Next Generation FEC for High-Capacity Communication in Optical Transport Networks

Codes on graphs of interest for next generation forward error correction (FEC) in high-speed optical networks, namely turbo codes and low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes, are described in this invited paper. We describe both binary and nonbinary LDPC codes, their design, and decoding. We also discuss an FPGA implementation of decoders for binary LDPC codes. We then explain how to combine multilevel modulation and channel coding optimally by using coded modulation. Also, we describe an LDPC-coded turbo-equalizer as a candidate for dealing simultaneously with fiber nonlinearities, PMD, and residual chromatic dispersion.