Collaborative research: mathematical and computational methods for high-performance lightwave systems

新的传输格式具有大幅增加光纤传输系统的总系统容量的潜力。然而，在高比特率下，非线性和随机的物理效应会限制系统的整体性能。确定性损伤主要是由于非线性和色散的共同作用造成的。随机损伤是由于放大器噪声(引起幅度、定时和相位波动)以及偏振模色散造成的。所有这些影响都会产生损伤，从而导致不可接受的传输误码率。然而，这些系统的规模和复杂性、涉及的各种影响以及这些系统所要求的极低的误码率(这需要研究极其罕见的事件的发生)都使得光纤通信的建模成为一项具有挑战性的任务。最近的工作表明，仔细的数学和计算建模可以非常有效地描述现实光纤传输系统的行为。这项研究项目旨在评估新传输格式的潜力，并评估它们中的每一种如何受到各种传输损伤的影响。预计本项目中将开发的方法将对这些系统的建模和设计方式产生影响。此外，由于新型超短脉冲激光器与色散管理光传输系统有许多相似之处，作为该研究项目的一部分，将开发的数学技术将帮助研究人员了解这些激光器的行为及其基本限制。大容量光纤通信的发展是一项重大技术进步，使互联网和万维网的广泛使用成为我们日常互动的革命性变化。然而，由于视频点播、视频会议和其他需要非常大带宽的新兴应用的推动，对进一步增加总传输容量的需求仍然没有减弱。这个合作研究项目的一个主要特点是结合使用复杂的数学和计算方法来模拟现实中的光波系统的行为，目的是开发有效地研究光纤传输系统的行为和设计下一代系统所需的精确工具。因此，该项目的成果将有助于加强国家基础设施，保持美国在一个事关国家利益的领域的竞争力，从而不仅使研究人员受益，也使整个社区受益。

Novel transmission formats hold the potential for large increases in the total system capacity of optical fiber transmission systems. At high bit-rates, however, nonlinear and stochastic physical effects contribute to limit the overall system performance. The deterministic impairments are mainly due to the combination of nonlinearity and dispersion. The stochastic impairments occur due to amplifier noise (which induces amplitude, timing and phase fluctuations) as well as polarization-mode dispersion. All of these effects produce impairments which lead to unacceptable rates of transmission errors. However, the large scale and complexity of these systems, the variety of effects involved, and the extremely low bit-error-ratios required of these systems (which requires studying the occurrence of extremely rare events) all contribute to make the modeling of optical fiber communications a challenging task. Recent work has demonstrated that careful mathematical and computational modeling can be very effective in describing the behavior of realistic optical fiber transmission systems. This research project aims at evaluating the potential of new transmission formats and assessing how each of them is affected by the various transmission impairments. The methods that will be developed in this project are expected to make an impact on how these systems are modeled and designed. In addition, because new ultra-short pulse lasers share many similarities with dispersion-managed optical transmission systems, the mathematical techniques that will be developed as part of this research project will help researchers understand the behavior of these lasers and their fundamental limits.The development of high-capacity optical fiber communications has been a major technological advance that enabled the widespread use of the internet and the world-wide-web which revolutionized our day-to-day interactions. The demand for further increase in the total transmission capacity remains unabated, however, fueled by emerging applications such as video-on-demand, video-conferencing and others requiring very large bandwidths. A key feature of this collaborative research project is the combined use of sophisticated mathematical and computational methods to model the behavior of realistic lightwave systems, with the aim of developing the accurate tools which are needed to efficiently study the behavior of opticalfiber transmission systems and to design the next generation of systems. As such, the outcome of this project will contribute to strengthening the national infrastructure and maintaining U.S. competitiveness in an area which is of great national interest,thus benefiting not just researchers, but also the community at large.