Amplification of Advanced Modulation Formats with a Semiconductor Optical Amplifier Cascade

The convergence of optical metro networks and access networks extends the area of network coverage, and therefore requires the use of optical amplifiers. Due to cost constraints, semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOA) would be attractive. We show that signals encoded with advanced modulation formats such as BPSK, QPSK, 8PSK, and 16QAM can be am-plified by a cascade of at least four SOAs. This enables high-capacity paths with a capacity in the order of Tbit/s for converged metro-access networks.