Fiber-optical networks are a crucial telecommunication infrastructure in
society. Wavelength division multiplexing allows for transmitting parallel data
streams over the fiber bandwidth, and coherent detection enables the use of
sophisticated modulation formats and electronic compensation of signal
impairments. In the future, optical frequency combs may replace multiple lasers
used for the different wavelength channels. We demonstrate two novel signal
processing schemes that take advantage of the broadband phase coherence of
optical frequency combs. This approach allows for a more efficient estimation
and compensation of optical phase noise in coherent communication systems,
which can significantly simplify the signal processing or increase the
transmission performance. With further advances in space division multiplexing
and chip-scale frequency comb sources, these findings pave the way for compact
energy-efficient optical transceivers.Comment: 17 pages, 9 figure
