Dispersion-shifted fibers for very long links

Transmission of information over very long distances suffer from fiber dispersion and nonlinearities. Dispersion can be avoided by using conventional dispersion-shifted fibers, but with these fibers, nonlinearities still cause much signal degradation. In order to minimize the effects of both dispersion and nonlinearities in long-haul links, new dispersion-shifted fibers are proposed which provide effective areas considerably larger than those in conventional dispersion-shifted fibers. By increasing the effective area, the power density inside the fiber and hence the harmful effects of nonlinearities are reduced. The transmission properties of the proposed fibers, including dispersion characteristics, cutoff wavelength and effective area are investigated.