Synchronous WDM soliton regeneration: Toward 80-160 Gbit/s transoceanic systems

The technique of synchronous regeneration of wavelength-division multiplexed (WDM) soliton signals opens up the perspective of transoceanic systems having 10-20 Gbit/s line rates and 80-160 Gbit/s aggregate capacities. The principles of WDM signal synchronization, presented in a previous work, are recalled and generalized to systems with dispersion slope compensation. Quantization and analysis of the WDM collisions are detailed for systems either with or without dispersion slope compensation (DSC). The potentials of the synchronous WDM soliton regeneration associated with exponential dispersion management are investigated in both cases through extensive numerical simulations of realistic transoceanic systems with up to 160 Gbit/s capacity. Moreover, such regenerated WDM soliton systems are proven to be robust to fluctuations of some system key parameters. The overall study represents a first assessment of the ultimate capacities of regenerated soliton transmission. (C) 1997 Academic Press.