Adaptive Volterra Equalizer for optical OFDM modem

摘要

This paper addresses OFDM (orthogonal frequency division multiplexing) transmission over optical links with high spectral efficiency, i.e. by using high-order QAM-modulation schemes as a mapping method prior to the OFDM multicarrier representation. Here we address especially coherent optical OFDM modem in long distance which is affected by a nonlinear distortion caused by fiber nonlinearity as a major performance-limiting factor in advanced optical communication systems. We proposed a nonlinear electrical equalization scheme based on the Volterra model. Compared with other popular linear compensation technique such as the LMS (least Mean Square) and RLS (Recursive Least square), simulation results are presented to demonstrate the capability of a Volterra model based electrical equalizer used in a coherent optical orthogonal frequency division multiplexing system. It is shown that the Volterra model based equalizer can significantly reduce nonlinear distortion.