Performance Comparison of Advanced Modulation Formats for Low-bandwidth optics-based 50-Gb/s/λ PON at O-band

A comprehensive comparison of PAM-4, CAP-16QAM and DMT-16QAM modulations is simulated in 50-Gb/s/λPON based on bandwidth-limited optics at O-band. The power budget, thermal noise performance and DSP complexity are discussed. The results show that over 29 dB power budget at 3.8×10-3 threshold can be achieved.