Joint Compensation of Linear and Nonlinear Fiber Impairments using Digital Backpropagation

Ezra Ip, Joseph M. Kahn

Stanford University, USA

2008 SPRC Annual Symposium

Outline
 Transmission impairments  Coherent receiver  Nonlinear phase noise


Existing compensation methods

 Digital backpropagation
 

Split-Step Fourier Method (SSFM) Simplified non-iterative, asymmetric SSFM

 Simulation results


QPSK transmission in long-haul systems with erbium-doped fiber amplifiers and dispersion-compensation fiber System performance vs. dispersion map and transmission distance

Transmission Impairments
 Amplified spontaneous emission


White noise: cannot be compensated.

 Laser phase noise



Correlated noise: can be compensated effectively.

 Linear impairments


Chromatic dispersion (CD), polarization-mode dispersion (PMD), timing error Unitary: can be compensated without loss. Optical filtering, polarization-dependent loss Non-unitary: can be compensated with loss.

 Kerr nonlinearity


Signal-signal: self-phase modulation (SPM), cross-phase modulation (XPM), four-wave mixing (FWM) Deterministic: can be compensated more effectively. Signal-noise: nonlinear phase noise (NLPN) Non-deterministic: can be compensated less effectively.

Coherent Receiver with Digital Signal Processing

MZ Modulator Fiber (CD / PMD) 90
Hybrid

p(t) y1(t) p(t) p(t) y2(t) p(t)

t=kT Re{y1,k} t=kT Im{y1,k}

MZ Modulator

DSP
t=kT Re{y2,k} t=kT Im{y2,k}

90
Hybrid

Dual-Polarization Transmitter

Dual-Polarization Receiver

 Homodyne downconverter linearly translates E-field from optical to electrical domain, recovering I and Q in x and y polarizations.  Provided downconverter outputs are sampled at sufficient rate, signal processing can effectively compensate for transmission impairments.

Receiver-Based Nonlinearity Compensation

 Nonlinear phase noise compensation in dispersionless systems (Liu et al 2002, Xiu et al 2002, Kahn 2004)
   

Exploits the correlation between the received instantaneous phase and intensity. Rotate the received signal by a phase proportional to the received intensity. Low implementation complexity. Effective only when the accumulated dispersion is small where the power is high (i.e., channel well-modeled as dispersionless).

 Intra-channel four-wave mixing compensation (Lau and Kahn 2007)

 

Exploits the temporal correlation of the received phase shifts induced by IFWM (interaction of SPM with CD). Can be implemented as part of carrier recovery, so adds no system complexity

 Digital backpropagation (Li et al 2008, Ip and Kahn 2008)

  

A universal method to jointly compensate nonlinearity and dispersion. An iterative technique with high complexity. Deterministic effects are compensated effectively, non-deterministic effects are compensated partially.

Nonlinear Phase Noise I

 Gordon and Mollenauer 1990.  Arises from Kerr effect: change in refractive index (n is proportional

to signal intensity |E|2.

 Optical amplifiers add noise, so intensity fluctuates randomly, resulting in

random phase noise.

TX
Span 1 Span 2

.
Span Nspan

RX

 In absence of dispersion, the nonlinear phase shift is given by:

J NL ! KLeff

2 2 A  m1  .  A  m1  .  mN span

A = launched amplitude mi = ASE added by ith EDFA

Nonlinear Phase Noise II

Received phase shift JNL is correlated to received intensity, so constellation is spiral-shaped. Optimized compensation algorithm (Ho and Kahn 2004): Re
y0 t
Signal

Ae  jJ NL

Im

y t

exp

 j\ y t
2 0

NLPN Compensator

Optimal de-rotation: NLPN variance is reduced by four:

\ opt }
2 W J

1 N spanKLeff 2

1 2 } W J NL \P NL 4

Experimental Verification
 Charlet et al 2006.  40 Gbit/s QPSK in one polarization over 3,060 km.  All-Raman amplification.  Electronic NLPN compensation used at receiver.

Long-Haul Terrestrial System

TX
SMF DCF Nspan Rb = 21.4 Gbit/s, 50% RZ-QPSK in 1 polarization Nspan = 25 SMF: smf = 0.2 dB/km Dsmf = 17 ps/nm-km 1 1 smf = 0.0013 m W Lsmf = 80 km DCF: dcf = 0.6 dB/km Ddcf = 80 ps/nm-km 1 1 dcf = 0.0053 m W Ldcf = 15 km EDFA:

RX

1 E smf Lsmf  G ! exp 2 E dcf Ldcf F = 5 dB

 12% undercompensation per span provides pulse walkoff to reduce XPM.  Coherent receiver uses oversampling rate of M/K = 2.

