100 Gbit/s Nyquist-WDM PDM 16-QAM Transmission over 1200 km SMF-28 with Ultrahigh Spectrum Efficiency

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[Abstract] Nyquist wavelength-division multiplexing (N-WDM) allows high spectral efficiency (SE) in long-haul transmission systems. Compared to polarization-division multiplexing quadrature phase-shift keying (PDM-QPSK), multilevel modulation, such as PDM 16 quadrature-amplitude modulation (16-QAM), is much more sensitive to intrachannel noise and interchannel linear crosstalk caused by N-WDM. We experimentally generate and transmit a 6 × 128 Gbit/s N-WDM PDM 16-QAM signal over 1200 km single-mode fiber (SMF)-28 with amplification provided by an erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA) only. The net SE is 7.47 bit/s/Hz, which to the best of our knowledge is the highest SE for a signal with a bit rate beyond 100 Gbit/s using the PDM 16-QAM. Such SE was achieved by DSP pre-equalization of transmitter-side impairments and DSP post-equalization of channel and receiver-side impairments. Nyquist-band can be used in pre-equalization to enhance the tolerance of PDM 16-QAM to aggressive spectral shaping. The bit-error ratio (BER) for each of the 6 channels is smaller than the forward error correction (FEC) limit of 3.8 × 10-3 after 1200 km SMF-28 transmission.

[Keywords] 16-QAM; coherent detection; Nyquist wavelength-division multiplexing; Nyquist-band; pre-equalization; spectral efficiency; signal transmission