10-Gb/s transmission using 1.3-μm low-chirp high-power directly modulated, packaged DFB laser module for short distance (<50 km) applications

We have demonstrated 10-Gb/s transmission over 51 km of standard single-mode fiber (SMF) using a 1.3-μm low chirp high-power directly modulated, packaged DFB laser module. With +7-dBm average laser module power and -16-dBm PIN receiver sensitivity, the power budget is 23 dB, which allows transmission over 50 km of standard SMF without optical amplifiers. In addition, we have investigated the impact of fiber chromatic dispersion on systems performance at 10 Gb/s over a wide range of dispersion. For the dispersion range of -600 to 0 ps/nm, negative power penalties have been observed due to the pulse compression effect which is resulted from a low chirp of the laser. For use of this effect, the distributed-feedback (DFB) laser wavelength needs to be properly selected and its range is found to be as wide as 80 nm for transmission over 50 km of embedded standard SMF cables.