Self-homodyne system for next generation intra-datacenter optical interconnects.

Area of Science:

• Optical Networking
• Telecommunications Engineering

Background:

• Intra-datacenter networks require high spectral efficiency and simplified signal processing.
• Current Intensity-Modulation/Direct-Detection (IM/DD) systems face limitations in spectral efficiency.
• Conventional coherent systems often involve complex digital signal processing.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose a novel self-homodyne system for next-generation intra-datacenter networking.
• To enhance spectral efficiency and reduce digital signal processing complexity.
• To achieve high data rates for 400G systems and beyond.

Main Methods:

• A self-homodyne system utilizing a single laser source for both modulated signal and local oscillator tone.
• Employing full-duplex fiber and circulators for remote coherent detection at the receiver.
• Experimental emulation of the proposed system architecture.

Main Results:

• Achieved data rates of 530 Gb/s, 448 Gb/s, and 320 Gb/s on a single wavelength.
• Demonstrated performance below the KP4 forward error correcting threshold.
• Successful transmission over 500 m, 2 km, and 10 km of single-mode fiber.

Conclusions:

• The proposed self-homodyne system offers higher spectral efficiency than IM/DD systems.
• It achieves reduced digital signal processing complexity compared to conventional coherent systems.
• The system's physical complexity is comparable to IM/DD systems for equivalent data rates (400G+).