This is a proposal to design and build a multi-channel all-optical regenerator with a 2R (reampli?cation and reshaping) capability. The proposed regenerator is a novel device that has the potential to extend the reach and reduce the cost of fiber based optical transmission systems. The proposal covers both the mathematical design, optimization, simulation and the initial experimental testing of the planned system. Mathematically, the proposed device requires a complex study of the evolution of an intense pulse in a ?ber with periodic dispersion compensation. This problem is different from that of pulse propagation in dispersion-managed transmission systems, because in the latter case, the propagation is only weakly nonlinear. We expect that the outcome of the mathematical part of this project will be a theory that will describe both the pulse propagation under the conditions described above and the effect of perturbations on this propagation. No such a theory exists at the present time.
The proposed regenerator can potentially be used for any number of channels and does not require their temporal synchronization or any polarization control. The co-PIs have recently numerically demonstrated the feasibility of such a 2R regenerator, which, to the best of their knowledge, was the first demonstration of multi-channel all-optical regeneration under the above conditions.
