Abstract

Soon after the first experimental demonstration of soliton transmission in optical fibers,¹ it was predicted theoretically^2,3 that solitons can be transmitted over intercontinental distances in fiber where loss is periodically compensated by Raman gain. The predicted rate-length product for such transmission is of the order of 30,000 GHz km for a single channel and many times that figure with wavelength multiplexing.² Recently, we set up a laboratory demonstration of such long-distance repeaterless transmission. In the first round of experiments, we have already achieved distortionless soliton transmission over distances in excess of 1000 km, and we expect to increase that distance by at least several times In the near future.

© 1988 Optical Society of America