Simulation Results for 21.4 Gb/s RZ-QPSK

0.3

0.3
P ha se E rror s.d. (ra d)
0.25

Lin. E q. O nly q. O nly Lin. E N LP N + Lin. E q. N LP B ackprop. N + Lin. E q. A W G N ackprop. B Lim it

P ha se E rror s.d. (ra d)

A W G N Lim it

0.25 0.2
0.15

0.2
0.1

0.15 0.05
0 -8 -6 -4 -2 0 2 4

0.1

Launch P owe r (dBm )

 Interaction between dispersion and nonlinearity causes simple nonlinear compensation to fail.
0 -8 -6 -4 -2 0 2

0.05

9 4

Launch P owe r (dBm )

Backpropagation
 Signal propagation in the presence of nonlinearity and dispersion is governed by the nonlinear Schrdinger equation:

F2 x2 E E xE 2 j  E ! jK E E 2 xt 2 2 xz
 The NLSE is an invertible equation.

Forward Propagation

 Given the output of the fiber, we can backpropagate the signal through a fictitious fiber having opposite signs of , 2, and to find the input signal.

F2 x2E E xE 2 j  E !  jK E E 2 xt 2 2 xz

Backward Propagation

 A coherent receiver recovers the E-field, so backward propagation can be done numerically using the split-step Fourier method.  SPM, XPM and FWM are deterministic effects, and can be exactly compensated by backpropagation, at least in the absence of ASE.

10

Split-Step Fourier Method (I)

xE ! DN E xz

NLSE

Linear & Nonlinear operators Split-Step Approximation

F2 x2 E D!j  2 2 xt 2

2 N ! jK E

N z  N z  h h exp h D E z , t E z  h, t } exp D exp 2 2 2

E z , t

E z  h, t

D 2

N
Iterate

D 2

h = step size

 Need to divide fiber into many steps. Each step is solved iteratively.  Leads to very high computational complexity.

11

Split-Step Fourier Method (II)

 In the limit that the step size h is small, neglecting iteration, we have:

D 2

D 2

D 2

N

D 2

Forward NLSE

Backward NLSE

 The linear operator is a phase multiplication in the frequency domain.  The nonlinear operator is a phase multiplication in the time domain.  Both operators are exactly invertible!

 D 2 exactly inverts N
exactly inverts

D 2 N

12

Backpropagation Receiver

E s t

SinglePol. Downconvert.

p t
T !

yk
K Ts M

Backprop.

M K

FF. xk Carrier Sync.

Symb. Dec.

?xk AD

LO

 The NLPN Compensation function block is replaced by digital backpropagation performed at an oversampling rate M/K.  Since backpropagation has compensated all linear and nonlinear effects, the equalizer has become a fixed down-sampler.

13

Simplified Backpropagation Asymmetric Split-Step Fourier Method

System Model

TX
SMF
1 span

DCF Nspan

RX

Power Profile
Distance

Nonlinear effects are concentrated at the beginning of a fiber

Mathematical Model

TX
e

smf

j \ NL , smf

 Step size h = length of a fiber. Perform only one iteration per step.  Greatly reduced computational complexity.


e
j \ NL , dcf

H dcf [
2

RX
N span

14

Long-Haul Terrestrial System

TX
SMF DCF Nspan Rb = 21.4 Gbit/s, 50% RZ-QPSK in 1 polarization Nspan = 25 SMF: smf = 0.2 dB/km Dsmf = 17 ps/nm-km 1 1 smf = 0.0013 m W Lsmf = 80 km DCF: dcf = 0.6 dB/km Ddcf = 80 ps/nm-km 1 1 dcf = 0.0053 m W Ldcf = 15 km EDFA:

RX

1 E smf Lsmf  G ! exp 2 E dcf Ldcf F = 5 dB

 12% undercompensation per span provides pulse walkoff to reduce XPM.  Coherent receiver uses oversampling rate of M/K = 2.

15

Simulation Results for 21.4 Gb/s RZ-QPSK

0.3

0.3
P ha se E rror s.d. (ra d)
0.25

Lin. E q. O nly q. O nly Lin. E N LP N + Lin. E q. N LP B ackprop. N + Lin. E q. A W G N ackprop. B Lim it

P ha se E rror s.d. (ra d)

A W G N Lim it

0.25 0.2
0.15

0.2
0.1

0.15 0.05
0 -8 -6 -4 -2 0 2 4

0.1

Launch P owe r (dBm )

 Simplified backpropagation yields superior performance compared to other techniques

0 -8 -6 -4 -2 0 2

0.05

16 4

Launch P owe r (dBm )

Long-Haul Terrestrial System with Variable Inline Dispersion Compensation

TX
SMF DCF Nspan Rb = 21.4 Gbit/s, 50% RZ-QPSK in 1 polarization Nspan = 25 SMF: smf = 0.2 dB/km Dsmf = 17 ps/nm-km 1 1 smf = 0.0013 m W Lsmf = 80 km DCF: dcf = 0.6 dB/km Ddcf = 80 ps/nm-km 1 1 dcf = 0.0053 m W Ldcf = variable EDFA:

RX

1 E smf Lsmf  G ! exp 2 E dcf Ldcf F = 5 dB

 Vary Ldcf to vary inline dispersion compensation.  Vary oversampling ratio M/K in coherent receiver.

