Dispersion slope effects of the compensation dispersion fiber for broadband dispersion compensation in the presence of self-phase modulation

We use numerical simulations based on the split-step method to study the co mpensation of the chromatic dispersion in a point-to point link consisting of a Standard fiber followed by a dispersion compensation fiber in a post-c ompensation scheme. Two types of compensation fibers, with positive and neg ative dispersion slope, are considered, and we analyze the propagation of a pulse using three channels located at 1535, 1550 and 1560 nm. Our analysis is done for a wide range of the input peak power (0.6 mW less than or equa l to P-0 less than or equal to 80 mW), and includes effects due to loss, fi rst and second chromatic dispersion, and self-phase modulation (SPM). Effec ts due to the interaction among the channels are not included in this work. The performance using each of the two compensation fibers studied here are compared. Our results show that the choice of the compensation fiber (i.e. , its dispersion slope) to be used in a certain DWDM system has to take int o account the total width of the wavelength band of operation and the input peak power. Our results suggest that compensation fibers with negative dis persion slope lead to good performance in a wide wavelength band. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.