Dispersion-managed soliton interactions in the presence of third-order dispersion

We present an analysis of the interaction behaviour of dispersion-managed solitons under third-order dispersion effects using a novel variational model and the numerical solution of a generalised nonlinear Schrodinger equation. The results presented reveal that third-order dispersion can substantially reduce the interaction distance and, thus, is potentially a major impairment for dispersion-managed soliton transmission systems.