Metro network utilizing 10 Gb/s directly modulated lasers and negative dispersion fiber

In this letter, we present the feasibility of metro area transparent wavelength-division-multiplexing networking with cost-effective 1550 nm 10 Gb/s directly modulated transmitters. We report excellent performance results (Q-factor>9 dB) for a transparent short-reach metropolitan area ring network based on application-optimized, optical layer components and fiber. The demonstration is based on a network consisting of four nodes interconnected with 25.5 km spans of uncompensated negative dispersion fiber. The network is designed to support 32 directly modulated channels operating at 10 Gb/s (320 Gb/s capacity).