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Nonlinear tolerance of differential phase shift keying modulated signals reduced by XPM
B. Spinnler
Siemens AG, C o p r o l e Technology, Otlo-Hohn-Rins 6.D-81739 Munich Germany -mil:BemhordSpinle~siemenr.com

N. Hecker-Denschlag, S . Calabrb, M. H e n , C.J. Weiske, E.-D. Schmidt

Siemenr AG, ICN Opricol Solutionr, Hofmmm~rasse 51, D-81359 Munich Gennony

D. van den Borne, G.-D. Khoe, H. de Waardt

COBRA Imtilufe. Eindhoven Universiv of Technology, 7he Nerherlondr

R Griffim, S. Wadsworth,
Bookhilm Technology PLC., Cowell. Tmvcesier. Norihonls, 12 8EQ England

Abstract: We show that in order to maintain the high nonlinear tolerance of the DQPSK modulation format, XPM from neighboring 00K-modulated channels must be avoided. The negative impact on IOGb/s DQPSK channels is higher than at 2OGb/s. 0 2003 Optical Society of America
OClS codes: (060.4510) optical communications, (060.5060) Phase d d s t i o n

1. Introduction Advanced phase modulation formats have been very successful in extending the reach and capacity of ultra long haul, high capacity, optical transmission systems [1,2]. This success is not only due to the use of balanced receivers for a gain of 3dE at the receiver, but also that D(Q)PSK modulation is less sensitive to non-optimum dispersion compensation [3] and also allows for a larger input power before nonlinear effects degrade the signal quality [4,5]. While the high nonlinear tolerance of systems running solely with D(Q)PSK can be exploited for extending the reach of high capacity systems or increasing amplifier spacing, the effect of mixed usage, i.e. combining OOK and D(Q)PSK modulation formats at different wavelengths, on the individual channel tolerances still needs to be determined. For instance mixed usage can occur when installed systems are upgraded with new modulation formats or when meshed networks come into operation. In such scenarios, wavelength channels with both D(Q)PSK and OOK modulation formats can become nearest neighbors and the nonlinear interactions must be understood. The rohusmess of binary DPSK in presence of NRZ modulated channels with 100 GHz spacing for transmission over SSMF has been discussed in [ 6 ] .In this paper we discuss the reduction of the nonlinear tolerance of NRZ-DQPSK because of XPM kom NRZ-OOK neighboring channels at a 50 GHz spacing. 50 GHz spacing is used instead of 100 GHz spacing as it represents the standard today for OOK systems and is more likely to be limited by XFM effects. 2. Experimental setup

The two experimental setups shown in fig. l a and l b were used to compare the transmission performance of five wavelength channels on a 50 GHz grid over 100 km SSh4F. The middle channel was always modulated with a 20 Gb/s DQPSK (IO GsymboM). In the first setup (fig. la) the four remaining channels were also 20 Gbis DQPSK modulated. In the second setup (fig. Ib) these channels were 10 Gb/s OOK modulated. We chose half the bit rate for the OOK channels in order to have similar spectral width of the two types of formats. Therefore, this bit rate seems a natural choice considering IO Gb/s OOK systems in operation today. The DQPSK modulation was achieved with a GaAs-based modulator [4] which is composed of two Mach-Zehnder interferometers (MZI) offset biased around the zero transmission point so that with a 10 Gb/s modulation, a phase difference between bits of II is obtained. Each of the MZI are modulated with the same pseudo-random bit sequence with a length 2-1, but a delay of 22 bits between the two allows for a decorrelation of the bits, since a precoder w a s unavailable. The two MZIs are combined with an added d 2 phase shifter in a super MZI structnre. We used a tunable dispersion compensator in order to optimize performance. Full compensation was found to be optimal for DQPSK. The total input power of the five wavelength channels was varied before the transmission fiber to study the effect of the XPM. At the end of line, we used a 0.2 nm passband filter to extract the channel under consideration.Differential demodulation was performed by an optical one-symbol delayed MZI. The two outputs of the demodulator were differentiallydetected with a balanced receiver and a limiting differential amplifier. In order to measure a BER, the receiver is given the corresponding bit sequence

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for detection of either the I or Q channel. At the output of the differential amplifier, a noise loading experiment was performed to determine the BERs of the middle channel as a function of the per channel power and OSNR. In the mixed modulation setup we additionally adjusted the polarization of the neighboring channels so that they were either parallel or orthogonal to the middle DQPSK channel under consideration in order to better observe the XPM effect. In the DQPSK-only setup all channels had an identical polarization. All channels have equal power independent of the modulation format.

