Bit rate transparent interferometric noise mitigation utilizing the nonlinear modulation curve of electro-absorption...

Area of Science:

• Optical communications
• Photonics
• Signal processing

Background:

• Interferometric noise degrades optical signal quality.
• Existing noise mitigation techniques have limitations.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose and validate a bit-rate transparent interferometric noise mitigation scheme.
• To enhance receiver sensitivity and eye diagram quality.

Main Methods:

• Utilizing the nonlinear modulation curve of an electro-absorption modulator (EAM).
• Exploiting both the zero-slope and linear modulation regions of the EAM.
• Measuring power penalties at a bit error rate (BER) of 10^-9 under varying signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs).

Main Results:

• Achieved an 8.5 dB power penalty improvement for a signal with a 12.5 dB SNR.
• Successfully suppressed low-frequency interferometric noise using the EAM's amplitude suppression effect.
• Removed error floors in BER curves and improved receiver sensitivity.

Conclusions:

• The proposed EAM-based scheme effectively mitigates interferometric noise.
• The technique offers significant improvements in optical communication system performance.
• The method is bit-rate transparent, enhancing its applicability.