Coherent DWDM technology for high speed optical communications

The introduction of coherent digital optical transmission enables a new generation of high speed optical data transport and fiber impairment mitigation. An initial implementation of 40 Gb/s coherent systems using Dual Polarization Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (DP-QPSK) is already being installed in carrier networks. New systems running at 100 Gb/s DP-QPSK data rate are in development and early technology lab and field trial phase. Significant investment in the 100 Gb/s ecosystem (optical components, ASICs, transponders and systems) bodes well for commercial application in 2012 and beyond. Following in the footsteps of other telecommunications fields such as wireless and DSL, we can expect coherent optical transmission to evolve from QPSK to higher order modulations schemes such as Mary PSK and/or QAM. This will be an interesting area of research in coming years and poses significant challenges in terms of electro-optic, DSP, ADC/DAC design and fiber nonlinearity mitigation to reach practical implementation ready for real network deployments.

► A 100 Gb/s DP-QPSK coherent technology development. Rate adaptive MQAM architecture for beyond 100 Gb/s.