Performance evaluation of path-averaged soliton pulses in loss-managed 10-Gbps soliton transmission link over a long haul

Abstract

In this paper, the performance evaluation of path-averaged soliton transmission link for various performance measures viz. OSNR, optical power, extinction ratio, bit error rate (BER) and Q factor at different levels of noise figure and values of pulse width (FWHM) has been carried out. The performance of soliton transmission link is studied, taking into account soliton interaction, amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) noise and noise figure. The model presented considers interaction in a random sequence of solitons and the effect of the ASE noise added in each amplification stage. The influence of ASE noise, noise figure and pulse width with different amplifier spacing on the BER and quality factor has been investigated. It has been shown that these play dominant roles in degrading the performance measures. We have demonstrated the capability of path-averaged (guiding-centre) soliton for a long-haul distance of 17,000 km at a bit rate of 10 Gbps without ASE effect and noise figure in each amplifier span length of 500 km. The average value of quality factor is found to be 16.6 dB and the average BER is of the order of 10 −12 over the transmission distance of 17,000 km. Further, it has been investigated that a severe system penalty results on the inclusion of ASE effect and noise figure in order to achieve the same level of performance. Thus, the investigations ascertain that in order to maintain the same level of BER and Q factor, the amplifier spacing and total transmission distance reduce considerably.