Calculation of dispersion and nonlinear effect limited maximum TDM and FDM bit rates of transform-limited pulses in single-mode optical fibers

The dispersion-limited maximum time-division-multiplexed (TDM) bit rates and the optical nonlinear-effect-limited maximum frequency-division multiplexed (FDM) channel numbers in single-mode optical fibers have been calculated for transform-limited optical pulses. The total bit rate attainable with combinations of TDM and FDM on Gaussian-type transform-limited pulses is about 7 Tbt/s in the typical 15 THz wide low-loss region of single-mode fibers at each of 1.3 and 1.5 μm wavelength bands. The maximum total bit rate attainable with dispersion-shifted (DS) fibers in the Er-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA´s) gain region of 1525-1565 nm is calculated to be about 2.3 Tbt/s, but reduces to 1.2 to 1.8 Tbt/s depending on fiber length for cases of a uniform TDM bit rate over the entire FDM channels. For DS fibers the four-wave mixing effect is a dominant effect limiting the channel power and the maximum FDM channel number, but for normal single-mode fibers the chromatic dispersion effect and cross-phase modulation (CPM) and stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) effects are dominant effects limiting the TDM bit rate and channel power, respectively