Demonstration of soliton transmission at 20 Gbit/s over 2200 km of standard fibre with dispersion compensation and pre-chirping

20 Gbit/s soliton transmission over standard non-dispersion-shifted fibre with 50 km dispersion-compensated spans and initial pre-chirping has been achieved. Error-free transmission (BER<10/sup 10/) was performed over 2200 km. At 1700 km, operating ranges of 4.5 dB for in-line power variations and 2.7 nm for wavelength location have been measured.