Phase-to-intensity laser noise conversion due to band drop in DD-MB-OFDM networks employing virtual carriers

The phase-to-intensity conversion of laser noise due to the band drop in multi-band orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (MB-OFDM) metropolitan networks employing virtual carrier-assisted direct-detection technique is analysed. The impact of the band selector (BS) features used for band dropping on the performance degradation of the MB-OFDM signal caused by the laser phase noise is assessed by numerical simulation in single and multi-band operation. The performance degradation induced by the conversion of laser noise due to the BS is evaluated in 112 Gb/s MB-OFDM metro networks and compared with the degradation induced by the conversion caused by the fibre dispersion. The study is accomplished for laser linewidths typical of external cavity lasers and distributed feedback lasers.