Optical fiber communications system using index-guiding microstructured optical fibers

A communications system, comprising:

• a source transmitter for generating an optical signal at a source location;
• a destination receiver for receiving said optical signal at a destination location;
• and
• a plurality of regeneration spans sequentially coupled between said source transmitter and said destination receiver, each regeneration span comprising:
• a regenerator for receiving, regenerating, and retransmitting said optical signal at an intermediate location between said source transmitter and said destination transmitter;
• and
• a fiber optic span coupled between said regenerator and a regenerator associated with an adjacent regeneration span;
• wherein said fiber optic span comprises an optical fiber having a core region in which a majority of the cross-sectional area is occupied by voids.

An optical communications link, comprising:

• an optical transmitter for transmitting an optical signal having a center wavelength between about 1450 nm and 1600 nm, said optical signal being modulated at 10 Gbps or greater;
• an optical receiver for receiving said optical signal;
• and
• an optical fiber between said optical transmitter and said optical receiver, said optical fiber having an attenuation of less than 0.04 dB/km and a dispersion magnitude of less than 2 ps/(nm-km) between 1450 nm and 1600 nm;
• whereby said optical transmitter and said optical receiver may have a separation of up to 500 km without requiring optical amplifiers or dispersion-compensating fibers therebetween.

An optical communications link, comprising:

• an optical transmitter for transmitting an optical signal having a center wavelength between about 1450 nm and 1600 nm, said optical signal being modulated at 40 Gbps or greater;
• an optical receiver for receiving said optical signal;
• an optical fiber between said optical transmitter and said optical receiver, said optical fiber having an attenuation of less than 0.04 dB/km and a dispersion magnitude of less than 2 ps/(nm-km) between 1450 nm and 1600 nm;
• and
• at least one dispersion-compensating fiber interposed between said optical transmitter and said optical receiver;
• whereby said optical transmitter and said optical receiver may have a separation of up to 300 km without requiring optical amplifiers therebetween.