Performance limitations imposed by stimulated Raman scattering in optical WDM SCM video distribution systems

Optical fiber non-linearities in optical wavelength division-multiplexed (WDM) subcarrier-multiplexed (SCM) video distribution systems are of particular importance when optical amplification is employed. In our analysis, we find that the crosstalk levels generated by stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) can significantly compromise system performance, even at relatively low optical power levels, and may therefore explain the performance degradation attributed to optical fiber nonlinearities observed in a WDM-SCM video distribution experiment published recently.