Beyond Conventional Kerr-Nonlinearity Limit with Nonlinear Frequency Division Multiplexing

Conventional linear transmission techniques are not fully compatible with a nonlinear transmission medium such as optical fibre with the Kerr-nonlinearity effect. As a consequence, the Kerr nonlinearity imposes a limit on the achievable transmission performance of optical fibre communication systems. In this paper, we show that by encoding and multiplexing signals in the space of the so-called nonlinear spectrum, performance beyond the conventional Kerr-nonlinearity limit can be achieved. This is due to the fact that nonlinear spectrum components propagate linearly without nonlinear cross-talk along the fibre channel. The obtained results represent a significant advance in the research area of nonlinear frequency division multiplexing transmission, an emerging transmission technology to combat the fibre nonlinearity impairments