We investigated the soliton solution for N coupled nonlinear Schrodinger (CNLS) equations. These equations are coupled due to the cross-phase-modulation (CPM). Lax pair of this system is obtained via the Ablowitz-Kaup-Newell-Segur (AKNS) scheme and the corresponding Darboux transformation is constructed to derive the soliton solution. One and two soliton solutions are generated. Using two soliton solutions of 3 CNLS equation, nonlinear tunneling of soliton for both with and without exponential background has been discussed. Finally cascade compression of optical soliton through multi-nonlinear barrier has been discussed. The obtained results may have promising applications in all-optical devices based on optical solitons, study of soliton propagation in birefringence fiber systems and optical soliton with distributed dispersion and nonlinearity management. (C) 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.