This article investigates novel exact solutions of the Sasa-Satsuma equation for describing the nonlinear characteristics of pulse transmission in optical fiber communication. Various new exact solutions of the Sasa-Satsuma equation were derived employing both the ( G ′ G ′ + G + A ) expansion method and the Bernoulli ( G ′ G ) expansion method. To provide a more intuitive depiction of the optical solitons’ behaviour during transmission, we generated two-dimensional graphs, three-dimensional graphs, and contour maps corresponding to the solutions. These images enable us to showcase the dynamic behaviour of this theoretical model and delve into the specific influence of the self-steepening effect on the transmission characteristics of optical solitons described by the new exact solutions to the Sasa-Satsuma equation.