Dispersion related digital optical signal distortion and its compensation using coherent detection

Abstract

Optical signal dispersion imposes limits which are only bounded by the product of the transmission distance and the square of the modulation rate for all analyzed types of dispersion. This upper bound depends only on the material properties, the physical installation of the fiber and the signal wavelength. The digital domain dispersion compensation described below provides a flexible and robust solution to these limits even in the harsh environment where it is essential to deploy high speed communication easily.