DWDM transmission of thirty two 10 Gbit/s channels through 160 km link using semiconductor optical amplifiers

A 160 km dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) link with (32x10 Gbit/s) capacity and 50 GHz channel spacing is demonstrated using four in-line semiconductor optical amplifiers. The channels were evaluated using Q factor analysis from measurements of the bit error rate as a function of the decision threshold level at -20 dBm received power. It was observed that the link performance with and without a saturating reservoir channel did not vary significantly. Transmission took place over 160 km of standard fiber plus additional dispersion compensation.