Long-distance soliton propagation using lumped amplifiers and dispersion shifted fiber

It is shown both analytically and by numerical simulation, that solitons can traverse great distances through a chain of lumped amplifiers connecting dispersion shifted fiber spans. The fiber spans can also have large fractional variations in D. The resultant pulse distortions and dispersive wave radiation tend to be negligible, as long as the length scale of the variations in energy and dispersion are short relative to the soliton period