Net-432-Gb/s/λ PS-PAM transmission based on advanced DSP and single DAC for 400 G/λ IM/DD links

The escalating surge in datacenter traffic creates a pressing demand for augmenting the capacity of cost-effective intensity modulation and direct detection (IM/DD) systems. In this Letter, we report the demonstration of the single-lane 128-GBaud probabilistically shaped (PS)-PAM-20 IM/DD transmission using only a single digital-to-analog converter (DAC) for a net 400 G/λ system. Based on the advanced digital signal processing (DSP), we achieve net bitrates of up to 437 Gb/s for optical back-to-back and 432 Gb/s after the 0.5-km SSMF transmission in the C-band with 128-Gbaud PS-PAM-20 signals. This work is the latest demonstration on ultra-high-order PS-PAM signals achieving net bitrates exceeding 400 Gb/s despite symbol rate limitations. Notably, to the best of our knowledge, the realized net information rate ([net bitrate]/[symbol rate]) of 3.37 marks a new achievement within the domain of 400 G/λ IM/DD systems, with promising implications for enhancing bandwidth efficiency in the upcoming 1.6-Tb Ethernet scenario.