Importance sampling for noise-induced amplitude and timing jitter in soliton transmission systems

We discuss the application of importance-sampling techniques to the numerical simulation of transmission impairments induced by amplified spontaneous emission noise in soliton-based optical transmission systems. The method allows one to concentrate numerical simulations on the noise realizations that are most likely to result in transmission errors, thus leading to increases in speed of several orders of magnitude over standard Monte Carlo methods. We demonstrate the technique by calculating the probability distribution function of amplitude and timing fluctuations.