Experimental Demonstration of Dual O+C-Band WDM Transmission Over 50-km SSMF With Direct Detection

In this article, we experimentally demonstrate dual O+C-band direct-detection wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) transmission over 50 km of standard single-mode fibre, wherein 4 × 40-Gb/s Nyquist on-off keying (OOK) modulation is used in the O-band whilst 4 × 40-Gb/s single-sideband (SSB) subcarrier modulation (SCM) with Kramers-Kronig (KK) detection is used in the C-band. A bismuth-doped fibre amplifier (BDFA) is used as the pre-amplifier in the O-band to extend the reach of the direct-detection system. It is demonstrated that the O-band exhibits superior receiver sensitivity relative to the C-band and its transmission performance is limited by the chromatic dispersion (CD), especially when longer reaches and wavelengths in the longer edge of the band are explored. In contrast, due to the adoption of the SSB format, the C-band shows enhanced tolerance to CD effects. In this case, some receiver sensitivity is sacrificed to accommodate the adoption of the KK detection which is used to eliminate the signal-to-signal beating interference of the SSB-SCM format. The inferior receiver sensitivity in the C-band is caused by (1) the higher CSPR requirement of the KK detection and (2) the restriction of small-signal modulation for the dual-drive Mach-Zehnder modulator to generate optical SSB signals. The results indicate the feasibility to further extend the reach of O-band transmission systems, which enables the possibility to realise dual O+C-band WDM transmission in intermediate- to long-haul optical networks.