An empirical modelling technique is introduced to estimate impact of physical layer impairments in elastic optical networks, which can be used to evaluate transmission quality. The model has been verified experimentally with accuracy beyond (97.3%). © 2015 OSA.

The use of a micro-ring resonator (MRR) to enhance the modulation extinction ratio and dispersion tolerance of a directly modulated laser is experimentally investigated with a bit rate of 25 Gb/s as proposed for the next generation data center communications. The investigated system combines a 11-GHz 1.55-mu m directly modulated hybrid III-V/SOI DFB laser realized by bonding III-V materials (InGaAlAs) on a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafer and a silicon MRR also fabricated on SOI. Such a transmitter enables error-free transmission (BER < 10(-9)) at 25 Gb/s data rate over 2.5-km standard single mode fiber without dispersion compensation nor forward error correction. As both laser and MRR are fabricated on the SOI platform, they could be combined into a single device with enhanced performance, thus providing a cost-effective transmitter for short reach applications.

Real-time transmission of 14-GBd 4-PAM signal is demonstrated by combining a commercial 1.55-μm DML with a silicon MRR. BER below the HD-FEC threshold is measured after 26-km SSMF transmission without offline digital signal processing.

Impairments characterization and performance evaluation of Raman amplified unrepeated DP-16QAM transmissions arc conducted, Experimental results indicate that small gain in forward direction enhance the system signal-to-noise ratio for longer reach without introducing noticeable penalty.

We experimentally demonstrate a DMT transmission system with 1.55-μm EML using nonlinearity-aware time domain super-Nyquist image induced aliasing. Compared with linear equalization, the capacity is improved by ~16.8%(33.1%) with proposed method for 4(40) km transmission.

We report on the first experimental demonstration of 200-Gbps (net rate 166.7-Gbps) 1.55-mu m DMT IMDD transmission over 1.6 km fiber using a single monolithically-integrated-EML, DAC and photodiode, achieving an effective electrical spectrum efficiency of 4.93 bit/s/Hz.

We discuss about digital signal processing approaches that can enable coherent links based on semiconductor lasers. A state-of-the art analysis on different carrier-phase recovery (CPR) techniques is presented. We show that these techniques are based on the assumption of lorentzian linewidth, which does not hold for monolithically integrated semiconductor lasers. We investigate the impact of such lineshape on both 3 and 20 dB linewidth and experimentally conduct a systematic study for 56-GBaud DP-QPSK and 28-GBaud DP-16QAM systems using a decision directed phase look loop algorithm. We show how carrier induced frequency noise has no impact on linewidth but a significant impact on system performance; which rises the question on whether 3-dB linewidth should be used as performance estimator for semiconductor lasers.

To accommodate the demand of exponentially increased global wireless data traffic, the prospective data rates for wireless communication in the market place will soon reach 100 Gb/s and beyond. In the lab environment, wireless transmission throughput has been elevated to the level of over 100 Gb/s attributed to the development of photonic-assisted millimeter wave and terahertz (THz) technologies. However, most of recent demonstrations with over 100 Gb/s data rates are based on spatial or frequency division multiplexing techniques, resulting in increased system's complexity and energy consumption. Here, we experimentally demonstrate a single channel 0.4 THz photonic-wireless link achieving a net data rate of beyond 100 Gb/s by using a single pair of THz emitter and receiver, without employing any spatial/frequency division multiplexing techniques. The high throughput up to 106 Gb/s within a single THz channel is enabled by combining spectrally efficient modulation format, ultrabroadband THz transceiver and advanced digital signal processing routine. Besides that, our demonstration from system-wide implementation viewpoint also features high transmission stability, and hence shows its great potential to not only decrease the system's complexity, butalsomeet the requirements of prospective data rates for bandwidth-hungryshort-range wireless applications.

A thorough analysis of equalization-enhanced phase noise (EEPN) and its impact on the coherent optical system is presented. We show with a time-domain analysis that EEPN is caused due to the interference of multiple delayed versions of the dispersed signal, generated by intermixing of the received dispersed signal, and the noise side bands of the local oscillator (LO) in the photodetectors. We derive statistical properties such as the mean, variance, and error vector magnitude of the received signal influenced with EEPN. We show that in coherent optical systems utilizing electronic dispersion compensation, this noise corresponds to multipath fading in wireless communication systems. Closed-form expressions of necessary LO linewidth and/or mitigation bandwidth for a general system configuration and specified OSNR penalty are given. The expressions for system design parameters, validated with system simulations, show that higher order modulation formats, such as 16-quadrature amplitude modulation and beyond, put stringent demands on the LO linewidth unless a mitigation technique is used.

