16/spl times/40 gb/s over 800 km of SSMF using mid-link spectral inversion

We demonstrate the feasibility of a cost-effective 640 Gb/s (16/spl times/40 Gb/s) wavelength-division-multiplexed (WDM) transmission system over 800 km of conventional standard single-mode fiber (SSMF) without using in-line dispersion management. Instead for chromatic-dispersion compensation, a Magnesium-oxide-doped periodically poled lithium niobate (MgO : PPLN)-based polarization-diverse subsystem is used to phase conjugate all 16 channels. The transmission line uses all erbium-doped fiber amplifiers and has an amplifier spacing of 100 km. All channels launched were copolarized. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first WDM transmission experiment with a channel data rate of 40 Gb/s using a PPLN as chromatic-dispersion compensator.