  In this paper, numerical methods are suggested to compute the discrete and
the continuous spectrum of a signal with respect to the Zakharov-Shabat system,
a Lax operator underlying numerous integrable communication channels including
the nonlinear Schr\"odinger channel, modeling pulse propagation in optical
fibers. These methods are subsequently tested and their ability to estimate the
spectrum are compared against each other. These methods are used to compute the
spectrum of various signals commonly used in the optical fiber communications.
It is found that the layer-peeling and the spectral methods are suitable
schemes to estimate the nonlinear spectra with good accuracy. To illustrate the
structure of the spectrum, the locus of the eigenvalues is determined under
amplitude and phase modulation in a number of examples. It is observed that in
some cases, as signal parameters vary, eigenvalues collide and change their
course of motion. The real axis is typically the place from which new
eigenvalues originate or are absorbed into after traveling a trajectory in the
complex plane.
