An analysis of the improvements in OSNR from distributed Raman amplifiers using modern transmission fibres

Abstract

We present measurements of the Raman efficiency spectra for recent transmission fibres and model the improvement in DWDM system performance using distributed Raman amplification. For 5 spans of 25 dB fibre loss and 1 dB of connector loss, we predict 4.5-6.5 dB improvement in optical signal to noise ratio (OSNR) when using a 500 mW pump, a variation of up to 2 dB depending on fibre type.