New Bounds on the Capacity of Fiber-Optics Communications

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that by exploiting temporal correlations in nonlinear phase noise, the capacity of fiber-optic communication links can be significantly increased, effectively doubling the maximum transmission distance at a fixed rate.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach to leverage temporal correlations in nonlinear phase noise to enhance fiber-optic link capacity.

Findings

Capacity is higher than previously assumed due to temporal correlations.

Link distance can be doubled at the same transmission rate.

Nonlinear phase noise can be mitigated by exploiting its temporal structure.

Abstract

By taking advantage of the temporal correlations of the nonlinear phase noise in WDM systems we show that the capacity of a nonlinear fiber link is notably higher than what is currently assumed. This advantage is translated into the doubling of the link distance for a fixed transmission rate.