NRZ-PM-QPSK 16 x 100 Gb/s transmission over installed fiber with different dispersion maps

We present a set of experiments of 16 x 100 Gb/s (1.6 Tb/s) coherent wavelength-division-multiplexing nonreturn-to-zero polarization-multiplexed quadrature phase-shift-keying transmission over installed standard single-mode fiber, probing different dispersion maps and precompensation. We tested the maximum tolerable span loss over 16 spans versus transmitted power. We also assessed the maximum reach. The results clearly show that avoiding in-line dispersion-compensating units grants a substantial performance advantage over optically compensated links, for a wide range of possible scenarios.