Experimental Demonstration of Dual Polarization Nonlinear Frequency Division Multiplexed Optical Transmission System

Multi-eigenvalues transmission with information encoded simultaneously in both orthogonal polarizations is experimentally demonstrated. Performance below the HD-FEC limit is demonstrated for 8-bits/symbol 1-GBd signals after transmission up to 207 km of SSMF

Experimental Satellite Quantum Communications

Quantum Communications on planetary scale require complementary channels including ground and satellite links. The former have progressed up to commercial stage using fiber-cables, while for satellite links, the absence of terminals in orbit has impaired theirs development. However, the demonstration of the feasibility of such links is crucial for designing space payloads and to eventually enable the realization of protocols such as quantum-key-distribution (QKD) and quantum teleportation along satellite-to-ground or intersatellite links. We demonstrated the faithful transmission of qubits from space to ground by exploiting satellite corner cube retroreflectors acting as transmitter in orbit, obtaining a low error rate suitable for QKD. We also propose a two-way QKD protocol exploiting modulated retroreflectors that necessitates a minimal payload on satellite, thus facilitating the expansion of Space Quantum Communications

Dual polarization nonlinear Fourier transform-based optical communication system

New services and applications are causing an exponential increase in internet traffic. In a few years, current fiber optic communication system infrastructure will not be able to meet this demand because fiber nonlinearity dramatically limits the information transmission rate. Eigenvalue communication could potentially overcome these limitations. It relies on a mathematical technique called "nonlinear Fourier transform (NFT)" to exploit the "hidden" linearity of the nonlinear Schr\"odinger equation as the master model for signal propagation in an optical fiber. We present here the theoretical tools describing the NFT for the Manakov system and report on experimental transmission results for dual polarization in fiber optic eigenvalue communications. A transmission of up to 373.5 km with bit error rate less than the hard-decision forward error correction threshold has been achieved. Our results demonstrate that dual-polarization NFT can work in practice and enable an increased spectral efficiency in NFT-based communication systems, which are currently based on single polarization channels

Experimental single photon exchange along a space link of 7000 km

Extending the single photon transmission distance is a basic requirement for the implementation of quantum communication on a global scale. In this work we report the single photon exchange from a medium Earth orbit satellite (MEO) at more than 7000 km of slanted distance to the ground station at the Matera Laser Ranging Observatory. The single photon transmitter was realized by exploiting the corner cube retro-reflectors mounted on the LAGEOS-2 satellite. Long duration of data collection is possible with such altitude, up to 43 minutes in a single passage. The mean number of photons per pulse ({\mu}sat) has been limited to 1 for 200 seconds, resulting in an average detection rate of 3.0 cps and a signal to noise ratio of 1.5. The feasibility of single photon exchange from MEO satellites paves the way to tests of Quantum Mechanics in moving frames and to global Quantum Information.Comment: 5 pages, updated versio

End-to-end optimization of coherent optical communications over the split-step Fourier method guided by the nonlinear Fourier transform theory

Optimizing modulation and detection strategies for a given channel is critical to maximize the throughput of a communication system. Such an optimization can be easily carried out analytically for channels that admit closed-form analytical models. However, this task becomes extremely challenging for nonlinear dispersive channels such as the optical fiber. End-to-end optimization through autoencoders (AEs) can be applied to define symbol-to-waveform (modulation) and waveform-to-symbol (detection) mappings, but so far it has been mainly shown for systems relying on approximate channel models. Here, for the first time, we propose an AE scheme applied to the full optical channel described by the nonlinear Schr\{"o}dinger equation (NLSE). Transmitter and receiver are jointly optimized through the split-step Fourier method (SSFM) which accurately models an optical fiber. In this first numerical analysis, the detection is performed by a neural network (NN), whereas the symbol-to-waveform mapping is aided by the nonlinear Fourier transform (NFT) theory in order to simplify and guide the optimization on the modulation side. This proof-of-concept AE scheme is thus benchmarked against a standard NFT-based system and a threefold increase in achievable distance (from 2000 to 6640 km) is demonstrated

Probabilistically Shaped 4-PAM for Short-Reach IM/DD Links with a Peak Power Constraint

Probabilistic shaping for intensity modulation and direct detection (IM/DD) links is discussed and a peak power constraint determined by the limited modulation extinction ratio (ER) of optical modulators is introduced. The input distribution of 4-ary unipolar pulse amplitude modulation (PAM) symbols is optimized for short-reach transmission links without optical amplification nor in-line dispersion compensation. The resulting distribution is symmetric around its mean allowing to use probabilistic amplitude shaping (PAS) to generate symbols that are protected by forward error correction (FEC) and that have the optimal input distribution. The numerical analysis is confirmed experimentally for both an additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channel and a fiber channel, showing gains in transmission reach and transmission rate, as well as rate adaptability.Comment: accepted for publication in Journal of Lightwave Technolog