Undersea soliton transmission systems : key issues and challenges

While soliton systems exhibit clear advantages over conventional NRZ systems, rapid progress towards reaching 100 Gbit/s WDM aggregate capacity (and possibly beyond) is required in order to offer competitive alternatives in the transoceanic communications market. Transoceanic soliton system prototypes worth being investigated should not only offer larger amplifier spacings and a minimum number of active control components for cost-effectiveness (including R and D costs), but also greater Q-factor margins to take into account component imperfections, failures and system aging processes. Last but not least, supervisory techniques are yet to be defined for such advanced soliton systems