Submarine cable networks

The wavelength division multiplexing technique enabled to increase drastically the transmission capacity per fiber over transAtlantic distances: from 1 x 5 Gbit/s in 1995, the figure increases up to 42 x 10 Gbit/s in 2001 and today, transmission systems providing up to 160 x 10 Gbit/s are under development. This evolution results mainly from the optical amplification bandwidth increase and the reduction of the spectral variation of the fiber chromatic dispersion. In un-repeatered submarine system. the distributed Raman amplification has been a key technology enabling a 160 x 10 Gbit/s transmission over a 380 km single fiber. (C) 2003 Academie des sciences/Editions scientifiques et medicales Elsevier SAS. All rights reserved.