Abstract

By inserting narrow-band filters periodically (typically, one per amplifier) along a fiber transmission line, and by gradually translating (sliding) the filter frequencies with distance, one creates a line that is transparent to solitons but opaque to noise. That is, the solitons, as nonlinear pulses, are able to generate the frequencies required for traversing the sliding-frequency filters, while the (essentially linear) noise cannot do so. The very strong filters this technique allows greatly reduce both timing (Gordon-Haus) and amplitude jitter. This has made it possible to demonstrate error-free transmission over many tens of Megameters (nearly the circumference of the earth) at single channel rates of 10, 12.5, and 15 Gbit/s.

© 1994 Optical Society of America