A Simple Capacity-Achieving Scheme for Channels with Polarization-Dependent Loss

We demonstrate, for a widely used model of channels with polarization dependent loss (PDL), that channel capacity is achieved by a simple interference cancellation scheme in conjunction with a universal precoder. Crucially, the proposed scheme is not only information-theoretically optimal, but it is also exceptionally simple and concrete. It transforms the PDL channel into separate scalar additive white Gaussian noise channels, allowing off-the-shelf coding and modulation schemes designed for such channels to approach capacity. The signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) penalty incurred under 6 dB of PDL is reduced to the information-theoretic minimum of a mere 1 dB as opposed to the 4 dB SNR penalty incurred under naive over-provisioning.Comment: Submitted to Journal of Lightwave Technolog

Optimization of Transmitter-Side Signal Rotations in the Presence of Laser Phase Noise

The effects of transmitter-side multidimensional signal rotations on the performance of multichannel optical transmission are studied in the presence of laser phase noise. In particular, the laser phase noise is assumed to be uncorrelated between channels. To carry out this study, a simple multichannel laser-phase-noise model that has been experimentally validated for weakly-coupled multicore-fiber transmission is considered. As the considered rotation scheme is intended to work in conjunction with receiver-side carrier phase estimation (CPE), the model is modified to further assume that imperfect CPE has taken place, leaving residual phase noise in the processed signal. Based on this model, two receiver structures are derived and used to numerically optimize transmitter-side signal rotations through Monte Carlo simulations. For reasonable amounts of residual phase noise, rotations based on Hadamard matrices are found to be near-optimal for transmission of four-dimensional signals. Furthermore, Hadamard rotations can be performed for any dimension that is a power of two. By exploiting this property, an increase of up to 0.25 bit per complex symbol in an achievable information rate is observed for transmission of higher-order constellations

Cost-Effective Spectrally-Efficient Optical Transceiver Architectures for Metropolitan and Regional Links

The work presented herein explores cost-effective optical transceiver architectures for access, metropolitan and regional links. The primary requirement in such links is cost-effectiveness and secondly, spectral efficiency. The bandwidth/data demand is driven by data-intensive Internet applications, such as cloud-based services and video-on-demand, and is rapidly increasing in access and metro links. Therefore, cost-effective optical transceiver architectures offering high information spectral densities (ISDs > 1(b/s)/Hz) need to be implemented over metropolitan distances. Then, a key question for each link length and application is whether coherent- or direct (non-coherent) detection technology offers the best cost and performance trade-off. The performance and complexity limits of both technologies have been studied. Single polarization direct detection transceivers have been reviewed, focusing on their achievable ISDs and reach. It is concluded that subcarrier modulation (SCM) technique combined with single sideband (SSB) and high-order quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) signaling, enabled by digital signal processing (DSP) based optical transceivers, must be implemented in order to exceed an ISD of 1 (b/s)/Hz in direct-detection links. The complexity can be shifted from the optical to the electrical domain using such transceivers, and hence, the cost can be minimized. In this regard, a detailed performance comparison of two spectrally-efficient direct detection SCM techniques, namely Nyquist-SCM and OFDM, is presented by means of simulations. It is found out that Nyquist-SCM format offers the transmission distances more than double that of OFDM due to its higher resilience to signal-signal beating interference. Following this, dispersion-precompensated SSB 4- and 16-QAM Nyquist-SCM signal formats were experimentally demonstrated using in-phase and quadrature (IQ)-modulators at net optical ISDs of 1.2 and 2 (b/s)/Hz over 800 km and 323 km of standard single-mode fibre (SSMF), respectively. These demonstrations represent record net optical ISDs over such distances among the reported single polarization wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) systems. Furthermore, since the cost-effectiveness is crucial, the optical complexity of Nyquist-SCM transmitters can be significantly reduced by using low-cost modulators and high-linewidth lasers. A comprehensive theoretical study on SSB signal generation using IQ- and dual-drive Mach-Zehnder modulators (DD-MZMs) was carried out to assess their performance for WDM direct detection links. This was followed by an experimental demonstration of WDM transmission over 242 km of SSMF with a net optical ISD of 1.5 (b/s)/Hz, the highest achieved ISD using a DD-MZM-based transmitter. Following the assessment of direct detection technology using various transmitter designs, cost-effective simplified coherent receiver architectures for access and metro networks have been investigated. The optical complexity of the conventional (polarization- and phase-diverse) coherent receiver is significantly simplified, i.e., consisting of a single 3 dB coupler and balanced photodetector, utilizing heterodyne reception and Alamouti polarization-time block coding. Although the achievable net optical ISD is halved compared to a conventional coherent receiver due to Alamouti coding, its receiver sensitivity provides significant gain over a direct detection receiver at M-ary QAM formats where M ≥16

