A Comparison of Electrical and Optical Dispersion Compensation for 111-Gb/s POLMUX-RZ-DQPSK

• Published in: Journal of lightwave technology Vol. 27; no. 16; pp. 3590 - 3598
• Main Authors: Alfiad, M.S., van den Borne, D., Jansen, S.L., Wuth, T., Kuschnerov, M., Grosso, G., Napoli, A., de Waardt, H.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York IEEE 15.08.2009; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: 100-Gb ethernet; Coherent detection; Compensation; Delay; differential group delay (DGD); Digital signal processing; dispersion map; Dispersions; Equalizers; Fiber nonlinear optics; Group delay; Links; Multiplexing; Nonlinear optics; Nonlinearity; Optical modulation; Optical polarization; Optical receivers; Optical signal processing; Phase shift keying; polarization-multiplexed differential quadrature phase-shift keying (POLMUX- DQPSK); Tolerances
• ISSN: 0733-8724; 1558-2213
• DOI: 10.1109/JLT.2009.2023534

In this paper, we experimentally investigate the tolerance of 111-Gb/s polarization multiplexed return-to-zero differential quadrature phase-shift keying (POLMUX-RZ-DQPSK) signals with respect to nonlinear impairments in a link with either (inline) optical or (receiver-side) electrical dispersion compensation. After transmission of more than 2000 km of LEAF, a comparable nonlinear tolerance is observed for both dispersion maps. However, we observe that in the presence of differential group delay (DGD) the nonlinear tolerance of the transmission link with in-line optical dispersion compensation is reduced significantly, whereas the nonlinear tolerance of the configuration with receiver-side dispersion compensation is virtually unaffected.