This book summarizes the invited papers presented at the International Symposium on New Trends in Optical Soliton Transmission Systems held in Kyoto, Japan in the fall of 1997. The symposium is the second of the series and is considered to be the most representative symposium on the use of optical solitons for ultrafast communications. In particular, this symposium focuses on the newly developed technologies of dispersion management to improve soliton transmission capabilities. Studies of properties of new solitons that appear in fibres with periodic variation of dispersion are also presented.

Preface. Part 1: Technical Session. Propagation and Interaction of Optical Solitons in Fibers with Random Parameters; F.Kh. Abdullaev, et al. Soliton Jitter and Collisions in Birefringent Fibres; J.N. Elgin, et al. Soliton Stability in PMD Perturbed Transmission Systems; M. Karlsson, et al. Role of the Dispersive Wave in Soliton Dynamics and Interactions; M. Romagnoli, et al. Generation of High-Repetition-Rate Dark Soliton Trains and Frequency Conversion in Optical Fibers; G. Millot, et al. Studies on Signal Propagation in Optical Fibers with Random Varying Birefringence; P.K.A. Wai, et al. Ultra-Long Distance Soliton Transmission Line Design by Two-Dimensional Pulse Width Evaluation Method; K. Shimoura, et al. Practical Design of Dispersion Managed Soliton System; G.C. Gupta, et al. Photon-Number Noise of Spectrally Filtered Optical Solitons; A. Sizmann, et al. Variational Approach to Transmission in DM Long Optical Links; K. Hizanidis, et al. Nonlinear Chirped RZ and NRZ Pulses in Optical Transmission Lines; Y. Kodama. Circulating Loop Experiments on Solitons with Periodic Dispersion Management; J.M. Jacob, et al. 20Gbit/s PDM Soliton Transmission Experiment in Dispersion Compensated Standard Fiber Systems; H. Murai, et al. Dynamics of Dispersion-Managed Solitons in Optical Communications; J.N. Kutz, et al. Superb Characteristics of Dispersion-Allocated Soliton Transmission in TDM and WDM Systems; M. Nakazawa, et al. Theory of Guiding-Center Breathing Soliton Propagation in Optical Communication Systems with Strong Dispersion Management; S.K. Turitsyn, et al. Analysis of Gordon-Haus Jitter in Dispersion Compensated Optical Fibers; T. Okamawari, et al. Four-Wave Mixing in Fiber Links with Dispersion Management; S. Burtsev, I. Gabitov. Statistical Properties of Signals Travelling in Noisy Nonlinearly Dispersive Optical Channels; M. Midrio. Dispersion Management Issues in Long Amplifier-Spacing Frequency-Guiding Multiwavelength Soliton Systems; J.-P. Hamaide, et al. Remarkable Features of DM Solitons: Implications for High Speed and WDM Systems; N.J. Doran, et al. Transmission Systems Based on Dispersion-Managed Solitons: Theory and Experiment; T. Georges, F. Favre. Transmission and Collision of Quasi-Solitons in Dispersion Managed Optical Fibers; S. Kumar, A. Hasegawa. Long-Haul Soliton WDM Transmission with Periodic Dispersion Compensation and Dispersion Slope Compensation; I. Morita, et al. Ultrafast Networks Using High-Speed RZ Optical Pulses for Transmission, Routing and Processing; D. Cotter, et al. 40 Gbit/s Transmission Using Optical Time-Division Multiplexing and Demultiplexing; G. Ishikawa. Broadband and Gain-Flattened Optical Fiber Amplifiers; M. Nishimura. Passively Mode-Locked Semiconductor Lasers Stabilized by Subharmonic Electrical Injection and Their Application to Millimeter Wave Photonics; M. Tsuchiya, et al. Part 2: Consortium Session. Ultrafast Soliton Multiple-Access Networks; K.L. Hall, et al. STAR Project; A. Hasegawa. ESTHER Project: Practical Implementation of Solitons;P. Franco. Soliton Transmission in the European Network; J.J.E. Reid. European Union ACTS Project MIDAS: Objectives and Progress to Date; D.J. Richardson. Index.