Optimization of Transmitter-Side Signal Rotations in the Presence of Laser Phase Noise

The effects of transmitter-side multidimensional signal rotations on the performance of multichannel optical transmission are studied in the presence of laser phase noise. In particular, the laser phase noise is assumed to be uncorrelated between channels. To carry out this study, a simple multichannel laser-phase-noise model that has been experimentally validated for weakly-coupled multicore-fiber transmission is considered. As the considered rotation scheme is intended to work in conjunction with receiver-side carrier phase estimation (CPE), the model is modified to further assume that imperfect CPE has taken place, leaving residual phase noise in the processed signal. Based on this model, two receiver structures are derived and used to numerically optimize transmitter-side signal rotations through Monte Carlo simulations. For reasonable amounts of residual phase noise, rotations based on Hadamard matrices are found to be near-optimal for transmission of four-dimensional signals. Furthermore, Hadamard rotations can be performed for any dimension that is a power of two. By exploiting this property, an increase of up to 0.25 bit per complex symbol in an achievable information rate is observed for transmission of higher-order constellations.Comment: Submitted to Journal of Lightwave Technolog

Compensation of Laser Phase Noise Using DSP in Multichannel Fiber-Optic Communications

One of the main impairments that limit the throughput of fiber-optic communication systems is laser phase noise, where the phase of the laser output drifts with time. This impairment can be highly correlated across channels that share lasers in multichannel fiber-optic systems based on, e.g., wavelength-division multiplexing using frequency combs or space-division multiplexing. In this thesis, potential improvements in the system tolerance to laser phase noise that are obtained through the use of joint-channel digital signal processing are investigated. To accomplish this, a simple multichannel phase-noise model is proposed, in which the phase noise is arbitrarily correlated across the channels. Using this model, high-performance pilot-aided phase-noise compensation and data-detection algorithms are designed for multichannel fiber-optic systems using Bayesian-inference frameworks. Through Monte Carlo simulations of coded transmission in the presence of moderate laser phase noise, it is shown that joint-channel processing can yield close to a 1 dB improvement in power efficiency. It is further shown that the algorithms are highly dependent on the positions of pilots across time and channels. Hence, the problem of identifying effective pilot distributions is studied.The proposed phase-noise model and algorithms are validated using experimental data based on uncoded space-division multiplexed transmission through a weakly-coupled, homogeneous, single-mode, 3-core fiber. It is found that the performance improvements predicted by simulations based on the model are reasonably close to the experimental results. Moreover, joint-channel processing is found to increase the maximum tolerable transmission distance by up to 10% for practical pilot rates.Various phenomena decorrelate the laser phase noise between channels in multichannel transmission, reducing the potency of schemes that exploit this correlation. One such phenomenon is intercore skew, where the spatial channels experience different propagation velocities. The effect of intercore skew on the performance of joint-core phase-noise compensation is studied. Assuming that the channels are aligned in the receiver, joint-core processing is found to be beneficial in the presence of skew if the linewidth of the local oscillator is lower than the light-source laser linewidth.In the case that the laser phase noise is completely uncorrelated across channels in multichannel transmission, it is shown that the system performance can be improved by applying transmitter-side multidimensional signal rotations. This is found by numerically optimizing rotations of four-dimensional signals that are transmitted through two channels. Structured four-dimensional rotations based on Hadamard matrices are found to be near-optimal. Moreover, in the case of high signal-to-noise ratios and high signal dimensionalities, Hadamard-based rotations are found to increase the achievable information rate by up to 0.25 bits per complex symbol for transmission of higher-order modulations

