All-optical generation of DFT-S-OFDM superchannels using periodic sinc pulses

Area of Science:

• Optical Communications
• Signal Processing

Background:

• Discrete-Fourier-transform spread (DFT-S) optical Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexed (OFDM) signals enhance nonlinearity performance in long-haul systems.
• DFT-S-OFDM can be utilized for constructing superchannels.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose and demonstrate all-optical generation and demultiplexing of DFT-S-OFDM superchannels.
• To compare DFT-S-OFDM superchannels with Orthogonally Time-Division Multiplexed (OrthTDM) systems.

Main Methods:

• Numerical simulations were employed to validate the proposed all-optical techniques.
• Comparison of symbol boundary synchronization between DFT-S-OFDM and OrthTDM.

Main Results:

• The feasibility of all-optical generation and demultiplexing of DFT-S-OFDM superchannels was numerically demonstrated.
• DFT-S-OFDM allows for superchannel formation without demultiplexing penalties, unlike OrthTDM.

Conclusions:

• DFT-S-OFDM is a viable technology for creating robust optical superchannels.
• The synchronization advantage of DFT-S-OFDM enables penalty-free superchannel demultiplexing, a key differentiator from OrthTDM.