Abstract

Random axial fluctuations in the dispersive properties of an optical fiber may severely degrade the maximum bit rate in conventional linear long-distance communication systems. On the other hand, soliton-based transmissions appear to be virtually unaffected by random fiber perturbations, whenever the correlation length of the fiber irregularities is much shorter than the soliton period, say z₀. In fact, in the case of solitoli transmission at 2.5 Gbit/sec with dispersion- shifted fibers, z₀ may be as long as 1000 km. The unique stability of optical solitons with respect to relatively large random fluctuationso to chromatic dispersion¹ or polarization group delay^2,3 have been demonstrated.

© 1992 Optical Society of America