Power-spectrum-based model for the propagation of spectrally broad optical signals in dispersive fibres

A simple formulation of broadband optical signal propagation in dispersive fibres has been developed by expressing the evolution of power, not electric field. This leads to a model with a simple and intuitive integral for convenient evaluation of dispersive transmission impairments in transmission systems with broadband optical sources. The authors present the first calculation of dispersion penalty for propagation of video signals created by an LED with QPSK modulated RF subcarriers, and compare it to experimental data.