Effects of precompensation and postcompensation on timing jitter in dispersion-managed systems

We present an analytic theory of timing jitter in dispersion-managed light-wave systems that is based on the moment method and the assumption of a chirped Gaussian pulse. We apply the theory to a soliton system and show that 50% postcompensation of the accumulated dispersion can reduce the jitter by a factor of 2. We also apply the theory to a low-power light-wave system employing the return-to-zero format and find that timing jitter can be minimized along the fiber link for an optimal choice of precompensation and postcompensation. (C) 2001 Optical Society of America.