5 Gbit/s soliton propagation over 350 km with large periodic dispersion coefficient perturbations using erbium doped fibre amplifier repeaters

Propagation of 20 ps pulses over 357 km of fibre using erbium doped fibre amplifiers is reported. The pulses are shown to exhibit soliton like propagation, by virtue of their unmodified temporal profile. This is achieved despite the fact that the pulses were propagated through fibre where the dispersion coefficient alternated between -0.2 ps/nm/km and +14 ps/nm/km, and a large amplifier spacing of 71 km was employed.