Calculation of Achievable Information Rates of Long-Haul Optical Transmission Systems Using Instanton Approach

A method for estimation of achievable information rates of high-speed optical transmission systems is proposed. This method consists of two steps: 1) approximating probability density functions for energy of pulses, which is done by the instanton approach, and 2) estimating achievable information rates by applying a method originally proposed by Arnold and Pfitser. Numerical results for a specific optical transmission system (submarine system at transmission rate 40 Gb/s) are reported.