Linear and nonlinear distortion effects in direct detection 40Â Gb/s MSK modulation formats multi-span optically amplified transmission

The generation of minimum shift keying (MSK) requires a linear variation of the phase, hence a constant frequency of the optical carrier. However, the generation of the optical phase may be preferred by driving an optical modulator using sinusoidal signal for practical implementation. Thus a nonlinear variation of the carrier phase, hence some distortion effects are produced. In this paper, we investigate the use of linear and nonlinear phase shaping filtering and their impacts on MSK modulated optical signals transmission over optically amplified long haul communications system. The evolution of the phasor of the in-phase and quadrature components is illustrated for lightwave-modulated signal transmission. The distinct features of three different MSK modulation formats: linear MSK, weakly nonlinear MSK and strongly nonlinear MSK and their transmission are simulated. Transmission performance obtained indicates the resilience of the MSK signals in transmission over multi-optically amplified multi-spans.