Design Requirements for the Current Generation of Undersea Cable Systems

Abstract

This article describes the design requirements of AT&T's third generation of optical submarine cable systems. Technology advances that have been incorporated in the design include erbium-doped fiber amplifiers, lithium niobate modulators, low-loss and low-polarization mode dispersion-shifted fiber, synchronous digital hierarchy terminals, and forward error correction. This paper discusses: — Optical submarine cable systems, — Customer requirements, — New technologies used in system design, — System building blocks, — System performance, and — System and component design rules to meet customer requirements.