The Capacity of Fiber Optic Communication Systems
01 January 2008
We calculate the capacity of fiber-optic communication systems limited in transmission by the instantaneous Kerr nonlinearity in fibers. All elementary nonlinear propagation effects present during transmission are captured. The analysis reveals that a capacity of ~5 bits/s/Hz in a single polarisation for transmission over 2000 km is possible using amplitute and phase-shift keyed modulation formats.