Evaluation of 4-Gbit/s optical fiber transmission distance with direct and external modulation

Abstract

Transmission characteristics for a recently modulated measured distributed-feedbacked (DFB) laser and an externally modulated DFB laser using a Ti:LiNbO/sub 3/, Mach-Zehnder modulator at 4 Gb/s are discussed. The transmission characteristics are estimated by an advanced eye-pattern analysis method. The maximum measured fiber dispersion with a directly modulated laser is 100 to 140 ps/nm when the chirp power penalty is 1 dB. However, for external modulation, there is no power penalty after transmission over a 2220-ps/nm dispersive fiber. This confirms that external modulation has superior transmission characteristics. The modulation scheme for 4-Gb/s systems in terms of these results is discussed.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>