Multi-Level Pseudo Random Sequence Generation for Coherent Optical Transmission Systems

Coherent optical transmission systems use multiple-bits-per-symbol for improving spectral efficiencies and hence data rates. However, standards for generating test sequences for evaluating these systems do not exist and delay-decorrelated binary sequences are commonly used. These sequences may not result in the worst case symbol sequences, which can lead to incorrect BER estimation. Here we propose a method for evaluating these sequences and show an approach that can standardize these sequences using the rank of the matrix generating them.