Novel Coherent Optical OFDM-Based Transponder for Optical Slot Switched Networks

We report a novel coherent optical OFDM transponder approach capable of recovering microsecond-scale data-burst while adapting to tight filtering constraints present in optical slot switched intradatacenter networks. Filtering effects in such large node-count environments are reviewed. The CO-OFDM performance is experimentally investigated while crossing a long cascade containing up to 100 nodes. The results are compared to the typical Nyquist pulse-shaped approach. CO-OFDM signaling shows 40% extended reach, 50 Gb/s higher gross average rate, and >4 GHz extra detuning tolerance than Nyquist pulse-shaped signals.