We present an extensive study of equalization enhanced phase noise (EEPN) in coherent optical system for all practical electronic dispersion compensation configurations. It is shown that there are only eight practicable all-electronic impairment mitigation configurations. The non-linear and time variant analysis reveals that the existence and the cause of EEPN depend on the digital signal processing (DSP) schemes. There are three schemes that in principle do not cause EEPN. Analysis further reveals the statistical equivalence of the remaining five system configurations resulting in EEPN. In three of them, EEPN is due to phase noise of the transmitting laser, while in the remaining two, EEPN is caused by the local oscillator. We provide a simple look-up table for the system designer to make an informative decision regarding practicable configuration choice and design.

A method for mitigating local oscillator (LO) phase noise-induced impairment, also known as equalization-enhanced phase noise, in coherent optical systems is discussed. The method is suitable for real-time implementation and requires hardware with a bandwidth much lower than the signal baud rate, even for a system utilizing conventional semiconductor laser as LO. We evaluate the required parameters like interpolation technique, electrical signal-to-noise ratio at digital coherence enhancement (DCE) front end, for long haul transmission links having quadrature phase shift keying and 16-quadrature amplitude modulation formats. We show that the method can be implemented using a low-speed DCE front end and a simple digital linear interpolator with small (<1 dB) implementation penalty even in cases that would otherwise result in error floor.

Coherent communication networks are based on the ability to use multiple dimensions of the lightwave together with electrical domain compensation of transmission impairments. Electrical-domain dispersion compensation (EDC) provides many advantages such as network flexibility and enhanced fiber nonlinearity tolerance, but makes the system more susceptible to laser frequency noise (FN), e.g. to the local oscillator FN in systems with post-reception EDC. Although this problem has been extensively studied, statistically, for links assuming lasers with white-FN, many questions remain unanswered. Particularly, the influence of a realistic non-white FN-spectrum due to e.g., the presence of 1/f-flicker and carrier induced noise remains elusive and a statistical analysis becomes insufficient. Here we provide an experimentally validated theory for coherent optical links with lasers having general non-white FN-spectrum and EDC. The fundamental reason of the increased susceptibility is shown to be FN-induced symbol displacement that causes timing jitter and/or inter/intra symbol interference. We establish that different regimes of the laser FN-spectrum cause a different set of impairments. The influence of the impairments due to some regimes can be reduced by optimizing the corresponding mitigation algorithms, while other regimes cause irretrievable impairments. Theoretical boundaries of these regimes and corresponding criteria applicable to system/laser design are provided.

We for the first time experimentally demonstrate a simple technique to overcome EEPN. Performance recovery from above FEC to <1 dB penalty for 28 Gbd 16-QAM over 520 km with high LO linewidth is achieved.

We present experimental validation of novel analytical expressions essential for the design of coherent optical systems impaired by EEPN. These expressions enable a simple and accurate EEPN analysis for any system specification. 

We experimentally investigate the possibility to mitigate local oscillator induced Equalization Enhanced Phase Noise penalty. The results pave the way for the use of even 10 MHz linewidth local oscillator lasers in 28 Gbd 16-QAM metro links.

We propose a low complexity timing algorithm for high order PAM. Experimental results demonstrate higher performance and lower complexity than conventional algorithms in a 32 Gbaud PAM-8 transmission over 4 kin SMF links.

We experimentally demonstrate for a 28 Gbaud 64-QAM metro link that the LO frequency noise causes timing impairment. Results show the existence of LO frequency noise spectrum regimes where different design criteria apply.

A theoretical investigation of the equalization-enhanced phase noise (EEPN) and its mitigation is presented. We show with a frequency domain analysis that the EEPN results from the non-linear inter-mixing between the sidebands of the dispersed signal and the noise sidebands of the local oscillator. It is further shown and validated with system simulations that the transmission penalty is mainly due to the slow optical frequency fluctuations of the local oscillator. Hence, elimination of the frequency noise below a certain cut-off frequency significantly reduces the transmission penalty, even when frequency noise would otherwise cause an error floor. The required cut-off frequency increases linearly with the white frequency noise level and hence the linewidth of the local oscillator laser, but is virtually independent of the symbol rate and the accumulated dispersion.

