High Data-Rate and Long Distance MCF Transmission With 19-Core C+L band Cladding-Pumped EDFA

We describe a series of optical transmission experiments based around single-mode, multi-core fiber (MCF) amplified with 19-core, C+L band erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA). The cladding-pumped amplifier uses two multi-mode pumps in each of C and L band to provide gain bandwidth over more than 75 nm. For recirculating transmission of PDM-16QAM signals on 345 wavelength carriers between 1530.52 nm and 1605.52 nm, we measure 0.715 Pb/s transmission over a distance of 2009 km (64 recirculations), equivalent to a throughput-distance product of 1.44 exabit/s x km. Next, using PDM-QPSK modulation, we investigate trans-oceanic transmission distances, measuring throughputs of 18.6 Tb/s and 14.5 Tb/s in 2 cores after 255 recirculations, a distance of 8007 km. Further, we evaluate the combined EDFA and fiber crosstalk penalties showing a core and wavelength dependence in agreement with previous MCF crosstalk measurements. These results demonstrate the potential of high core-count EDFAs to combine both high capacity transmission over transoceanic distances with benefits of SDM integration.