Single-lane 180  Gb/s DB-PAM-4-signal transmission over an 80  km DCF-free SSMF link

We experimentally demonstrate the generation and successful transmission of a single-lane 180 Gb/s (90 GBd) duo-binary four-level pulse-amplitude modulation (DB-PAM-4) signal over an 80 km standard single-mode fiber with a net data-rate of 150 Gb/s, enabled by a dual-drive Mach-Zehnder modulator-aided dispersion pre-compensation. A net data rate of 168 Gb/s is also achievable, for ranges up to 40 km. To mitigate bandwidth limitations and error spreading, pre-coded DB-PAM-4 is used; the pre-coding provides a gain of approximately 1 dB. A Volterra filter and a maximum likelihood sequence estimator are used at the receiver side to reduce the linear and nonlinear distortions.