PDM-16QAM vector signal generation and detection based on intensity modulation and direct detection

We experimentally demonstrate a novel and simple method to generate and detect high speed polarization-division-multiplexing 16-ary quadrature-amplitude-modulation (PDM-16QAM) vector signal enabled by Mach-Zehnder modulator-based (MZM-based) optical-carrier-suppression (OCS) intensity modulation and direct detection. Due to the adoption of OCS intensity modulation, carrier beating can be avoided at the receiver, and thus polarization de-multiplexing can be implemented by digital-signal-processing-based (DSP-based) cascaded multi-modulus algorithm (CMMA) equalization instead of a polarization tracking system. The change of both amplitude and phase information due to the adoption of OCS modulation can be equalized by DSP-based amplitude and phase precoding at the transmitter. Up to 64-Gb/s PDM-16QAM vector signal is generated and detected after 2-km single-mode fiber-28 (SMF-28) or 20-km large-effective-area fiber (LEAF) transmission with a bit-error-ratio (BER) less than the hard-decision forward-error-correction (HD-FEC) threshold of 3.8×10−3.