Nonlinear Electrical Equalization for Different Modulation Formats With Optical Filtering

Based on bit-error-ratio simulations, we investigate electrical-dispersion-compensation performance by using a nonlinear electrical equalizer based on nonlinear Volterra theory for different modulation formats. This nonlinear equalizer is compared to conventional decision-feedback equalizer as well as to maximum-likelihood sequence estimation. Especially, we show that nonlinear equalizers, in conjunction with narrowband optical filtering of the light signal, result in improved performance. First of all, the system can benefit from the noise reduction due to narrowband filtering. Second, interacting with chromatic dispersion, nonlinear equalizers benefit from the improved dispersion tolerance through spectrum reshaping by narrowband optical filtering. Finally, nonlinear equalizers can efficiently mitigate the distortion resulting from strong optical filtering