Experimental Test of Dense WDM 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 WDM at 10 Gbit/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 ~~ 9,000 km and ~~ 20,000 km for uncorrected bit error rates of 10 sup -8 amd 10 sup -3, respectively, the latter corresponding to the use of "super" forward error correction; significantly, these distances are very close to those achievable in single-channel transmission in the same system.