Extended-reach transmission of single-wavelength 112-Gbps PAM4 channel enabled by MLSE for intra data center applications

Abstract

We experimentally demonstrate single-wavelength 56-GBd PAM4 transmission at 1550 nm, without chromatic dispersion compensation in the optical domain, focusing on short-reach intra data center applications. We obtained an extended-reach of 33% employing low-complexity digital equalizers and maximum likelihood sequence estimation, achieving error-free operation up to 4 km, considering 7% FEC-overhead.