Impact of Linear Transmission Impairments on a Metropolitan Optical Network Scale

"Possible Metropolitan Area Networks (MAN) length scales and node spacing are analyzed considering standard single mode fiber linear impairments. This is accomplished by the evaluation of loss budget, dispersion and amplifier noise induced penalties through simple analytical expressions. Dispersion-induced penalties are the main limitations to the network scalability. Strategies for planning the scale of cost effective MANs, in terms of transparency length and number of nodes, are presented."