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Transmission of Multiple Signals through an Optical Fiber Using Wavefront Shaping
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Real-time transmission of geometrically-shaped signals using a software-defined GPU-based optical receiver.
Optics Express
|October 14, 2022
Summary
A novel software-defined optical receiver, utilizing a graphics processing unit (GPU), processes advanced Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) signals in real-time. This system achieved a 5 Gbps data rate over a 91 km fiber link.
Area of Science:
- Optical communications
- Signal processing
- Computer engineering
Background:
- Advanced modulation formats like Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) are crucial for increasing data rates in optical networks.
- Real-time signal processing for coherent detection presents significant computational challenges.
- Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) offer parallel processing capabilities that can be leveraged for complex signal processing tasks.
Purpose of the Study:
- To implement and validate a software-defined optical receiver on a commercial Graphics Processing Unit (GPU).
- To demonstrate real-time processing of various high-order Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) and geometrically shaped (GS) QAM signals using Kramers-Kronig (KK) coherent detection.
- To experimentally verify the receiver's performance over a deployed optical fiber link and assess its sensitivity to optical signal-to-noise ratio (OSNR).
Main Methods:
- Implementation of a software-defined optical receiver architecture on an off-the-shelf commercial GPU.
- Processing of 1 GBaud minimum phase (MP) 4-, 8-, 16-, 32-, 64-, 128-ary QAM and geometrically shaped (GS) 8- and 128-QAM signals.
- Utilizing Kramers-Kronig (KK) coherent detection for signal demodulation.
- Experimental validation over a 91 km field-deployed optical fiber link with detailed OSNR investigations.
Main Results:
- Successful real-time signal processing of multiple QAM formats (up to 128-ary) and GS-QAM signals.
- Demonstration of the receiver's functionality over a 91 km optical fiber link.
- Detailed analysis of performance variations with changing optical signal-to-noise ratio (OSNR).
- Achieved a net data rate of 5 Gbps using 64-QAM.
Conclusions:
- A software-defined optical receiver implemented on a GPU is feasible and effective for processing complex QAM signals.
- The GPU-based receiver demonstrates robust performance in a real-world optical fiber link.
- This approach offers a flexible and powerful solution for advanced optical communication systems.
