Communication over fiber-optic channels using the nonlinear Fourier transform

Motivated by the looming “capacity crunch” in current fiber-optic systems, we recently suggested using the nonlinear Fourier transform (NFT) to transmit information over integrable communication channels such as the optical fiber channel, which is governed by the generalized nonlinear Schrödinger equation. In this transmission scheme information is encoded in the nonlinear Fourier transform of the signal, consisting of two components: a discrete and a continuous spectral function. In this paper, we restrict to discrete spectrum modulation and provide some simple examples of achievable spectral efficiencies. With this new method, deterministic distortions arising from the dispersion and nonlinearity, such as inter-symbol and interchannel interference are zero for a single user channel or all users of a multiple user network.