Consistent with the present disclosure, an optical communication system is provided in which client data is input to a first node and output from a second node, spaced from the first node, with little delay. In one example, the delay is reduced by including higher order Raman amplifiers that provide a substantially uniform gain along the length of a fiber optic link, thereby reducing the number of EDFAs that may otherwise be installed along the optical fiber link or eliminating such EDFAs entirely. In another example, FEC encoding and decoding are not employed, thereby reducing the delay even further.