Hybrid PAPR reduction scheme with Huffman coding and DFT-spread technique for direct-detection optical OFDM systems

High peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) of the transmit signal is a major drawback in optical orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OOFDM) system. In this paper, we propose and experimentally demonstrate a novel hybrid scheme, combined the Huffman coding and Discrete Fourier Transmission-Spread (DFT-spread), in order to reduce high PAPR in a 16-QAM short-reach intensity-modulated and direct-detection OOFDM (IMDD-OOFDM) system. The experimental results demonstrated that the hybrid scheme can reduce the PAPR by about 1.5, 2, 3 and 6 dB, and achieve 1.5, 1, 2.5 and 3 dB receiver sensitivity improvement compared to clipping, DFT-spread and Huffman coding and original OFDM signals, respectively, at an error vector magnitude (EVM) of −10 dB after transmission over 20 km standard single-mode fiber (SSMF). Furthermore, the throughput gain can be of the order of 30% by using the hybrid scheme compared with the cases of without applying the Huffman coding.