Nonlinear Mixing in Optical Multicarrier Systems

Abstract

Although optical fiber has a vast spectral bandwidth, efficient use of this bandwidth is still important in order to meet the ever increased capacity demand of optical networks. In addition to wavelength division multiplexing, it is possible to partition multiple low-rate subcarriers into each high speed wavelength channel. Multicarrier systems not only ensure efficient use of optical and electrical components, but also tolerate transmission impairments. The purpose of this research is to understand the impact of mixing among subcarriers in Radio-Over-Fiber (RoF) and high speed optical transmission systems, and experimentally demonstrate techniques to minimize this impact. We also analyze impact of clipping and quantization on multicarrier signals and compare bandwidth efficiency of two popular multiplexing techniques, namely, orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) and Nyquist modulation. For an OFDM-RoF system, we present a novel technique that minimizes the RF domain signal-signal beat interference (SSBI), relaxes the phase noise limit on the RF carrier, realizes the full potential of optical heterodyne-based RF carrier generation, and increases the performance-to-cost ratio of RoF systems. We demonstrate a RoF network that shares the same RF carrier for both downlink and uplink, avoiding the need of an additional RF oscillator in the customer unit. For multi-carrier optical transmission, we first experimentally compare performance degradations of coherent optical OFDM and single-carrier Nyquist pulse modulated systems in a nonlinear environment. We then experimentally evaluate SSBI compensation techniques in the presence of semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) induced nonlinearities for a multicarrier optical system with direct detection. We show that SSBI contamination can be significantly reduced from the data signal when the carrier-to-signal power ratio is sufficiently low.