622 research outputs found
Achievable Information Rates for Coded Modulation with Hard Decision Decoding for Coherent Fiber-Optic Systems
We analyze the achievable information rates (AIRs) for coded modulation
schemes with QAM constellations with both bit-wise and symbol-wise decoders,
corresponding to the case where a binary code is used in combination with a
higher-order modulation using the bit-interleaved coded modulation (BICM)
paradigm and to the case where a nonbinary code over a field matched to the
constellation size is used, respectively. In particular, we consider hard
decision decoding, which is the preferable option for fiber-optic communication
systems where decoding complexity is a concern. Recently, Liga \emph{et al.}
analyzed the AIRs for bit-wise and symbol-wise decoders considering what the
authors called \emph{hard decision decoder} which, however, exploits \emph{soft
information} of the transition probabilities of discrete-input discrete-output
channel resulting from the hard detection. As such, the complexity of the
decoder is essentially the same as the complexity of a soft decision decoder.
In this paper, we analyze instead the AIRs for the standard hard decision
decoder, commonly used in practice, where the decoding is based on the Hamming
distance metric. We show that if standard hard decision decoding is used,
bit-wise decoders yield significantly higher AIRs than symbol-wise decoders. As
a result, contrary to the conclusion by Liga \emph{et al.}, binary decoders
together with the BICM paradigm are preferable for spectrally-efficient
fiber-optic systems. We also design binary and nonbinary staircase codes and
show that, in agreement with the AIRs, binary codes yield better performance.Comment: Published in IEEE/OSA Journal of Lightwave Technology, 201
Performance Prediction of Nonbinary Forward Error Correction in Optical Transmission Experiments
In this paper, we compare different metrics to predict the error rate of
optical systems based on nonbinary forward error correction (FEC). It is shown
that the correct metric to predict the performance of coded modulation based on
nonbinary FEC is the mutual information. The accuracy of the prediction is
verified in a detailed example with multiple constellation formats, FEC
overheads in both simulations and optical transmission experiments over a
recirculating loop. It is shown that the employed FEC codes must be universal
if performance prediction based on thresholds is used. A tutorial introduction
into the computation of the threshold from optical transmission measurements is
also given.Comment: submitted to IEEE/OSA Journal of Lightwave Technolog
On Achievable Rates for Long-Haul Fiber-Optic Communications
Lower bounds on mutual information (MI) of long-haul optical fiber systems
for hard-decision and soft-decision decoding are studied. Ready-to-use
expressions to calculate the MI are presented. Extensive numerical simulations
are used to quantify how changes in the optical transmitter, receiver, and
channel affect the achievable transmission rates of the system. Special
emphasis is put to the use of different quadrature amplitude modulation
formats, channel spacings, digital back-propagation schemes and probabilistic
shaping. The advantages of using MI over the prevailing -factor as a figure
of merit of coded optical systems are also highlighted.Comment: Hard decision mutual information analysis added, two typos correcte
Information Rates and post-FEC BER Prediction in Optical Fiber Communications
Information-theoretic metrics to analyze optical fiber communications systems
with binary and nonbinary soft-decision FEC are reviewed. The numerical
evaluation of these metrics in both simulations and experiments is also
discussed. Ready-to-use closed-form approximations are presented.Comment: Invited paper, OFC 201
Impact of 4D channel distribution on the achievable rates in coherent optical communication experiments
We experimentally investigate mutual information and generalized mutual
information for coherent optical transmission systems. The impact of the
assumed channel distribution on the achievable rate is investigated for
distributions in up to four dimensions. Single channel and wavelength division
multiplexing (WDM) transmission over transmission links with and without inline
dispersion compensation are studied. We show that for conventional WDM systems
without inline dispersion compensation, a circularly symmetric complex Gaussian
distribution is a good approximation of the channel. For other channels, such
as with inline dispersion compensation, this is no longer true and gains in the
achievable information rate are obtained by considering more sophisticated
four-dimensional (4D) distributions. We also show that for nonlinear channels,
gains in the achievable information rate can also be achieved by estimating the
mean values of the received constellation in four dimensions. The highest gain
for such channels is seen for a 4D correlated Gaussian distribution
Replacing the Soft FEC Limit Paradigm in the Design of Optical Communication Systems
The FEC limit paradigm is the prevalent practice for designing optical
communication systems to attain a certain bit-error rate (BER) without forward
error correction (FEC). This practice assumes that there is an FEC code that
will reduce the BER after decoding to the desired level. In this paper, we
challenge this practice and show that the concept of a channel-independent FEC
limit is invalid for soft-decision bit-wise decoding. It is shown that for low
code rates and high order modulation formats, the use of the soft FEC limit
paradigm can underestimate the spectral efficiencies by up to 20%. A better
predictor for the BER after decoding is the generalized mutual information,
which is shown to give consistent post-FEC BER predictions across different
channel conditions and modulation formats. Extensive optical full-field
simulations and experiments are carried out in both the linear and nonlinear
transmission regimes to confirm the theoretical analysis
On the Impact of Optimal Modulation and FEC Overhead on Future Optical Networks
The potential of optimum selection of modulation and forward error correction
(FEC) overhead (OH) in future transparent nonlinear optical mesh networks is
studied from an information theory perspective. Different network topologies
are studied as well as both ideal soft-decision (SD) and hard-decision (HD) FEC
based on demap-and-decode (bit-wise) receivers. When compared to the de-facto
QPSK with 7% OH, our results show large gains in network throughput. When
compared to SD-FEC, HD-FEC is shown to cause network throughput losses of 12%,
15%, and 20% for a country, continental, and global network topology,
respectively. Furthermore, it is shown that most of the theoretically possible
gains can be achieved by using one modulation format and only two OHs. This is
in contrast to the infinite number of OHs required in the ideal case. The
obtained optimal OHs are between 5% and 80%, which highlights the potential
advantage of using FEC with high OHs.Comment: Some minor typos were correcte
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