Decision-Aided Carrier Phase Estimation for Coherent Optical Communications

• Published in: Journal of lightwave technology 2010-06, Vol.28 (11), p.1597-1607
• Main Authors: Zhang, Shaoliang, Kam, Pooi-Yuen, Yu, Changyuan, Chen, Jian
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adaptive receiver; Applied sciences; block length effect (BLE); Carriers; Coherence length; coherent optical fiber communication; Computer simulation; decision-aided maximum likelihood (DA ML) carrier phase estimation; Detection, estimation, filtering, equalization, prediction; Exact sciences and technology; High speed optical techniques; Information, signal and communications theory; Mathematical analysis; Maximum likelihood estimation; Modulation, demodulation; Monte Carlo methods; Monte Carlo simulation; Optical feedback; Optical fiber communication; Optical fiber communications; Optical noise; Optical receivers; Optical signal processing; Optical telecommunications; Optimization; Phase error; Phase estimation; phase noise; Phase shift keying; PSK/QAM; Quadrature amplitude modulation; Receivers; Signal and communications theory; Signal, noise; Studies; Systems, networks and services of telecommunications; Telecommunications; Telecommunications and information theory; Transmission and modulation (techniques and equipments)
• ISSN: 0733-8724; 1558-2213
• DOI: 10.1109/JLT.2010.2048198

We analytically studied the block length effect (BLE) of decision-aided maximum likelihood (DA ML) carrier phase estimation in coherent optical phase-modulated systems. The results agree well with the trends found using extensive Monte Carlo simulations. In order to eliminate the BLE and accurately recover the carrier phase, an adaptive decision-aided (DA) receiver is proposed that does not require knowledge of the statistical characteristics of the carrier phase, or any parameter to be preset. The simulation results show that using the adaptive DA receiver, the maximum tolerance ratio of the linewidth per laser to symbol rate (¿vT) at a bit error rate (BER) = 10 -4 has been increased to 2.5 × 10 -4 , 4.1 × 10 -5 , and 9.5 × 10 -6 , respectively, for quadrature-, 8- and 16-phase-shift keying formats. The ratio (¿vT) of the adaptive DA receiver in 16 quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) is decreased to 2 × 10 -5 due to the constellation penalty from 2.5 × 10 -5 by using DA ML with optimum memory length, though it consistently performs well without optimizing any parameters as in DA ML. The phase error variance of the adaptive DA receiver is also analytically investigated. In addition, an analog-to-digital converter with bit resolution higher than 4 bits is shown to be sufficient to implement our adaptive DA receiver.