Maximizing the Capacity of Installed Optical Fiber Infrastructure via Wideband Transmission

Optical wideband communication systems aim at transmitting over several, if not all, of the low-loss windows of single-mode fibre, i.e. the O-, E-, S-, C-, and L-band. Recently, there has been a clear trend in the industry to support additional bands beyond C-band. While C+L-band solutions are close to commercialization and first products are emerging, the research focus is shifting to supporting also the S-band and, finally, the whole O- to L-band (resulting in a total transmission bandwidth of 365 nm). This contribution highlights the perspectives of wideband communication systems for optical networks, providing a realistic roadmap for their deployment. Particular emphasis is paid on a first analysis to estimate the maximum transmittable capacity over these systems.