Performance Comparison of Single-Sideband Direct Detection Nyquist-Subcarrier Modulation and OFDM

Direct detection transceivers offer advantages, including low cost and complexity, in short- and medium-haul links. We carried out studies seeking to identify the signal formats which offer the highest information spectral densities and maximum transmission distances for direct detection links. The performance of two spectrally efficient optical signal formats, single-sideband (SSB) Nyquist pulse-shaped subcarrier modulation (SCM) and SSB orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM), are compared by means of simulations. The comparison is performed for a range of wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) net information spectral densities up to 2.0 b/s/Hz by varying the signal bandwidth, modulation cardinality, and WDM channel spacing. The signal formats' tolerance to signal-signal beating interference, resulting from square-law detection, is investigated, and the Nyquist-SCM format is found to suffer lower penalties from this nonlinearity at high information spectral densities. In 7 × 28 Gb/s WDM transmission at 2.0 b/s/Hz (with electronic predistortion and EDFA-only amplification), Nyquist-SCM signals can be transmitted over distances of up to 720 km of standard SMF in comparison to a maximum of 320 km with the OFDM signal format

Comparison of digital signal-signal beat interference compensation techniques in direct-detection subcarrier modulation systems

Single-polarization direct-detection transceivers may offer advantages compared to digital coherent technology for some metro, back-haul, access and inter-data center applications since they offer low-cost and complexity solutions. However, a direct-detection receiver introduces nonlinearity upon photo detection, since it is a square-law device, which results in signal distortion due to signal-signal beat interference (SSBI). Consequently, it is desirable to develop effective and low-cost SSBI compensation techniques to improve the performance of such transceivers. In this paper, we compare the performance of a number of recently proposed digital signal processing-based SSBI compensation schemes, including the use of single- and two-stage linearization filters, an iterative linearization filter and a SSBI estimation and cancellation technique. Their performance is assessed experimentally using a 7 × 25 Gb/s wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) single-sideband 16-QAM Nyquistsubcarrier modulation system operating at a net information spectral density of 2.3 (b/s)/Hz

Bidirectional symmetric 8x10. 7Gb/s WDM-PON over 108 km installed fiber using low complexity polarization-insensitive coherent ONUs

Polarization-time block-coded OFDM-QPSK downstream channels are robustly detected using a polarization-insensitive coherent receiver, consisting of only a 3dB coupler and single balanced PD. 8 x10.7Gb/s channels are bidirectionally transmitted over 108 km installed fiber achieving a 1:16-way passive split

Spectrally Efficient WDM Nyquist Pulse-Shaped 16-QAM Subcarrier Modulation Transmission With Direct Detection

The ability to transmit signals with high information spectral density (ISD) using low-complexity and cost-effective transceivers is essential for short- and medium-haul optical communication systems. Consequently, spectrally efficient direct detection transceiver-based solutions are attractive for such applications. In this paper, we experimentally demonstrate the wavelength-division multiplexed (WDM) transmission of 7×12 GHz-spaced dispersion pre-compensated Nyquist pulse-shaped 16-QAM subcarrier modulated channels operating at a net bit rate of 24 Gb/s per channel, and achieving a net optical ISD of 2.0 b/s/Hz. The direct detection receiver used in our experiment consisted of a single-ended photodiode and a single analog-to-digital converter. The carrier-to-signal power ratio at different values of optical signal-to-noise ratio was optimized to maximize the receiver sensitivity performance. The transmission experiments were carried out using a recirculating fiber loop with uncompensated standard single-mode fiber and EDFA-only amplification. The maximum achieved transmission distances for single channel and WDM signals were 727 and 323 km below the bit-error ratio of 3.8 × 10-3, respectively. To the best of our knowledge, this is the highest achieved ISD for WDM transmission in direct detection links over such distances

Comparison of low complexity coherent receivers for UDWDM-PONs (λ-to-the-User)

