The history of the proposal that solitons be used for optical fiber communications and of the technical developments toward making soliton transmission practical is reviewed. The causes of bit errors in long-distance soliton transmission are presented and the methods for reducing them are described. A perturbation theory suited for soliton analysis is developed. Current status and future prospects of long-distance repeaterless fiber communications are stated.

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/RevModPhys.68.423