Curtis: Sort of new terminology to me too...
I've been in the industry for many years, and only "found" the term in market research reports...so don't feel bad...anyway, it means a loop of fiber run from a point on the coast of a lake or river or ocean to another point similarly located...with enough loops, you could go around Africa for example...i.e. "festoon" the continent...we used to call it coastal looping, or water routing, etc...
In that application, Raman has the advantage that the pump can sit on dry land, and deliver its power (from each end of the loop) into the fiber underwater. That should allow it to compete in terms of cost with EDFAs underwater. It is expensive to deploy a series of EDFAs that have to survive for many years in sea water. Expensive to deploy and service. In theory, the Raman pump can sit on the shore and be repaired...but it is more expensive than common EDFA pumps, due to its high power. And, in order to get optical bandwidth, you need to multiplex a series of pump wavelengths. That was the reason SDL came out with their Raman pump product last year...that specific market...
As far as terrestrial is concerned, it is going to be very hard to beat the combination of EDFA and Raman working in tandem, at least that's MHO... |