17

Simplified Backpropagation Results for 21.4 Gb/s RZ-QPSK

0.25 0.25
M /K M /K = = 3/2 M /K = 2 M /K = M /K = 3 M /K M /K = = 4 A W G N/K = M Lim it

0.25 0.25 3/2 2 3 4 AW G N Lim it M /K = 3/2 M /K = 2 M /K = 3 M /K = 4 AW G N Lim it

0.2

0.2

P ha se E rr r s.d. (ra d)

0.15

P ha se E rr r s.d. (ra d)

P ha se E rr r s.d. (ra d)

P ha se E rr r s.d. (ra d)

0.2

0.2
0.15

0.15
0.1

0.05 0.1

0 -8

-6

-4

-2

0 -8

0% CD under-compensation per span -6 -4 -2 0

Launch P we r (dBm )

0 2-8

5% CD under-compensation per span 4-6 -4 -2 0

Launch P we r (dBm )

0.05

Launch P w e r (dBm )

0.15
0.1

0.05 0.1

0 -8

-6

-4

-2

0.05

Launch P w r (dBm )

18

Simplified Backpropagation Results for 21.4 Gb/s RZ-QPSK

0.25 0.25

0.2

rror s. . ra d)

0.2
0. 5

0. 5
0.

P ha se

0.05 0.

0.05

Launch o

Launch o e r dBm )

2-

P ow r (

19

'

10% CD under-compensation per 0 span -8 -6 -4 -2 0

S R QP I H G F

-6

-4

-2

P ow r (

100% CD under-compensation per span 4-

!      

0 -8

21 1

31  #"  %$ 23 1 $  & # 01 &

.

rror s.d. ra d)

E rror . . (r

E rror . . (r

ha se

M / = /2 M/ = 2 M/ = M/ = 4 AW G N Lim i

..

D C B A@ 9 8 )654 7654 0654 07654

/ / / / / i i

20 1
..

Y ` Y Y ` Y

V U

Discussion of Simplified Backpropagation Results

 The best performance is obtained at 100% CD under-compensation:
 

DCF incurs loss and nonlinearity; digital CD compensation incurs neither. CD causes out-of-band noise to walk off from the signal.

 Significant performance improvement is obtained by increasing oversampling ratio to at least 3v:

 

The nonlinear term in the NLSE is third-order in the electric field. Signal processing performed at an insufficient rate leads to aliasing when the nonlinear operator is applied, causing the digital BP solution to diverge from the analog BP solution.

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Transmission Distance for 21.4 Gb/s RZ-QPSK

100% CD under-compensation, 0 dBm launch power
h
B -1S B 0.25 -S S F 10 Lin. . O nly G N Lim i B -1S B -S S F 10 Lin. . O nly G N Lim i

0.2

0.2

rror s.d. (ra d)

or s.d. (ra d)

rror s.d. (ra d)

0.15

0.15

ha se

h se

0.1

0.15

0.1

0.05

0.05

ha se

0.1
0 70

No. of s a ns

0.05

N o. of s ans

2v oversampling
0 0 10 20

3v oversampling
No. of s ans

30 40 50 60 70 800 20 30 80  To achieve BER = 103, QPSK10needs phase 40 error50 s.d. 60 0.23 rad. < 70

No. of s ans

 Using 2v or 3v oversampling ratio, backpropagation enables

transmission well over 8080 km = 6,400 km of SMF.

10

20

30

40

50

60

80

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

rq

ff

rq

B -1S B -S S F 1 0 Lin. . O nly 0.2 G N Lim i

B -1S B -S S F 1 0 Lin. . O nly G N Lim i

pi

g g

pi

g g

0.25

0.25

y t w

v u

80

21

Conclusions
 Ignoring ASE, the NLSE is invertible. BP is a universal method to compensate linear and nonlinear, single-channel and multichannel impairments.  Signal-signal nonlinearities, such as SPM, XPM and FWM, are deterministic, and can be compensated effectively. Signal-noise nonlinearities, such as NLPN, are non-deterministic, and can be compensated partially.  ASE causes random fluctuations in the received amplitude, causes the BP output to diverge from the correct solution.  When using BP, system performance is optimized by:
 

Omitting DCF Using 3v oversampling.

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Future Work
 Investigate the performance of BP for multichannel systems, dualpolarization systems and other modulation formats.  Information-theoretic capacity of nonlinear fiber using BP compensation is open problem.

23