Distributed Nonlinear Compensation Using Optoelectronic Circuits

This paper investigates the use of optoelectronic subsystems placed all the way along a fiber link to provide distributed mitigation of the distortion caused by the Kerr nonlinearity. These subsystems use power-dependent phase modulation to mitigate the low-frequency (<; 1 GHz) components of the self-phase modulation and cross-phase modulation (XPM) distortion experienced by several wavelength channels simultaneously. Furthermore, this technique compensates the nonlinear distortion on a per-span basis, and so can mitigate XPM in optically routed links, unlike transmitter- or receiver-side nonlinearity compensation techniques. We present proof-of-concept results from both experimental and numerical studies that show our optoelectronic technique can effectively mitigate the distortion caused by fiber nonlinearity. Additional simulations study the impact of various link parameters on the effectiveness of this scheme.