Atlantic Sciences

Coherent Detection for Optical

Communications using Digital Signal
Processing
Michael G. Taylor

Optical Networks Group, University College London

and
Atlantic Sciences
e-mail: mtaylor@atlanticsciences.com
 Outline

 Why use coherent detection?

 Why is coherent detection feasible now? – arrival of real-time DSP
 Burst mode coherent detection experiments
 Constraints imposed by parallel digital processing – phase estimation
 Future developments & summary

2
 Benefits of coherent detection

 Optical gain
 Only light in close neigbourhood of local oscillator wavelength is seen by coherent
detection
 acts like an ultra-narrow WDM filter
 behaves as a tunable filter if tunable LO is used
 Phase encoded modulation formats can be detected
 e.g. binary (BPSK) & quadrature (QPSK) modulation formats have 3dB better
sensitivity than on-off formats
 QPSK carries 2 bits/symbol
 Equalisation of propagation impairments in electrical domain is equivalent to electric
field equalisation
 compensate for chromatic dispersion in IF using microstrip line

3
 Difficulties with coherent detection

 More complex receiver

 To get best sensitivity and detect high bit rate signals homodyne detection must
be used
 LO phase locked to incoming signal
 Polarisation management needed to match SOP of LO to incoming signal
 active polarisation control or polarisation diversity or polarisation switching
 To achieve best sensitivity synchronous detection needed
 electronics to lock to wandering phase

4
 Sampled coherent detection
 Apply real time digital signal processing technology to coherent detection
 already used in receivers for impairment compensation after direct detection
 "Hard" part of coherent detection will be done by a digital processor
 polarisation management
 phase estimation
 equalisation of propagation impairments
 Very flexible solution, since DSP can be reconfigured under software control
 inadequacies of transmitter/receiver hardware can be compensated in DSP
 All benefits of coherent detection available simultaneously
 detects phase- & polarisation-encoded formats
 allows many bits/symbol
 best possible receiver sensitivity
 ultra-narrow WDM
 etc.
 Transceiver can re-use transmit laser as local oscillator in receiver

5
 Quadrature sampling
90° hybrid - passive unit

incoming signal
sin(LOt)
DSP

cos(LOt)
local
photo- A/D
oscillator
detector converter
extra phase
shift by 90°
 Phase diverse apparatus used to combine signal & LO
 DSP unit processes a digitised representation of detected signals in two arms
 Polarisation tracking done by two 90° hybrids in polarisation diverse topology

 Local oscillator can be nominally same frequency as signal but not

phase locked to it

it  P  t   iP2 x  t  
E t   e  1x 
 P1 y  t   iP2 y  t  
 

6
Coherent detection experiments
 Proof of principle experiment

noise loading
apparatus
pattern real time
generator arrangement of fiber sampling
variable pigtailed passive photo-
10.7 Gb/s detector scope
attenuator EDFA splitters 20 GSa/s

phase
tunable laser 1nm filter
modulator
tunable laser

 Continuous sample 4s long recorded on scope, then processed later offline by PC
 BPSK modulation format
 Polarisation of LO matched only approximately to signal by manipulation of fiber coils
 90° phase shift achieved by coincidental difference in length between arms
 multiple samples recorded and then best result chosen

8
 How data from experiment is processed

Two waveforms downloaded from

oscilloscope.
Two channels combined to give
complex electric field.
Equalisation filter applied to each
channel - reverses non-flat
frequency response of electronics. For measurements over fiber, CD
Same filter applied to all data equalisation is applied.
sets.

Q factor calculated using decision

Clock frequency (10.66GHz) & threshold method (based on
beat envelope (about 100MHz) samples at bit centres).
recovered.

Smooth waveform by interpolating

Channels retimed to sample rate
points in between half bit times,
of 2 x clock frequency (alternate
and hence generate eye diagram.
samples at bit centre).