A BiCMOS chip-based real-time intensity modulation/direct detection spatial division multiplexing system is experimentally demonstrated for both optical interconnects. 100 Gbps/λ/core electrical duobinary (EDB) transmission over 1 km 7-core multicore fiber (MCF) is carried out, achieving KP4 forward error correction (FEC) limit (BER < 2E-4). Using optical dispersion compensation, 7 × 100 Gbps/λ/core transmission of both non-return-to-zero (NRZ) and EDB signals over 10 km MCF transmission is achieved with BER lower than 7% overhead hard-decision FEC limit (BER < 3.8E-3). The integrated low complexity transceiver IC and analog signal processing approach make such a system highly attractive for the high-speed intra-datacenter interconnects.

We propose to implement physical-layer network coding (PLNC) in coupler-based passive optical interconnects. The PLNC over PAM4 system is for the first time experimentally validated, where simultaneous mutual communications can be kept within the same wavelength channel, doubling spectrum efficiency.

We report on experimental results of 56-Gb/s OOK, PAM4 and 25-Gb/s DMT transmission with a high speed InGaAsP based monolithically integrated DFB-TWEAM, and evaluate different digital equalization implementations.

A BiCMOS chip-based real-time IM/DD spatial division multiplexing system is experimentally demonstrated for short-reach communications. 100 Gbps/./core NRZ and EDB transmission is achieved below 7%-overhead HD-FEC limit after 10km 7-core fiber with optical dispersion compensation.

A BiCMOS chip-based real-time intensity modulation/direct detection spatial division multiplexing system is experimentally demonstrated for both optical interconnects. 100 Gbps/lambda/core electrical duobinary (EDB) transmission over 1 km 7-core multicore fiber (MCF) is carried out, achieving KP4 forward error correction (FEC) limit (BER < 2E-4). Using optical dispersion compensation, 7 x 100 Gbps/lambda/core transmission of both non-retunito-zero (NRZ) and EDB signals over 10 km MCF transmission is achieved with BER lower than 7% overhead hard-decision FEC limit (BER < 3.8E-3). The integrated low complexity transceiver IC and analog signal processing approach make such a system highly attractive for the high-speed intra-datacenter interconnects.

An arbitrary multiple-wavelength reception scheme using only a few fixed-wavelength filters is proposed for optical interconnects. Filter matrices design based on error-control coding theory is devised. The feasibility of the proposed scheme is demonstrated in a four-wavelength reception experiment.

A multi channel reception scheme that allows each node to receive an arbitrary set of wavelengths simultaneously (i.e., collision-free) is proposed for optical interconnects. The proposed scheme only needs to use a few receivers and fixed-wavelength filters that are designed based on error-control coding theory. Experiments with up to four channel collision-free reception units are carried out to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed scheme.

We demonstrate an on-offkeyed transmitter with direct detection, at record symbol rates of 204Gbaud and 140Gbaud, over 10km and 80km, respectively, powered by a high-speed InPbased 2:1 selector and travelling-wave electro-absorption laser-modulator.

Heating of poly(methyl methacrylate) ridge optical waveguides slightly above glass transition temperature minimizes surface roughness and provides cylindrical shape. We experimentally demonstrate propagation loss decrease and polarization insensitivity as a result of waveguide thermal treatment.

We propose a novel carrier phase recovery scheme for circular 16QAM coherent transmission systems. Experimental results show low penalties (<1.4 dB) even for linewidths where square 16QAM exhibits irretrievable (above the FEC limit) error floor.

We experimentally demonstrate the significant phase noise tolerance increase of 28Gbaud circular-64QAM constellations against its square-64QAM counterpart with a novel, low complexity and high-performance phase recovery scheme employing only 8 test phases.

A novel two-stage n-PSK partitioning carrier phase recovery (CPR) scheme for circular multilevel quadrature amplitude modulation (C-mQAM) constellations is presented. The first stage of the algorithm provides an initial rough estimation of the received constellation, which is utilized in the second stage for CPR. The performance of the proposed algorithm is studied through extensive simulations at the forward error correction bit error rate targets of 3.8 x 10(-3) and 1 x 10(-2) and is compared with different CPR algorithms. A significant improvement in the combined linewidth symbol duration product (Delta vT(s)) tolerance is achieved compared to the single-stage n-PSK partitioning scheme. Superior performance in the Delta vT(s) tolerance compared to the blind phase search algorithm is also reported. The relative improvements with respect to other CPR schemes are also validated experimentally for a 28-Gbaud C-16QAM back-to-back transmission system. The computational complexity of the proposed CPR scheme is studied, and reduction factors of 24.5 broken vertical bar 30.1 and 59.1 broken vertical bar 63.3 are achieved for C-16QAM and C-64QAM, respectively, compared to single-stage BPS in the form of multipliers broken vertical bar adders.