100 Gb s−1 coherent dense wavelength division multiplexing system reach extension beyond the limit of electronic dispersion compensation using optical dispersion management

We report numerical investigations of increasing system reach beyond the limit imposed by the state-of-the-art digital signal processing (typically 70 ns nm−1 or 4000 km of standard single mode fiber (SSMF)) by using partial optical dispersion compensation in wavelength division multiplexing 100 Gb s−1 dual polarization quadrature phase shift keying coherent systems. Our numerical model has been verified by the comparison of simulation results with the straight-line real-time transmission experiment. We find that for a legacy fiber-based (non-zero dispersion-shifted fiber) link the transmission distance can be extended to 7000 km with either hybrid spans consisting of SSMF and non-zero dispersion-shifted fiber, or by using partial dispersion compensation employing dispersion-compensating fiber (DCF) with a 1.5 and 0.6 dB optical signal-to-noise ratio (OSNR) margin respectively.