Power penalty for optical signals due to dispersion slope in WDM filter cascades

The power penalty due to the dispersion slope of WDM filters limits the number of cascaded filters and restricts the allowed signal-filter detuning. This dispersive penalty is significantly larger for optically-preamplified receivers. The results in this paper apply to systems with arbitrary bit rates. When dispersive penalties become a limitation, chirped Bragg filters with compensated dispersion slope or dispersionless waveguide-grating-router and Mach-Zehnder filters can be used.