Performance of single-mode fiber links using electronic feed-forward and decision feedback equalizers

The performance limits of optically amplified links using electronic feed-forward equalizers and decision feedback equalizers are experimentally and numerically investigated. A 10-Gb/s transmission over 140 km of standard single-mode fiber with 22.7-dB optical signal-to-noise ratio sensitivity at 10/sup -9/ bit-error rate is demonstrated, allowing single-span operation with 4-dB margin.