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We experimentally demonstrate the use of a discrete Raman amplifier for generating a high power, narrow linewidth pump for use within a fiber optical parametric amplifier (FOPA). We demonstrate the suitability of the Raman-amplified pump for parametric amplification by characterizing its optical signal to noise ratio and relative intensity noise (RIN). The amplified pump is subsequently employed within a FOPA obtaining net gain of up to 24.9 dB and a gain of >11 dB over 35 nm. The approach described here offers the key advantage over traditional EDFA-based pump generation of wavelength tuneability outside the EDFA bands. In principle this allows to place the parametric pump at any wavelength within the low fiber attenuation window. Here we additionally demonstrate Raman-assisted optical phase conjugation to provide positive conversion efficiency over 60 nm whilst employing the phase-conjugating pump power of <10 mW not requiring an amplification by EDFA. We consider this technique to show a significant promise for broadband optical phase conjugation and wavelength conversion as well as the prospect for implementation of these important phenomena outside of the EDFA bands.

This paper reports on the architectural, protocol, physical layer, and integrated testbed demonstrations carried out by the DISCUS FP7 consortium in the area of access-metro network convergence. Our architecture modeling results show the vast potential for cost and power savings that node consolidation can bring. The architecture, however, also recognizes the limits of long-reach transmission for low-latency 5G services and proposes ways to address such shortcomings in future projects. The testbed results, which have been conducted end-toend, across access-metro and core, and have targeted all the layers of the network from the application down to the physical layer, show the practical feasibility of the concepts proposed in the project., Funding details: 13/RC/2077, SFI, Science Foundation Ireland; Funding text: Financial support from EU FP7 project DISCUS (grant CNECT-ICT-318137) and Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) (grant 13/RC/2077) is gratefully acknowledged.QC 20171201

We demonstrate and characterize polarization-division multiplexed (PDM) DWDM data transmission for the first time in a range of systems incorporating a net-gain polarization-insensitive fiber optical parametric amplifier (PI-FOPA) for loss compensation. The PI-FOPA comprises a modified diversity-loop architecture to achieve 15dB net-gain, and up to 2.3THz (~18nm) bandwidth. Three representative systems are characterized using a 100Gb/s PDM-QPSK signal in conjunction with emulated DWDM neighbouring channels: (a) a 4x75km in-line fiber transmission system incorporating multiple EDFAs and a single PI-FOPA (b) N cascaded PI-FOPA amplification stages in an unlevelled Nx25km recirculating loop arrangement, with no EDFAs used within the loop signal path, and (c) M cascaded PI-FOPA amplification stages as part of an Mx75.6km gain-flattened recirculating loop system with the FOPA compensating for the transmission fiber loss, and EDFA compensation for loop switching and levelling loss. For the 4x75km in-line system (a), we transmit 45x50GHz-spaced signals (‘equivalent’ data-rate of 4.5Tb/s) with average OSNR penalty of 1.3dB over the band at 10−3 BER. For the unlevelled ‘FOPA-only’ 25.2km cascaded system (b), we report a maximum of eight recirculations for all 10x100GHz-spaced signals, and five recirculations for 20x50GHz-spaced signals. For the 75.6km levelled system (c), we achieve eight recirculations for all 20x50GHz signals resulting in a total transmission distance of 604.8km.