Real-time digital signal processing for coherent optical systems

Digital signal processing (DSP) is nowadays a key enabling technology in coherent optical transmission systems, triggering an increasing research effort on the development and optimization of DSP subsystems. The first DSP development step is often based on the use of simulation tools and offline processing of experimental data. Complementarily, real-time implementation is a critical implementation step to assess the performance and feasibility of advanced DSP subsystems. In this work, we address both the offline and real-time stages of development, supported by an experimental optical testbed. Real-time demonstration is enabled by an FPGA processing platform and 1.25 Gsample/s analog-to-digital conversion.