Abstract

In recent years, much attention has been given to wavelength-division multiplexed (WDM) systems due to their ability to maximize lightwave communications. In practice, the combined effects of linear dispersion and nonlinear self-phase modulation impose severe limitations on the long-haul performance of non-return-to-zero (NRZ) systems. Thus, the lack of scalability of the NRZ system to global, long-distance communications has given soliton based systems a distinct advantage. However, by making use of dispersion-management techniques,^1,2 i.e., changing the sign of the dispersion periodically as a pulse propagates, the dispersion penalty has recently been shown to be substantially reduced and performance greatly enhanced.^1,2 Unfortunately, very little is. known analytically concerning the dynamics of propagating pulses under this dispersion-management scheme. The aim of this presentation is to provide an analytic description of the nonlinear pulse evolution in a NRZ communications system under the above mentioned dispersion-management scheme.

© 1996 Optical Society of America