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Capacity Limits of Information Transport in Fiber-Optic Networks

17 October 2008

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The instantaneous optical Kerr effect in optical fibers is a nonlinear phenomenon that imposes limits on the ability of fiber-optic communication systems to transport information. We present here a conservative estimate of the "fiber channel" capacity in an optically-routed network. We show that the fiber capacity per unit bandwidth for a given distance significantly exceeds current record experimental demonstrations.