Patent ID: 7454144

Claim:
A process for optically transporting digital data over an all-optical long-haul communication path, comprising: transporting digital optical data signals at a selected bit rate and a selected wavelength over a sequence of transmission spans including 70 percent or more of the spans of the long-haul all-optical communication path, each span being configured to have one or more local maximum optical power points at the selected wavelength on a transmission fiber thereof, the transporting causing a cumulative dispersion of each transported optical signal to evolve such that residual dispersions per span over some ones of the spans are positive and such that residual dispersions per span over other ones of the spans are negative; wherein for each span, a primary local maximum power point at the selected wavelength is the one of the local maximum power points nearest to a signal input in the associated one of the fibers; and wherein at the primary local maximum power point of each span of the sequence, magnitudes of cumulative dispersions of the digital optical data signals in pico seconds per nanometer are less than 32,000 times the inverse of the bit rate in giga bits per second.