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Influence of the dispersion map on limitations due to CFOSSphase modulation in WDM multispan transmisslionsystems
C. Furst, C. Scheerer, G. Mohs, J.-P. Elbers, C. Glingener
SIEMENS AG, Advanced Transport Systems, ICN TR ON D T, Hofmannnstr.51, 81359 Munchen, Germany Tel. +49-89-722 44612, Fax +49-89-72245146, comelius.jkerst@icn.siemens.de

Abstract: We determine system limitations due to cross-phase modulation (XPM) for non-zero
dispersion shifted fiber by experiments and simulations. For the worst case of full dispersion compensation in each span we find a maximum power law whereas for appropriate undercompensation XPM can be efficiently suppressed.
02000 Optical Society of America OCIS codes: (060.2330) Fiber optics communications,(060.4370) Nonlinear optics, fibers

1. Introduction
Cross-phase modulation (XPM) has been identified as a limiting effect for the transmission reach in dense WDM systems particularly on low dispersion fiber types as e.g. LEAF and TrueWave. Various papers have been published highlighting the influence of XPM in particular system configurations and their potentially detrimental impact on the system performance (e.g. [ 1,2]). Analytical models [3-51 have been developed and numerical simulations [6] have been carried out for certain examples. Recently, a technique was published to suppress XPM distortions by introducing time delays between the different channels after each transmission span [7]. In this paper, we give an extended analysis of the system limitations imposed by XPM in dependence of the, dispersion map, employing both experiments and simulations. We focus on post-compensated systems and vary both the inline and the total accumulated dispersion. In our experiments, uncorrelated channels are transmitted over several reamplified spans of non-zero dispersion shifted fiber in a recirculating loop. From the results we directly derive design rules for the dispersion map for optimum XPM suppression. We show for the first time that a maximum power law holds for full inline dispersion compensation in multispan transmission which allows a fast estimate of the system limitations due to XPM.

2. Experimental setup and simulation model

For the first experiments, we investigate the copropagation of two fully independent wavelength channels with a channel spacing of 100 GHz. Both signals (NRZ) are generated by separate pattern generators (both PRBS z7-l) with slightly different bit rates of 9.952 Gb/s for the reference channel and 10.000 Gb/s fcir the distorting channel. In this way we ensure all possible relative bit phases between the two signals to be included and avoid the measurement of special cases due to specific launch conditions at the fiber input. The effect of XPM strongly depends on the relative polarization of the copropagating signals. The worst case is obtained by launching the channels with the same polarization state at the fiber input. The loop consists of an fiber amplifier followed by 50 km of LEAF fiber (D=2.4 ps/nm/km) and a dispersion compensating module. The inline compensation for each round trip is modified by changing the module or inserting additional pieces of fiber. At the loop output, the signal passes an additional fiber section where the total accumulated dispersion of the link is controlled. The optical signalto-noise ratio (OSNR) is adjusted with an optical attenuator before passing the EDFA preamplifier. The reference signal is selected by a filter and detected by a receiver from our product line allowing tlie measurement of bit error rates The degradation of the reference signal due to XPM is analyzed by means of the OSNR required for a certain bit error rate, here chosen to be Signal distortions due to fiber nonlinearity manifest themselves as a higher required OSNR with respect to linear transmission. We define the maximum transmission distance as the span count (loop circulations) causing an OSNR penalty of 1dB. We also investigate the,XPM-induced performance degradation by numerical simulations using the split-step Fourier method. The simulation setup is chosen to match the experimental parameters as accurately as possible. Again, the channels cany signals with slightly different bit rates. A large number of bits is calculated to include all possible relative bit phases. The optical noise is included analytically at the receiver. For Ihe calculation of the bit error rate for a given OSNR, all bit lines of the eye diagram are taken into account.

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3. Results and discussion

Firstly, we examine the evolution of the OSNR penalty with the span count for different inline compensation in each span for two interfering channels ( Fig. 1). The total accumulateddispersion of the link is kept constant at 630 pshm for all cases and span counts which ensures a sufficiently high penalty for measurement. The optical launch power
total accumulated dispersion
630 pdnm each case

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Fig. 1 Evolution of the required OSNR in 0.1 nm bandwidth for different inline compensations. filled symbols: experiments, hollow: simulation

Fig. 2 Experimentally required OSNR after four transmitted spans. The total accumulated dispersion is always the same (630 pdnm).

