Abstract

Recently, soliton-transmission technology has matured considerably through the use of erbium-doped-fiber amplifiers (EDFA’s).^1-4 These amplifiers have been used to develop a new soliton communication method (dynamic soliton, guiding-center soliton, or average soliton) for sending solitons over long distances by using lumped optical amplifiers. The lumped-amplifier technique using EDFA’s made it possible to move the dream of soliton communication into the developmental stage. This technique has a wide range of applicability from L_a (amplifier spacing) ≪ Z_sp (soliton period) to L_a ~ Z_sp, depending on the maximum required transmission distance.

© 1993 Optical Society of America