It is predicted that demand in future optical access networks will reach multigigabit/s per user. However, the limited performance of the direct detection receiver technology currently used in the optical network units at the customers' premises restricts data rates per user. Therefore, the concept of coherent-enabled access networks has attracted attention in recent years, as this technology offers high receiver sensitivity, inherent frequency selectivity, and linear field detection enabling the full compensation of linear channel impairments. However, the complexity of conventional (dual-polarization digital) coherent receivers has so far prevented their introduction into access networks. Thus, to exploit the benefits of coherent technology in access networks, low complexity coherent receivers, suitable for implementation in ONUs, are needed. In this paper, the recently proposed low complexity coherent (i.e., polarization-independent Alamouti-coding heterodyne) receiver is, for the first time, compared in terms of its minimum receiver sensitivity with five previously reported receiver designs, including a detailed discussion on their advantages and limitations. It is shown that, of all the configurations considered, the Alamouti-coding based receiver approach allows the lowest number of photons per bit (PPB) transmitted (with a lower bound of 15.5 PPB in an ideal implementation of the system), while requiring the lowest optical receiver hardware complexity (in terms of the optical component count). It also exhibits comparable complexity to the currently deployed direct-detection receivers, which typically require over 1000 PPB. Finally, a comparison of experimentally achieved receiver sensitivities and transmission distances using these receivers is presented. The highest spectral efficiency and longest transmission distance at the highest bit rate (10 Gb/s) was reported using the Alamouti-coding receiver, which is also the only one, to date, to have been demonstrated in a full system bidirectional transmission

Reach Enhancement for WDM Direct-Detection Subcarrier Modulation using Low-Complexity Two-Stage Signal-Signal Beat Interference Cancellation

We describe a novel low-complexity SSBI cancellation scheme, and experimentally investigate its performance in a 7×25 Gb/s WDM direct-detection single-sideband 16QAM Nyquistsubcarrier modulation system. The scheme achieves a doubling of the transmission reach

SSBI Mitigation and the Kramers-Kronig Scheme in Single-Sideband Direct-Detection Transmission With Receiver-Based Electronic Dispersion Compensation

The performance of direct-detection transceivers employing electronic dispersion compensation combined with DSP-based receiver linearization techniques is assessed through experiments on a 4 × 112 Gb/s wavelength-division multiplexing direct-detection single-sideband 16 quadratic-amplitude modulation Nyquist-subcarrier-modulation system operating at a net optical information spectral density of 2.8 b/s/Hz in transmission over standard single mode fiber links of up to 240 km. The experimental results indicate that systems with receiver-based dispersion compensation can achieve similar performance to those utilizing transmitter-based dispersion compensation, provided it is implemented together with an effective digital receiver linearization technique. The use of receiver-based compensation would simplify the operation of a fiber link since knowledge of the link dispersion is not required at the transmitter. The recently proposed Kramers-Kronig receiver scheme was found to be the best performing among the receiver linearization techniques assessed. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first experimental demonstration of the Kramers-Kronig scheme

Spectrally Efficient WDM Nyquist Pulse-Shaped Subcarrier Modulation Using a Dual-Drive Mach-Zehnder Modulator and Direct Detection

High data transmission capacity is increasingly needed in shortand medium-haul optical communication links. Cost-effective wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) transceiver architectures, achieving high information spectral densities (ISDs) (>1 b/s/Hz) and using low-complexity direct detection receivers are attractive solutions for such links. In this paper, we assess the use of dual-drive Mach-Zehnder modulators (DD-MZMs), and compare them with in-phase quadrature (IQ)-modulators for generating spectrally-efficient single sideband Nyquist pulse-shaped 16-QAM subcarrier (N-SCM) modulation format signals. The impact of the extinction ratio (ER) of a modulator on the optical sideband suppression ratio (OSSR) was investigated for the SSB signals in WDM systems, together with the resulting impact on inter-channel crosstalk penalties. First, in back-to-back operation, an IQ-modulator with an ER of 30 dB and a DD-MZM with an ER of 18 dB were experimentally compared in a 6×25 Gb/s WDM system by varying the channel spacing. Following this comparison, 16 GHz-spaced 6×25 Gb/s WDM signal transmission was experimentally demonstrated using the DD-MZM. The experiment was performed using a recirculating loop with uncompensated standard single-mode fiber (SSMF) and EDFA-only amplification. The maximum achievable transmission distances for single channel and WDM signals were found to be 565 and 242 km, respectively, at a net optical ISD of 1.5 b/s/Hz. This is the first experimental comparison of such modulator types for SSB N-SCM signal generation and the highest achieved ISD using a DD-MZM in direct-detection WDM transmission

49 Gbit/s Direct-Modulation and Direct-Detection Transmission over 80 km SMF-28 without Optical Amplification or Filtering

We demonstrate direct-modulation of a discrete mode laser using Discrete Multi-Tone modulation for transmission distances up to 100 km in the 1550 nm band. A large operational temperature range (0-65ºC) is also demonstrated

A Low-Loss Split-Carrier Transmitter Architecture for Intra-Datacentre Communications

A split-carrier transmitter is proposed to increase the loss budget for intra-datacentre links by reducing modulator insertion loss. Transmission of 28 GBd subcarrier modulated 16-QAM (112 Gb/s) over 2 km SSMF is shown to be possible with an optimised modulator loss of <4.4 dB