Assessment of nonlinear equalization algorithms for coherent optical transmission systems using an FPGA

We demonstrate an hardware implementation of nonlinear equalization algorithms, numerically assessed using a polarization-multiplexed 16 quadrature amplitude modulation (PM-16QAM) transmission system. Nonlinear equalization is based on split-step Fourier (SSF) method and on a simplified Volterra series nonlinear equalizer (simVSNE). Hardware implementation is performed using a co-simulation strategy between MATLAB and Xilinx's ML605 Evaluation Kit. For the considered simulation scenario we have found that the simVSNE enables to approximately halve the latency associated with the SSF method, due to its lower spatial resolution requirements.