Influence of nonlinear effects in WDM system with non-equidistant channel spacing using different types of high-order PSK and QAM modulation formats

The objective of this paper is to investigate nonlinear effects in Wavelength-Division Multiplex (WDM) systems in the case when different types of high-order M-PSK and M-QAM modulation formats for various structures of channel spacing are used optical signals. In general, the degradation mechanisms are caused by transmitted optical signals and their impact on each optical channel in WDM can be very different. Therefore, it is suitable to investigate possibilities for channel arrangement from the point of view of equidistant and non-equidistant channel spacing, respectively, what would lead to the suppression of nonlinear effects. In this article we investigate new types of high-order modulation formats that have ability for increasing of spectral efficiency and total improvement of performance of the transmission WDM system. The attention is put on two classes of channel spacing in WDM system, equidistant channel spacing (f= 100, 50, 25 and 12.5 GHz) and non-equidistant channel spacing (f≠ const.), respectively. For investigation of signal propagation the numerical model is created. The model is based on mathematical method Symmetrical-Split Step Fourier Method (S-SSFM), which is utilized for solving the coupled nonlinear Schr�dinger's equations (CNLSE) describing the transmission of signals in multichannel systems. The results of the created numerical model are analyzed, compared to each other and interpreted in a way that leads to the determination of suitable high-order modulation formats and we try to propose the optimal arrangement of optical channels in WDM system. The key issue is to suppress the impact of nonlinearities on modulated signals for each channel with respect to the employed types of digital modulation formats, various system parameters, different types of optical fibers and localization of reference channel in the wavelength area.