9
 Experiment results

 Example of measured data: OSNR = 31dB data point

waveforms at two outputs of 90° hybrid eye diagram

10
 Experiment results

 Each measured data point comes from a 4s sample

 Q calculated by decision threshold method
14

12 theoretical limit

10
Q

6 typical 10G IM-DD

transmitter-receiver
4
 Typical IM-DD result from5 Taylor 10
et al., ECOC152002 20 25 30
OSNR in 0.1nm (dB)
 Theoretical sensitivity from Yamamoto, J. Quantum Electron.,
QE-16, p. 1251, 1980 2.5dB 4.5dB

11
 Experiment results

 Equalisation done by convolution with 9 element vector (FIR filter – fractional

spacing)
 vector determined by simple adaptive process to give best Q

without equalisation with equalisation

Q = 8.3 Q = 12.7

12
 Why 2.5dB penalty?

 Early experiment showed sensitivity 2.5dB from theoretical minimum

 Penalty contributions are
 single element phase modulator was used instead of MZ modulator driven
through 2V – some wasted energy in quadrature component
 SOP of LO did not exactly match signal
 shape of transmit pulses not adjusted for zero intersymbol interference
 Receiver noise did not contribute to 2.5dB penalty
 By fixing contributors above it should be possible to demonstrate near theoretical
sensitivity using sampled coherent detection
 with or without propagation impairments
 Combined with appropriate FEC, Shannon limits should be achievable

13
 Experiment results: CD equalisation

 Chromatic dispersion compensation applied by simple convolution with vector (FIR filter)
 vector is impulse response of CD transfer function for 89km NDSF, truncated to 7 elements

14
FIR filter
12 0.6

89km NDSF 0.4

10 with CD equalisation 0.2

back-to-back 0
Q

-0.2
8
89km NDSF -0.4

-0.6
6
 Penalty from chromatic dispersion is reduced to zero
-0.3 -0.2 -0.1 0 0.1 0.2 0.3
time (ns)

4 real
5 10 15 20 25 30 imaginary
OSNR in 0.1nm (dB)

14
 Experiment results: CD equalisation
3
3

2
2

89km NDSF 1
1

without CD 0

equalisation
0

OSNR = 27dB -1
-1

Q = 5.3 -2 -2

-3 -3
0.96 0.98 1 1.02 1.04 1.06 1.08 1.1 1.12 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3
time (ns)
3
3

2
2

89km NDSF 1
1
with CD
0
equalisation 0

OSNR = 27dB -1
-1

Q = 12.3 -2
-2

-3 -3
0.96 0.98 1 1.02 1.04 1.06 1.08 1.1 1.12 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3
time (ns)

15
 2500km PM-QPSK transmission experiment
 4x10.7Gb/s polarisation multiplexed QPSK signal transmitted over 2480km NDSF
 Polarisation diverse (and phase diverse) coherent receiver
 Polarisation demultiplexing performed in digital domain, as well as phase estimation &
impairment compensation

10Gb/s PPG 40Gb/s PMQPSK

PRBS length=29-1
______
Delayed DATA Launch power=-5dBm
DATA PC
PBS
delay
NRZ-DQPSK Tx ~10ns TX AOM
1554.94 nm
Δλ=2MHz
LOOP AOM
PC

20Gb/s QPSK 80km 10/90

SMF

PBS
x PIN
Tekronix TDS6154C

50GHz AWG
DSP PIN
PC

(applied offline) y PIN

PIN 1554.94 nm
LO
Δλ=100kHz
PC
16
 2500km PM-QPSK transmission experiment

CD Frequency Carrier Decision

Ch1
x hxx + offset recovery
comp circuitry
Ch2
hxy

hyx

CD Frequency Carrier Ch3

y hyy + Decision
comp offset recovery circuitry Ch4
128 tap FIR 13 tap FIR
 PMD compensation performed using four adaptive FIR filters
 cross terms interact between polarisations
 tap coefficients updated using stochastic gradient constant modulus algorithm – no
training sequence
 Bit error rate after 2480km = 9.5x10-4 (average), 1.6x10-3 (worst quadrature)
 1.5dB penalty compared to back-to-back

