Interaction effects on wavelength-multiplexed soliton data packets

Optical soliton interactions cause spectral intensity distortions that may cause performance degradations in wavelength-multiplexed soliton data packet communications systems. We investigate these interactions both numerically and analytically and propose three distinct techniques for determining transmitted data from the spectral intensity functions of received multisoliton ensembles using fast and simple detection components. We also deduce that the spectral effect of collisions between even many solitons can be negligible provided the spacing between their undistorted carrier wavelengths is greater than five times their spectral width.