Modulational instability effects in PSK modulated coherent fiber systems and their reduction by optical loss

We show using the propagating beam technique that if optical loss is neglected, the efficiency of PSK modulation in a coherent fiber system is severely compromised by modulational instability effects at sufficiently high signal powers. We note, however, that the intrinsic optical loss of a single mode fiber will to a large degree counteract the modulational instability and preserve the initial PSK pulse shape.