17
 Other published results using sampled coherent
detection

 2.5b/s/Hz spectral density demonstrated bu U. Tokyo group (Tsukamoto et al.,

paper PD29, OFC 2005)
 10Gbaud QPSK, two polarisations muxed, 16GHz spaced
 record information spectral density

18
 Other published results using sampled coherent
detection

 Real time (not burst mode) coherent receiver demonstrated by U. Paderborn (Pfau et al.,
paper CThC5, COTA 2006)
 400Mbaud QPSK
 1MHz wide DFB lasers for transmitter & LO

 2.2Gbaud QPSK real time receiver built by Alcatel Lucent using Atmel A/D converters,
Xilinx FPGA (Leven et al., paper OThK4, OFC 2007)

19
 Other published results using sampled coherent
detection

 CoreOptics/Siemens/Eindhoven U. systems experiment (Fludger et al., OFC 2007,

paper PDP22)
 10 WDM channels x 111Gb/s (28Gbaud), 50GHz spaced, over 2375km NDSF
 Alcatel-Lucent systems experiment (Charlet et al., OFC 2007, paper PDP17)
 40 WDM channels x 40Gb/s (10Gbaud) PM-QPSK, 100GHz spaced, over
4080km
 post-detection compensation for 100ps mean PMD
 Nortel systems experiment (Laperle et al., OFC 2007, paper PDP16)
 40 WDM channels x 40Gb/s (10Gbaud) PM-QPSK, 50GHz spaced, over
3200km NDSF without inline DCF
 post-detection compensation of chromatic dispersion & 33ps mean PMD

20
How parallel computation architecture
impacts DSP – phase estimation
 Parallel DSP architectures

s
Ls

long delay
 The DSP must operate in parallel because maximum clock speed < symbol rate
 parallel operation is eqiuvalent to a delay in computing a result
 result n-1 is not available to compute result n
 algorithms employing feedback are compromised
 Phase estimation algorithms typically use feedback
 resolution is to reduce phase noise by employing low linewidth lasers
 DFB lasers and miniature external cavity lasers may have too large
linewidth to use for sampled coherent detection
22
 Open loop Wiener phase estimate

arg( ) Wiener filter exp( )

complex phase
signal ( ) 2
÷2 estimate

d ei + p ei2 + p` 

 Neglecting high order noise terms, applying small angle approximation

 = 2 + (additive noise component)

 Estimation theory says that best linear estimate of  is Wiener filter applied to 
quantity observed quantity we want
Gaussian random walk Gaussian noise

23
 Wiener filter responses

Zero lag Wiener filter Finite lag Wiener filter

1  D D
Dk k 
ˆ z   1
  z 1       1      z 

1  z     z
ˆ z   k 1
1  z 1
 w 2  2 p 2   w  w 2  4 p 2

2 p 2

 Finite lag Wiener filter is best, because it sees D symbols ahead in time as well as the past

24
 Look-ahead computation

 But the Wiener filters involve feedback to immediately preceding result – not allowed!
 Either Wiener filter can be written as


1
 To resolve, apply look-ahead computation zthese relationships refer to a distant past result,
1 so
feedback from previous result
L symbols ago
 multiply numerator and denominator by polynomial

L 1 L 1
   k z k
 k
k k
 z
0 k 0
 now uses feedback to1 LL symbols 
ago, at expense of more feedforward taps
1  z 1
1   L z L
 z k k
L symbols past
k 0

25
 Experiment
pattern
generator polarisation polarisation real time
variable controllers beamsplitter
1.5 Gb/s photo- sampling
attenuator 1.2nm filter detectors scope

DFB

MZ
modulator
(biased at EDFAs var. atten. OSA LO phase diverse
null) DFB hybrid
ASE source
 DFB lasers used for signal and LO laser
 combined linewidth  = 48MHz
 Low symbol rate 1.5Gbaud
 s = 0.032
 Long measurement burst 1ms duration, contains 1.5x10 6 symbols
 statistically significant number of bit errors & cycle slips seen
 Optical SNR = -5dB, in 0.5nm resolution bandwidth

