IP/optical networks: the impact of optical transparency

The state-of-the art of transparent optical telecommunication technology is reviewed and possible directions of the future developments are outlined. The fundamentals and results of numerical investigation of the influence of the nonlinear optical phenomena on transmission quality and nonlinear products accumulation in multispan dense wavelength division multiplexed (D-WDM) optical fiber telecommunication systems are reported. Four-wave mixing (FWM), self-phase modulation (SPM), cross-phase modulation (XPM), and stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) phenomena are taken into account. Various types of optical fibers as well as different channel number and channel spacing are taken into account in the analysis.