Detailed discussion of the optimum baud rate of nonlinearity in WDM transmission

Different numbers of sub-channels correspond to different baud rates per sub-channel when the total baud rate is fixed. The optimum baud rate of nonlinearity in WDM systems is investigated in this paper. We find that the phase matching effect produces an optimum baud rate of nonlinearity, which is related to the chromatic dispersion accumulation of a single span. Then other factors that influence the optimum baud rate are analyzed. By mathematical derivation and simulation verification, larger number of spans and larger spectrum gap between sub-channels both make the optimum value decrease. We also find that different modulation formats barely change the optimum baud rate if other system settings are the same and all sub-channels have the same modulation format.