Key technologies for terabit/second WDM systems with high spectral efficiency of over 1 bit/s/Hz

To fully utilize a limited gain bandwidth of about 35 nm (4.4 THz) in an erbium-doped fiber amplifier, an increase in signal spectral efficiency is required. In this paper, we investigate the key technologies to achieve terabit/second wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) systems with over 1 bit/s/Hz spectral efficiency. Optical duobinary signals, which have narrower optical spectra than conventional intensity modulation signals, were applied to such dense WDM systems. The measured minimum channel spacing for 20-Gbit/s optical duobinary signals was 32 GHz and a spectral efficiency of over 0.6 bit/s/Hz was reached. By using polarization interleave multiplexing, spectral efficiency was expected to reach 1.2 bit/s/Hz in an ideal case with no polarization dependencies along the transmission lines. In such ultradense WDM systems with narrower channel spacing, stabilizing the wavelengths of laser diodes is an important issue for achieving stable operation over long periods. To do this, we developed a simple and flexible wavelength stabilization system which uses a multiwavelength meter. The wavelengths for 116 channels with 35-GHz spacing were stabilized within /spl plusmn/150 MHz. The stabilization system is applicable to ultradense WDM signals with a spectral efficiency of over 1 bit/s/Hz by employing wavelength interleave multiplexing and an optical selector switch. On the basis of these investigations, we demonstrated a 2.6-Tbit/s (20 Gbit/s/spl times/132 channels) WDM transmission by using optical duobinary signals. In addition, 1.28-Tbit/s (20 Gbit/s/spl times/64 channels) WDM transmission with a high spectral efficiency of 1 bit/s/Hz was achieved by using polarization interleave multiplexing.