Piecewise Linear Equalizer for DML based PAM-4 Signal Transmission over a Dispersion Uncompensated Link

Yan Fu, Deming Kong, Haiyun Xin, Shi Jia, Kuo Zhang, Meihua Bi, Weisheng Hu, Hao Hu

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    Abstract

    Directly modulated laser (DML) and direct detection (DD) based pulse-amplitude modulation (PAM) for short reach optical communications has attracted lots of research interests due to its low cost and simple configuration. However, the directly modulated PAM signal usually suffers from distortions after the transmission over a dispersion uncompensated link. Due to the adiabatic chirp of the DML working in a high output power region, different intensity levels of the PAM signal correspond to different frequency offsets, thus resulting in amplitude-dependent skew after the transmission over a dispersion uncompensated link. It will degrade signal quality and limit transmission distance. In this paper, we, for the first time, propose a computational efficient piecewise linear (PWL) equalizer to correct the amplitude-dependent skew due to the interaction between the DML chirp and chromatic dispersion in the fiber. By using the PWL equalizer, the amplitude-dependent skew is corrected, and we successfully transmit 56 Gb/s PAM-4 signal over 40 km and 84 Gb/s PAM-4 signal over 20 km dispersion uncompensated link in the C band, with a bit error ratio (BER) below the HD-FEC threshold (${3.8\times10^{-3}}$). To demonstrate the low computational complexity of the PWL, we compare its complexity with 2nd order Volterra equalizer for a similar BER performance. The results show that the computational complexity can be reduced by 61.4% and 40.4% for the 56 Gb/s and 84 Gb/s PAM-4 signal transmission, respectively.
    Original languageEnglish
    JournalJournal of Lightwave Technology
    Volume38
    Issue number3
    Pages (from-to)654 - 660
    ISSN0733-8724
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2019

    Keywords

    • Linear equalizer
    • Direct-modulated laser
    • Pulse-amplitude modulation
    • Direct detection
    • Digital signal processing

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