Patent ID: 7110680

Claim:
An optical communication system, comprising: a plurality of nodes coupled by an optical fiber; the optical fiber comprising a gain medium and operable to transmit optical data signals in a plurality of channels; an optical pump coupled to the optical fiber, operable to generate and transmit an optical pump signal co-propagating with the data signals; and wherein the operating parameters of the optical communication system are determined to ensure that |Δβ|L eff >N w T B , wherein: Δβ is a differential group delay and is calculated as Δβ=∫ λs λp D(λ) dλ, wherein D(λ) is a chromatic dispersion of the gain medium, λ s is a wavelength of the data signal, and λ p is a wavelength of the pump signal; L eff is calculated as (1−e −αL )/α, wherein α is a loss coefficient of the gain medium and L is a length of the gain medium; N W is a forward pumping bit walk-off; and T B is a symbol period of the data signal.