The many benefits of nonlinearity for the all-optical, terabit, long-distance network

The terrestrial network in the US is rapidly evolving to terabit-level, dense WDM that remains all-optical (without electronic regeneration) over many thousands of kilometers at a stretch. The stringent demands of such service can be met only by taking full advantage the many benefits that can derive from fiber nonlinearity. I show how the combination of dispersion-managed solitons, Raman gain, and optical regeneration provides the best way to construct a network that is robust and of the highest performance, even though it may extend in all-optical form across the entire North American continent.