The next generation of transoceanic submarine cable systems will use in-line fiber amplifiers to replace electrical regenerators. This new approach requires a better understanding of the fiber waveguide, especially the nonlinear characteristics. It has been demonstrated, both by numerical simulation and experiments, that the Kerr effect has the most significant degradation effects on these systems with a single or a few channels. In this dissertation, the numerical simulation is the principal approach but this is supplemented with some analytical studies. There are two phenomena that are directly associated with the Kerr effect: spectrum broadening and four wave mixing (FWM). The broadened signal spectrum enhances the dispersion effect and consequently increases the inter symbol interference. This distortion is significant when the dispersion is relatively large. U sing erbium doped fiber amplifiers, amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) noise is added to the signal The FWM effect between the noise and signal causes a loss in the signal power. In the close vicinity of the zero dispersion wavelength, the FWM effect is maximized due to the loose phase match condition.

In order to reduce these degradation effects, dispersion compensation has recently been proposed. Using this approach, it is possible to optimize the system configuration to achieve the best performance. In this dissertation, the dispersion compensation distance, dispersion coefficient, channel bandwidth, bit rate and the degree of imperfect compensation are all subject to the optimization. The evaluation is obtained by the numerical simulation using the mean squared error (MSE), which can be derived as the difference between the wavefronts received by a back-to-back receiver and a receiver at the end of the channel. Although the MSE can't be related to the bit error directly, this research provides the insight into how dispersion and noise behave in the presence of the Kerr effect and points the direction for future experimental research.?