Chapter 4 – Soliton Interactions

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the theory of soliton collisions in different width-division multiplexing (WDM) channels, that is, of solitons of different frequencies. In WDM, solitons of different channels gradually overtake and pass through each other. Because the solitons interact with each other, the time of overlap is known as a collision. The interaction stems from the nonlinear term in the nonlinear Schrodinger NLS equation. The chapter also discusses soliton collisions in lossless and constant-dispersion fiber. It applies results of the inverse scattering transform (1ST) to the interaction of small linear noise fields with solitons, and to the interaction of solitons in the same channel, that is, with the same central frequency, that get close together in time. For the highest possible bit rates, the solitons in each channel must be as close together in time as possible, and the channels as close together in frequency as possible.