26
 Results of experiment

 Look-ahead computation tested by comparing L = 1 case with L = 32 case

 found to give identical results
 Q-factor of 8.6dB obtained
 Example of estimated phase vs. time
 uses Wiener filter with D = 10
20

15
unwrapped phase (rad)

10

0
0 200 400 600 800 1000
-5

-10 time (ns)

27
Future possibilities for coherent detection
 Coherent optical add/drop
Ein(t) Eout(t)

LO in Eout(t)- Ein(t)

input modulation
from DSP
monitor subsystem

to DSP laser

 Inserted signal interferes with input signal to produce desired output signal
 Modulation on inserted signal must take into account optical phase and SOP of input
signal
 Can be applied as optical add/drop function, regenerator function
 enables add/drop to be implemented with minimal channel spacing

29
 Downconversion by analog multiplication
multipliers sums
photodetectors
optical signal I data out

local oscillator Q data out

phase diverse
hybrid
phase sin(t) cos(t)
estimate DSP
 Symbol rate for digital downconversion operation limited by availability of wideband
A/D converters, DSP fabric
 Analog multiply can use similar technology to tap weight in tapped delay line
 Weight input of multiplier must have bandwidth = maximum offset frequency, e.g.
1GHz
 Symbol rate of e.g. 40Gbaud possible using today’s technology
 good solution for 100 GigE

30
 Conclusions

 Coherent detection is the best mode of detection of optical signals

 offers best receiver sensitivity
 ultra-narrow WDM
 compensation of propagation impairments without residual penalty
 Introduction of real time DSP can overcome cost issues
 Sensitivity 2.5dB from theoretical limit demonstrated at 10Gb/s
 Compensation of chromatic dispersion, PMD over 2500km NDSF demonstrated
 Phase estimate can be made in a parallel digital processor with wide linewidth
lasers
 synchronous phase estimation has been performed for an optical signal having
s = 0.032

31
Additional slides
 Phase estimation
?

no noise phase noise only phase & amplitude noise

 Phase is estimated and applied to signal before making 1/0 decision

 Smoothing function is needed to reduce effect of additive noise and pass actual phase change
 Errors in the phase estimate lead to
 increase in number of bit errors
 cycle slip errors, i.e. data inversion in case of BPSK

33
 Optimal phase estimate

 Approach to phase estimation problem

 try to calculate optimal phase estimate
 try to implement optimal estimate on a parallel digital processor

 Best possible estimate of phase is maximum a posteriori (MAP) estimate

 joint estimate of phase (n) and data d(n) that maximises

r  n   d  n  e i  n     n     n  1  2
r(n) – complex signal  
2 2

2 w 2
n p
p2 – normalised variance of amplitude noise
 MAP estimate was calculated by applying a per survivor method to a group of symbols, and
calculating phase by successive Newton's approximation for each symbol group instance

34
 Phase unwrapping
 Wiener filter must operate on unwrapped phase, so argument function must include phase unwrapping
(n) = arg(s(n)) + g(n)
g(n) = g(n-1) + 2 f( arg(s(n)) - arg(s(n-1)) )
where f(x) = 1 if x < 
f(x) = 0 if |x| < 
f(x) = -1 if x > -
 g(n) keeps count of phase cycles
 However g(n) depends on g(n-1) in expression above – not allowed!
 Phase unwrapping function can also be recast using look-ahead computation to depend on result L symbols ago

 more computations needed than original version

 sum function can be calculated in log2(L) steps, so can always be calculated by processor of sufficient
parallelism

L 1
g  n   g  n  L   2  f  arg s n  k    arg s n  k  1  
k 0

35
 Phase estimation methods comparison

BPSK QPSK
PLL (with instant feedback) Wiener filtering, D = 20 Wiener filtering, D = 0
MAP phase estimate differential field detection
4 4

3 3
penalty (dB)

penalty (dB)
2 2

1 1

0 0
0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0 0.001 0.002 0.003 0.004
(symbol time).(linewidth) (symbol time).(linewidth)

 1dB penalty point at s = 0.014  1dB penalty point at s = 0.0016
36