Real-Time 59.2 Tb/s Unrepeated Transmission Over 201.6 km Using Ultra-Wideband SOA as High-Power Booster

Ultrawide-bandwidth (UWB) optical amplification covering C+L bands over 102 nm is implemented by using a seamless semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) as a high-power booster with a maximum output power of 24.4 dBm as well as a hybrid scheme of pre-amplification, which combines backward distributed Raman pumping with SOA. In order to provide understanding of the transmission performance of SOA, we perform a thorough SOA characterization. By applying different total input powers, we have measured the output spectrum shape and power. In addition, the dependence of the gain on the driving current is also shown. The SOA noise figure is also analyzed for the case of a single channel input. Using the characterized SOA and employing real-time transponders, supporting two different modulation formats: 400 Gb/s PDM-16QAM and 200 Gb/s PDM-QPSK, a total real-time throughput of 59.2 Tb/s has been achieved over an unrepeated transmission span of 201.6 km-long pure silica core fiber (PSCF). Three different configurations of the output power of SOA booster are compared, which demonstrates an improvement of 17% in total throughput when increasing the SOA output power from 21 dBm to 24.4 dBm. Our results show the advantages and benefits of high-power SOA boosters for UWB amplification.