiber (SSMF) at the end of the span, a total loss of 61 and 44 dB, respectively, was bridged.