1580-nm band, equally spaced 8 x 10 Gb/s WDM channel transmission over 360 km (3 x 120 km) of dispersion-shifted fiber avoiding FWM impairment

Optically repeated wavelength-division multiplexed (WDM) transmission over dispersion-shifted fibers (DSF's) in the novel 1580-nm wavelength band is reported. WDM systems operating on DSFs are severely impaired by nonlinear crosstalk caused by four-wave mixing (FWM). We avoid this impairment by using novel 1580-nm band instead of the conventional 1550-nm band. Newly developed erbium-doped fiber amplifiers (EDFAs) for 1570-1600-nm wavelength band (gain-shifted EDFAs) are used as pre- and post amplifiers as well as in-line amplifiers. We demonstrate, for the first time, that long in-line amplifier span (120 km, span loss /spl sim/30 dB), high-bit rate (10 Gb/s), optically repeated WDM transmission over a 360 km (3/spl times/120 km) DSF is possible by using 1580-nm band channels without FWM impairment.