Abstract

This tutorial describes ultralong distance transmission of solitons through a chain of erbium amplifiers and dispersion shifted fiber segments. In particular, it is shown how solitons are robust against reasonable fiber and other system defects, and how the transmission capacity is limited only by the effects of amplified spontaneous emission noise. Experimental verification, including measurement or error rates to less than 10^-9 at multi-Gbit/s rates over distances of 9000 km or greater, is described. It is also shown how single channel rates of 2.5 or 5 Gbit/s can be multiplied at least several times by wavelength division multiplexing (WDM), or by a combination of WDM and polarization division multiplexing.

© 1991 Optical Society of America