Abstract

The last few years have seen a veritable explosion of ideas for the better implementation of ultra long distance soliton transmission. Experimental proof is only just now beginning to catch up. For example, by using a recirculating loop, we have recently been able to demonstrate "error-free" (measured bit error rate ≤10^–10) soliton transmission over more than 15,000 km at 5 Gbit/s, single channel, and over more than 12,000 km at 10 Gbit/s in a two-channel WDM (wavelength-division-multiplexing) [1]; see Fig. 1. These results, however auspicious, represent just a beginning. With the implementation of certain ideas, tested so far only in simulation, the bit rate for such error-free, ultra long distance transmission is expected soon to rise to several tens of Gbit/s.

© 1992 Optical Society of America