Fe.1. Experimental

top with a) 5 DQPSK channels, b) one DQPSK channel sad 4 OOK rhaoarls

3. Results In order to assess the effect of XPM on the middle DQPSK channel, we made measurements and simulations for both systems shown in fig 1. We evaluated the BER of the DQPSK channel for various values of the transmitted power. Fig. 2 shows the measured BER versus OSNR for total input powers ranging from 7 to 18.5 dBm. The figures in the fist row show results obtained by measurements, the figures in the second row show the corresponding simulation results. The figures in the left column (a and d) present the BER for the system with five DQPSK channels, the figures in the middle column (b and e) show the BER for the system with one DQPSK channel and four OOK neighbors (all polarizations aligned parallel), and the figures in the right column (c and 9 show the results for the system with one DQPSK channel and four OOK neighbors (polarizations of the OOK channels orthogonal to that of the middle DQPSK channel). Let us first discuss the measurement results. It can be seen that in all cases the higher the launch power the more the performance is degraded by XPM from the neighboring channels. However, the results differ widely if we compare them quantitatively. When we increase the launch power from 7 to 16 dBm the OSNR penalty for the DQPSK-only system is about 2 . 5 dB at BER= If the polarization of the OOK neighboring channels is parallel to the DQPSK channel the penalty is 2 dB for 7 dBm launch power and the penalty for 16 dBm launch power could not be determined at because the signal is significantly degraded. When the polarization of the OOK neighboring channels is orthogonal to the DQPSK channel, the performance is equal to that of the DQPSK-only system for 7 dBm launch power, and the OSNR penalty for 16 dBm launch power is about 6 dB. The corresponding simulation results are shown in the second row of fig. 2. BE& above 10. were measured directly using Monte-Carlo simulation. For lower BERs we employed the tail extrapolation technique. While the results differ quantitatively h m the measurements because we did not include all relevant impairments into the simulation (e.g. in the simulation we did not include laser phase noise and used ideal filters, delmodulators and clock recovey), the general trend in the measurements and the simulations is the same. We observe only a slight degradation for an increase in the launch power when we use DQPSK for the neighboring channels. If we use OOK with parallel polarization with respect to the middle DQPSK channel for the neighboring channels, the degradation is dramatic. If we use OOK with orthogonal polarization with respect to the middle DQPSK channel, the degradation is still larger than in the DQPSK-only system, but far less than in the case with parallel polarized OOK neighbors. These results are in agreement with our measurements and support our claim that the performance of DQPSK depends very much on the type of the modulation format and polarization of the DQPSKs neighboring channels. A prevalent measure to further enhance the dispersion tolerance of DQPSK is the reduction of the data rate. In order to investigate the influence of the data rate we repeated the simulations corresponding to the setup shown in fig. Ih with the DQPSK data rate reduced to 10 Ghls. The neighboring channels again use 10 Gbls OOK with the same polarization (worst case). Fig. 3 compares the simulation results for the cases 20 Gbls (fig. 3a) and 10 Gbls (fig. 3b). While for low input power there is the usual 3 dB gain in favour of the 10 Gh/s system, we ohserve that for higher input power the IO Gbls system performs even worse than the 20 Gh/s system. Hence, the XPM from OOK neighbors is more detrimental for the 10 Gb/s channel than for the 20 Gbls channel. This effect has to he taken into account when an OOK channel is to be replaced by a more tolerant DQPSK channel with the same data rate.

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Fig. 2. BER of middle DQPSK channel ver301 OSNR 4 and d) 5 DQPSK rbannrls b) md e) DQPSK and 4 OOK cb~nncls(pohriutioa of d l channels paraUel), c) and r) DQPSK and 4 OOK rbaomb (polaliution of OOK channels ortboaoml to middle DQPSKchnneI). a)- c) Measurements, d)- l ) Sirnulatioar

Fe.3. Performnrc ef DQPSK wltb 4 10 GWS OOK neighboring rh~nnrls (polarization of U .

DQPSK channel rums s t 20 GWa (a) and 10 Gb/s ( b ) , mpeclively.

rbrmels panUeI). The

4. Conclusions

Since practically all systems today use OOK modulation, the tolerance to interference generated by neighboring OOK channels will become a major criterion for the deployment of optical alternative modulation schemes. In this paper we addressed the, for practical reasons, very important case of 10 and 20 Gb/s DQPSK channels being turned on in a 50 GHz WDM grid nearby 10 Gb/s OOK channels. We showed by measurements and simulations that a middle 20 Gbis DQPSK channel surrounded by four OOK channels suffers from a very large OSNR penally even for moderate launch powers when the polarization of the neighboring channels is aligned parallel to the middle channel. Part of this degradation is recovered when the polarization of the neighboring channels is orthogonal to the middle DQPSK channel. But this cannot be guaranteed unless polarization interleaving is emptoyed at the transmitter site. Furthermore, we showed by means of simulations that a 10 Gb/s DQPSK channel is even more vulnerable to the effect of XPM kom OOK neighboring channels for moderate to high launch power. However, elaborate dispersion maps can be chosen such that XPM interfercnce is minimized. A verification by measurements and thorough investigation of this issue represent an open field for future work.

5 . References
[I] C. Rasmussen er al. DWDM 4OG tmmmirsion over transPacific distances (10,wOhn) using CSRZ-DPSK, enhanced FEC a d all-llaman amplified 100 bn UltraWave fiber spans, OFC 2003,PDII. [Z] B.Zhu er 01. 6.4-?WE (160x 42.7GWs) transmission with 0.8 b i t l a spectral efficiency over 32 x I W km of fiber using CSRZ-DPSK format , OFC 2W3,PD19. [PI H.Bl.rcssurero1. 1.6~~(~x40Gb/s)DPSKhansmiuionwithdirstdctection, ECOC 2003.paper8.1.2. [4] R.A. Gtiffin er o/.IO GWs optical di&rential qusdrahln phase shiflkey (DQPSK)tmmmission using W A I G a A s integration OFC 2002

FD6. [SI C. Wnc el 01. RZ-DQPSK format with high spechal efficiency and high robustness towards fiber nonlkaritics, ECOC 2W2,paper 9.6.6.
[6] M. Rohdc er al., R o b m s of DPSK direct detection transmission format in standard fib= WDM systems,El&on. Lett Vol. 36,No.

I7,Aug.2oW,pp. 1483-4