K-Over-L Multidimensional Position Modulation

We analyze a family of modulation formats based on multidimensional position modulation (MDPM) with multiple pulses per frame (K-over-L-MDPM) in combination with quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK), polarization multiplexed QPSK (PM-QPSK) and polarization-switched QPSK (PS-QPSK) for coherent communication systems. MDPM is a generalization of pulse position modulation where different pulse slots can be realized by time slots, polarization states, frequencies, modes of multimode fibers, cores in multicore fibers or a combination of these. We show that by using K-over-L-MDPM with QPSK, it is possible to simultaneously increase both the spectral efficiency and the asymptotic power efficiency over QPSK. We also identify K-ary inverse-MDPM (KiMDPM-QPSK) as the special case of K-over-(K - 1)-MDPM and show that 4iMDPM-QPSK has a 1.25 dB increased asymptotic power efficiency over QPSK with a maintained spectral efficiency.