Numerical comparison between distributed and discrete amplification in a point-to-point 40-Gb/s 40-WDM-Based transmission system with three different modulation formats

We describe a detailed numerical investigation on the relative merits of gain flattened distributed Raman amplification (DRA) and discrete gain flattened amplifiers. We simulate a system with forty 40-Gb/s channels spaced at 100 GHz and compare the performance of three different modulation formats nonreturn-to-zero (NRZ), return-to-zero (RZ) and carrier-suppressed RZ (CS-RZ). Three types of amplifiers, multifrequency backward- and forward-pumped DRAs, and an idealized discrete gain flattened amplifier are examined for various signal powers and transmission distances. For the backward-pumped DRA, we also describe calculated tolerance limits imposed by incomplete dispersion slope compensation and polarization mode dispersion (PMD) level.