Long distance soliton lightwave communication system

Long distance soliton lightwave communication systems are considered for next generation application in terrestrial and transoceanic environments. These systems employ a chain of lumped fiber amplifiers interconnected by long spans of dispersion shifted optical fiber. In such systems, resultant pulse distortion and dispersive wave radiation are minimized when the soliton period is long relative to the perturbation length which is the longer of either the amplification period defined in terms of the length of the optical fiber span between consecutive amplifiers or the dispersion period defined in terms of the length over which the dispersion exhibits a periodic characteristic. Additional system parameters for optimized soliton transmission include the relationships of both the path-average soliton power to the normal soliton power and the path-average dispersion from one optical fiber span to the next. Single channel and wavelength division multiplexed systems are disclosed.