Performance Evaluation of Digital Back-Propagation in the Presence of Power Excursion

• Published in: IEEE photonics technology letters Vol. 33; no. 18; pp. 1010 - 1013
• Main Authors: Huang, Xiatao, Yi, Xingwen, Jin, Taowei, Zhang, Jing, Xu, Bo, Li, Fan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York IEEE 15.09.2021; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Back propagation; Kerr nonlinearity; Nonlinear signal-noise interference; Nonlinearity; optical fiber communications; Optical fiber dispersion; Optical fiber networks; Optical fiber polarization; Optical fibers; Optical polarization; Optical transmitters; Performance degradation; Performance evaluation; Signal to noise ratio
• ISSN: 1041-1135; 1941-0174
• DOI: 10.1109/LPT.2021.3083260

An accurate power map is mandatory to evaluate the performance of optical fiber transmissions in the nonlinear transmission region. In this letter, we discuss the performance variation in dispersion unmanaged fiber links due to power excursions, overarching the fiber nonlinearity that imposes a fundamental limit on the capacity of optical fiber transmissions. After using digital back-propagation (DBP) in optical fiber transmissions, the performance degradation due to power excursions shows different characteristics, depending on the location of the power excursion. Further, due to the cascading effect of the nonlinear signal-noise interaction (NSNI), the power excursion on the latter spans exerts a greater impact than that on the front spans. We implement a polarization-multiplexed 16-QAM over 12 spans of standard single-mode fiber (SSMF) experiment. The experimental results verify our theoretical analyses that the received SNRs after DBP can be sensitive to the power excursion and its location.