Doubling direct-detection data rate by polarization multiplexing of 16-QAM without active polarization control

We introduce and simulate a technique enabling to utilize the polarization dimension in direct-detection optical transmission, supporting polarization multiplexing (POL-MUX) over direct-detection (DD) methods previously demonstrated for a single polarization such as direct-detection OFDM. POL-MUX is currently precluded in self-coherent DD with remotely transmitted pilot, as signal x pilot components may randomly fade out. We propose POL-MUX transmission of advanced modulation formats, such as 16-QAM and higher, by means of a novel low-complexity photonic integrated optical front-end and adaptive 3x2 MIMO DSP. The principle of operation is as follows: an additional X x Y cross-polarizations signal is generated, providing three projections onto an over-complete frame of three dependent vectors. This enables to resiliently reconstruct the received state of polarization even when the remotely transmitted pilot fades along one of the received polarization axes.