We showed that long-distance transmission is affected by the source pulse t
ails, Fast tail dropoff dramatically improves the transmission. We found th
at the tails must be at least 20 dB down 50 ps from the peak in order to su
ccessfully transmit signals over 20 000 km at 20 Gbit/s with anomalous path
average dispersion. While tails that are 15 dB down 50 ps from the peak ar
e sufficient to transmit data at 10 Gbit/s over 20 000 km with anomalous pa
th average dispersion, the tails must be down at least 25 dB 50 ps from the
peak to transmit data with slightly normal path average dispersion.