We investigate the linear and nonlinear transmission performance of a multi-band system employing commercially available rare-earth doped fiber optical amplifiers. First, the available spectrum is partitioned into amplification zones with an ideal, flat gain, spectrum that is attainable with existing rare-earth amplifier technology. A universal multi-band physical layer model is then exploited that allows to quantify the impact of amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) noise and four wave mixing (FWM) crosstalk on signal quality. Finally, the maximum transparent length, under these physical layer constraints is estimated for each transmission band.