Techniques émergentes de codage espace-temps pour les systèmes de communications optiques

Research in the field of optical fiber communications is advancing at a rapid pace in order to meet the growing needs for higher data rates. The main driving forces behind these advancements are the availability of multiple degrees of freedom in the optical fiber allowing for multiplexing more data: amplitude, phase and polarization state of the optical field, along with time and wavelength are already used in the deployed optical transmission systems. Yet, these systems are approaching their theoretical capacity limits and an extra dimension "space" is investigated to achieve the next capacity leap. However, packing several data channels in the same medium brings with it differential impairments and crosstalk that can seriously deteriorate the performance of the system. In this thesis, we focus on recent optical MIMO schemes based on polarization division multiplexing (PDM) and space division multiplexing (SDM). In both, we assess the performance penalties induced by non-unitary crosstalk and loss disparities among the channels arising from imperfections in the used optical components (fibers, amplifiers, multiplexers...), and suggest novel MIMO coding techniques known as Space-Time (ST) codes, initially designed for wireless multi-antenna channels, to mitigate them.La recherche dans le domaine des communications sur fibres optiques avance à un rythme rapide afin de satisfaire des demandes croissantes de communications à débits élevés. Les principaux moteurs de ces avancements sont la multitude de degrés de liberté offerts par la fibre permettant ainsi la transmission de plus de données: l'amplitude, la phase et l'état de polarisation du champ optique, ainsi que le temps et la longueur d'onde sont déjà utilisés dans les systèmes de transmission optique déployés. Pourtant, ces systèmes s'approchent de leur limite fondamentale de capacité et un degré supplémentaire: "la dimension spatiale" est étudié pour réaliser un saut qualitatif majeur en termes de capacité de transmission. Cependant, l'insertion de plusieurs flux de données dans le même canal de propagation induit également des pertes différentielles et de la diaphonie entre les flux, ce qui peut fortement réduire la qualité du système de transmission. Dans cette thèse, nous nous concentrons sur les systèmes de transmission optique de type MIMO basés sur un multiplexage en polarisation ou en modes de propagation. Dans les deux cas, nous évaluons la dégradation de la performance provoquée par une interférence inter-canaux non-unitaire et des disparités de gain entre les canaux engendrées par des imperfections dans les composants optiques utilisés (fibres, amplificateurs, multiplexeurs...), et proposons pour les combattre, de nouvelles techniques de codage pour les systèmes MIMO nommées "codes Spatio-Temporels" (ST), préalablement conçues pour les systèmes radios multi-antennaires

Real-time Digital Signal Processing for Software-defined Optical Transmitters and Receivers

A software-defined optical Tx is designed and demonstrated generating signals with various formats and pulse-shapes in real-time. Special pulse-shapes such as OFDM or Nyquist signaling were utilized resulting in a highly efficient usage of the available fiber channel bandwidth. This was achieved by parallel data processing with high-end FPGAs. Furthermore, highly efficient Rx algorithms for carrier and timing recovery as well as for polarization demultiplexing were developed and investigated

Advanced DSP Techniques for High-Capacity and Energy-Efficient Optical Fiber Communications

The rapid proliferation of the Internet has been driving communication networks closer and closer to their limits, while available bandwidth is disappearing due to an ever-increasing network load. Over the past decade, optical fiber communication technology has increased per fiber data rate from 10 Tb/s to exceeding 10 Pb/s. The major explosion came after the maturity of coherent detection and advanced digital signal processing (DSP). DSP has played a critical role in accommodating channel impairments mitigation, enabling advanced modulation formats for spectral efficiency transmission and realizing flexible bandwidth. This book aims to explore novel, advanced DSP techniques to enable multi-Tb/s/channel optical transmission to address pressing bandwidth and power-efficiency demands. It provides state-of-the-art advances and future perspectives of DSP as well