MULTICHANNEL SOLITON COLLISIONS IN STRONGLY DISPERSION MANAGED WDM TRANSMISSION SYSTEMS

Abstract

We study the collision-induced timing jitter of optical solitons in dispersion managed wavelength-division multiplexed communication systems. The work presented here is an extension of previous analyzes of two-pulse interactions to the multiple channel case. The numerical study is based on a system of ordinary differential equations obtained using a variational approach that models the evolution of the main parameters of the propagating pulses. We explain the mechanism associated with inter-channel interactions and study the evolution of multiplexed soliton trains and the resulting frequency shift induced jitter as the map strength is varied. The results obtained indicate a strong dependence of the frequency shifts on the position of the channel within the multiplex and the existence of patterns for the frequency shifts that depend on the parity of the number of channels.