title: Generation and long-haul transmission of polarization-switched QPSK at 42.9 Gb/s.
abstract: We demonstrate, for the first time, the generation and transmission of polarization-switched QPSK (PS-QPSK) signals at 42.9 Gb/s. Long-haul transmission of PS-QPSK is experimentally investigated in a recirculating loop and compared with transmission of dual-polarization QPSK (DP-QPSK) at 42.9 Gb/s per channel. A reduction in the required OSNR of 0.7 dB was found at a BER of 3.8 x 10(-3), resulting in an increase in maximum reach of more than 30% for a WDM system operating on a 50 GHz frequency grid. The maximum reach of 13640 km for WDM PS-QPSK is, to the best of our knowledge, the longest distance reported for 40 Gb/s WDM transmission, over an uncompensated link, with standard fiber and amplification.
authors.affiliation: Optical Networks Group, Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, University College London (UCL), Torrington Place, London WC1E 7JE, United Kingdom. d.millar@ee.ucl.ac.uk
authors.forename: David S
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Millar
authors.forename: Domaniç
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Lavery
authors.forename: Sergejs
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Makovejs
authors.forename: Carsten
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Behrens
authors.forename: Benn C
authors.initials: BC
authors.lastname: Thomsen
authors.forename: Polina
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Bayvel
authors.forename: Seb J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Savory