Long-haul transmission of 35-Gb/s all-optical OFDM signal without using tunable dispersion compensation and time gating

We propose that the optical OFDM technique using all optical discrete Fourier transform (DFT) has potential as a viable alternative for upgrading long-haul optical transmission systems towards 100-Gb/s. We demonstrate transmission of 35-Gb/s (7 x 5 Gb/s NRZ-OOK) all-optical OFDM signal over similar to 2000-km dispersion-managed span without using tunable dispersion compensation and time gating. We achieve bit error ratio of 1.2x10(-3) (7x10(-3)) for transmission over 1980-km (2310-km) all-EDFA amplified span consisting of standard single mode fiber (SSMF) and dispersion compensating fiber (DCF). We also study the nonlinear penalty impacting the all-optical OFDM transmission and discuss potential method for its mitigation. (C) 2011 Optical Society of America