Fiber Bragg Grating Dispersion Compensation Enables Cost-Efficient Submarine Optical Transport

By Fredrik Sjostrom, Proximion Fiber Systems

Undersea optical transport is an important part of the infrastructure making up the world-spanning digital transport network. Due to extreme link length and stringent reliability requirements, this important part of the optical backbone poses quite a challenge compared to the more conventional terrestrial systems hence specific technical solutions are required.

Almost every submarine network system needs to be tailor made in order to maximize link performance while minimizing cost. Achieving cost effectiveness without jeopardizing the reliability of these long term investments in infrastructure poses a real challenge for system designers.

This article discusses how the unique properties and design possibilities relating to Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG)-based dispersion compensation technology can facilitate desirable cost savings by supporting new terminal designs and link optimized compensations.