End-to-End Learning in Optical Fiber Communications: Experimental Demonstration and Future Trends

Fiber-optic auto-encoders are demonstrated on an intensity modulation/direct detection testbed, outperforming state-of-the-art signal processing. Algorithms for end-to-end optimization using experimentally collected data are discussed. The end-to-end learning framework is extended for performing optimization of the symbol distribution in probabilistically-shaped coherent systems.