Experimental Demonstration of Rate-Adaptive Concatenated Codes for Flexible Optical Networks

We experimentally demonstrate a rate-adaptive concatenated forward error correction (FEC) scheme to minimize the information rate loss due to varying channel conditions. The concatenated coding scheme is based on inner soft-decision polar code and outer hard-decision staircase code. An experiment in a wavelength-division multiplexed (WDM) system with different SNR per WDM channel is performed by employing concatenated codes with various coded modulation schemes over a target distance of 140km which is relevant for extending the reach of data center interconnects. Experimental results show that the achieved data rate of the WDM system can be improved up to 37.6% with the proposed coding scheme w.r.t. the fixed code rate ZR FEC.