In‐line one‐pump parametric amplifier with independent polarization gain: A field‐trial demonstration

Abstract

We present a one‐pump parametric amplifier with polarization independent gain working as an in‐line amplifier within an experimental field‐trial optical network. The polarization independent gain is obtained by using a polarization diversity technique (PDT). Five signals modulated at 10 Gb/s were transmitted through the network, and a gain variation as low as 0.05 dB, independent of the signal polarization, was obtained. The bit‐error‐rate (BER) for the amplified signals was measured. For a BER of 10−9, a power penalty as low as 0.7 dB is shown. These measurements were compared with the identical ones obtained when the parametric amplifier with the PDT was replaced by an Erbium‐doped fiber amplifier (EDFA). The fiber optical parametric amplifier (FOPA) with the PDT presents a power penalty of 0.7 dB in relation to the value obtained with the EDFA. These results show that parametric amplifiers that use the PDT are able to reach a performance comparable to those obtained with the current technology of optical amplifiers based on rare earth doped fibers. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 55:1104–1107, 2013; View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com. DOI 10.1002/mop.27481

In-line and cascaded DWDM transmission using a 15dB net-gain polarization-insensitive fiber optical parametric amplifier

“…To the best of our knowledge, a net-gain polarization insensitive PI-FOPA has so far not been demonstrated within any transmission system. The closest examples include a field-trial whereby a PI-FOPA with net-loss was located between two fiber spans of 11km and 22km, whilst transmitting 5x10Gb/s on-off keyed signals [18]. However, due to the OSNR degradation from the FOPA loss, as well as other added noise, overall system performance would have been improved by bypassing this FOPA completely.…”