A survey on fiber nonlinearity compensation for 400 Gbps and beyond optical communication systems

Optical communication systems represent the backbone of modern communication networks. Since their deployment, different fiber technologies have been used to deal with optical fiber impairments such as dispersion-shifted fibers and dispersion-compensation fibers. In recent years, thanks to the introduction of coherent detection based systems, fiber impairments can be mitigated using digital signal processing (DSP) algorithms. Coherent systems are used in the current 100 Gbps wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) standard technology. They allow the increase of spectral efficiency by using multi-level modulation formats, and are combined with DSP techniques to combat the linear fiber distortions. In addition to linear impairments, the next generation 400 Gbps/1 Tbps WDM systems are also more affected by the fiber nonlinearity due to the Kerr effect. At high input power, the fiber nonlinear effects become more important and their compensation is required to improve the transmission performance. Several approaches have been proposed to deal with the fiber nonlinearity. In this paper, after a brief description of the Kerr-induced nonlinear effects, a survey on the fiber nonlinearity compensation (NLC) techniques is provided. We focus on the well-known NLC techniques and discuss their performance, as well as their implementation and complexity. An extension of the inter-subcarrier nonlinear interference canceler approach is also proposed. A performance evaluation of the well-known NLC techniques and the proposed approach is provided in the context of Nyquist and super-Nyquist superchannel systems.
Comment: Accepted in the IEEE Communications Surveys and Tutorials