Optimal amplifier location in strong dispersion-managed soliton systems

Summary form only given. Dispersion management has been shown to improve system performance by allowing for use of high powers and low average dispersions, thus improving the signal-to-noise ratio and decreasing the Gordon-Haus jitter. Recently it has also been shown that dispersion-management is practical in wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) systems since it reduces the residual frequency shift due to interchannel collisions. While the interaction between pulses in different wavelength channels is significantly decreased with increasing map strength, the reverse is true for the interaction between pulses in the same wavelength channel. In this paper we show that collapse distance is highly dependent on amplifier location and determine the amplifier position which gives the longest transmission distance for three different map configurations: (i) equal lengths, (ii) 9:1 ratio, (iii) 1:9 ratio of anomalous-to normal-dispersion fiber.