of the distorting channel is Pd=8 dBm. For the reference channel, we chose a power of only P,f=O dBm thus effectively suppressing the influence of self-phase-modulation and four-wave-mixing. For full inline compensation (Dloop=O pshm for one loop round trip), the required OSNR rapidly increases with the span count, whereas for a inline dispersion of 80 ps/nm the XPM degfadation is fully canceled after 5 spans. These results are reproduced in our simulations, shown by the hollow symbols for Dloop=O pshm and DIoO,=8O pshm inline dispersion. This behavior is further highlighted in the experiments shown in Fig. 2, where we transmit four spans at Pd=6dBm varying the inline dispersion but still maintaining a constant accumulated dispersion. We clearly identify the full compensation as the worst case explained by in-phase accumulation of the XPM distortions for subsequent spans. The best case of 80 pshm span dispersion corresponds to a time delay of 64 ps between the two signals after one round trip. The XPM distortions generated in the different spans partly add destructively which leads to a cancellation of the penalty in good agreement with ref. [7]. In Fig. 3, we check the influence of the total accumulated dispersion on the different inline compensation schemes transmitting four spans (Pd=8 dBm). Compared to the case of full inline compensation, the dispersion tolerance is nearly doubled for the undercompensated scheme. The minimum OSNR is the same for both schemes after four spans. Further investigations show that the minimum OSNR is increasing for a higher span count in the case of full inline compensation, but keeps constant for the undercompensated scheme. In the following we concentrate on the worst case of full inline dispersion compensation. Fig. 4 displays the span count N with an OSNR penalty of 1dB for different channel powers Pd. To decrease the quantization of the data points, non-integer span counts are interpolated from the measured OSNR penalties. The experiments show that the

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Fig. 3 Dispersion tolerance for worst and best case inline compensation for 2-channel experiments.

Fig. 4 Span count N vs. input power Pdfor experiments and simulation. The product N Pdis shown to he a constant.

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Fig. 5 Maximum power Pmax= N Pdvs. total residual dispersionfor experiment and simulation

Fig. 6 Evolution of the required OSNR with span count for center channel in 9-channelexperiment

product of launch power per channel and maximum span count P,=Pd.N is constant. The validity of such a maximum power law has previously been demonstrated for self-phase-modulation [8]. Here, a P , of 10.5 dBm is found for a total accumulated dispersion of 630 pshm. In our experiments with parallel polarization at the loop input we observe a deviation from the maximum power law when transmitting more than six spans (input parallel in Fig. 4). This effect is attributed to the loss of the correlation between the polarizations of the two channels. By scrambling the relative polarization of the channels at the loop input the influence of the correlation loss on the measurements is reduced since the worst case of relative input polarizations is dominating (input scrambled in Fig. 4). Simulation results for the two channel transmission are also depicted in Fig. 4. Consistent to the experiments a maximum power law is found in the calculations. The value of P , is different by 1.8 dB with respect to the experiments which we attribute to the receiver modeling in the simulations. The influence of the residual dispersion on the maximum power P,, is experimentally and numerically analyzed in Fig. 5. Qualitative behavior agree well for simulation and experiment, whereas a quantitative discrepancy is again due to receiver modeling. The optimum dispersion value is slightly shifted from zero dispersion. From simulations neglecting SPM we find that this effect is not due to SPM. Rather, XPM generates the dominating phase distortions not exactly at the fiber input but within one walk-off length in the fiber. We also checked the validity of our results for a higher number of WDM channels by launching nine wavelength channels with parallel polarization and 100 GHz spacing into the loop. Whereas the center channel (reference) is modulated independently b y 4 s own transmitter, the PRBS data for the outer eight channels are generated by a smgle modulator and decorrelated by 5 km of standard fiber. Experimental results for the center channel are shown in Fig. 4, using the same residual dispersion as for the 2-channel results. The maximum power law is confirmed with a P , which is reduced by 5.5 dB. The evolution of the required OSNR for a bit error rate of lo- is similar to the 2-channel case (Fig. 6 ) . Again, appropriate inline compensation suppresses the build-up of the XPM penalty.

3. Summary
We have presented a detailed analysis of the impact of the dispersion map on the limits imposed by XPM on nonzero dispersion shifted fiber. From loop experiments as well as simulations we find a maximu.mpower law for the worst case which is given by 100% inline dispersioncompensation.The systems performance, i.e. the maximum reach and the tolerance to residual dispersion of the whole link, is substantially improved when using a slight undercompensation in each span. This finding also meets the requirements for optimum compensation schemes reducing self-phase modulation [8]. The qualitative behavior has been shown to be independent of the channel count.
4. References
[l] M. Eiselt, M.Shtaif, L.D. Garrett, OFC99, Tech. Dig., paper ThC-5, San Diego, 1999 [2] H.J. Thiele, R.I. Killey, P. Bayvel, ECOC98, Cod. Proc.,Vol. 1, pp. 593-594, Madrid, 1998 Demarest, C.T. Allen, J. Lightw. Tech., vol. 17, no. 6, pp. 1018-1026, 1999 [3] [4]R. Hui, K.R. [4] A. Cartaxo, J. Lightw. Tech., vol. 17, no. 2, pp. 178-190, 1999
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M. Varani,G. Belotti, A. Bononi, C. Francia, LEOS98, Conf. Proc.,paper WBB4, Monterey, 1998 A.J. Lucero, S . Ten, V.L. da Silva, OFC99, Tech. Dig., paper ThC-2, San Diego, 1999 G..Bellotti et al. OFC2000, Postdeadline Paper PD32-1,2000 J.-P. Elbers, A. Fahert, C. Scheerer, C. Gligener, G. Fischer, E E E J. Sel. Top. Quant. Electron, vo1.6, no.2, pp. :276-281, March 2000