We investigate via experiments and simulations the statistical properties and the accumulation of nonlinear transmission impairments in coherent systems without optical dispersion compensation. We experimentally show that signal distortion due to Kerr nonlinearity can be modeled as additive Gaussian noise, and we demonstrate that its variance has a supra-linear dependence on propagation distance for 100 Gb/s transmissions over both low dispersion and standard single mode fiber. We propose a simple empirical model to account for linear and nonlinear noise accumulation, and to predict system performance for a wide range of distances, signal powers and optical noise levels.

By assuming the nonlinear noise as a signal-independent circular gaussian noise, a typical case in non-dispersion managed links with coherent multilevel modulation formats, we provide several analytical properties of a new quality parameter--playing the role of the signal to noise ratio (SNR) at the sampling gate in the coherent receiver--which carry over to the Q-factor versus power (or "bell") curves. We show that the maximum Q is reached at an optimal power, the nonlinear threshold, at which the amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) noise power is twice the nonlinear noise power, and the SNR penalty with respect to linear propagation is 10Log(3/2) ≃ 1.76  dB,, although the Q-penalty is somewhat larger and increases at lower Q-factors, as we verify for the polarization-division multiplexing quadrature phase shift keying (PDM-QPSK) format. As we vary the ASE power, the maxima of the SNR vs. power curves are shown to slide along a straight-line with slope ≃-2 dB/dB. A similar behavior is followed by the Q-factor maxima, although for PDM-QPSK the local slope is around -2.7 dB/dB for Q-values of practical interest.

By extending a well-established time-domain perturbation approach to dual-polarization propagation, we provide an analytical framework to predict the nonlinear interference (NLI) variance, i.e., the variance induced by nonlinearity on the sampled field, and the nonlinear threshold (NLT) in coherent transmissions with dominant intrachannel-four-wave-mixing (IFWM). Such a framework applies to non dispersion managed (NDM) very long-haul coherent optical systems at nowadays typical baudrates of tens of Gigabaud, as well as to dispersion-managed (DM) systems at even higher baudrates, whenever IFWM is not removed by nonlinear equalization and is thus the dominant nonlinearity. The NLI variance formula has two fitting parameters which can be calibrated from simulations. From the NLI variance formula, analytical expressions of the NLT for both DM and NDM systems are derived and checked against recent NLT Monte-Carlo simulations.

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