Massively parallel simulations of rogue wave statistics in super continuum generation in optical fibres

Dr. Marc Eberhard

Aston University
Birmingham, United Kingdom

Abstract:

Rogue waves are unusually high waves tightly localised in space and time. They were first reported by seamen and often discounted as exaggerations. However the availability of more detailed data has now proven their existence. Interestingly, the same type of equation that describes waves in deep water - the non-linear Schroedinger equation or NLSE - also describes the propagation of light in an optical fibre. In fibres, these waves can not only cause transmission errors, but can also damage the transmission system itself in extreme cases. Thus, it is important to understand the statistics and likelihood of such events. As the events are rather rare, only massively parallel simulations can generate sufficiently large data sets to derive trustworthy statistics. Consequently, a new massively parallel algorithm to solve the NLSE was developed and its almost linear scalability demonstrated on supercomputers like HECToR with up to 65536 cores and on CSC's Minerva with up to 5784 cores.