A long-distance DWDM lightwave transmission system operating in the 2000 nm wavelength region is proposed that is based on the utilization of hollow core fiber configured to exhibit low loss (e.g., on the order of 0.02 dB/km) in combination with a hybrid TDFA/HDFA repeater device. Multiple concatenated spans of the combination of the hollow core fiber and hybrid TDFA/HDFA repeater device are able to provide communication over path lengths in excess of 10,000 km without the need for electronic regeneration of the propagating signals. In one case, the hollow core fiber is configured as a double-nested anti-resonant nodeless fiber (DNANF) with the number of nested structures and their various parameters optimized to provide the low loss operation in the 2000 nm region.

A photonic circuit and/or chip is provided that is configured for selective use in a bi-directional link or a co-directional link. The photonic circuit and/or chip includes a coupling waveguide; receiver filters that are each a tunable bandpass filter; and two or more wavelength branches. Each wavelength branch corresponds to a respective wavelength and includes a receiver arm comprising a signal detection component and a transmitter arm comprising a signal generator configured to provide a transmission signal to the coupling waveguide. The receiver arm is in optical communication with the coupling waveguide via a receiver filter. When the receiver filter is tuned to pass the respective wavelength, the wavelength branch corresponding to the respective wavelength is configured to act as a receiver. When the receiver filter is tuned to not pass the respective wavelength, the wavelength branch corresponding to the respective wavelength is configured to not act as a receiver.

An optical transmission and reception carrier includes an optical fiber, an invisible light transmitter, an invisible light receiver, a visible light transmitter and a fiber optic connector. The invisible light transmitter is configured to emit a first invisible light toward the fiber optic connector and includes a first connection element. The invisible light receiver is configured to receive a second invisible light from the fiber optic connector and includes a second connection element. The visible light transmitter is configured to emit a visible light toward the fiber optic connector. One of the first connection element and the second connection element is a flexible flat cable.