Hardware-Efficient Blind Frequency Offset Estimation for Spectral-Efficient Digital Subcarrier Multiplexing Systems

For the digital subcarriermultiplexing (DSM) transmission, it is compulsory to realize the frequency offset estimation (FOE) and compensation (FOC) before the subcarrier de-multiplexing and the chromatic dispersion (CD) compensation (CDC). Here, we demonstrate a blind FOE method for the spectral-efficient DSM signals with a sharper root raised cosine (RRC) spectral shaping, with the capabilities of the transparent modulation format operation, a wide FOE range, and a high FOE accuracy. By reusing the spectral information for the CDC, the proposed FOE method is hardware efficient. Moreover, the proposed FOE method is numerically identified robust to transmission impairments, including the amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) noise, the optical filtering effect, and the accumulated CD, with an estimation error of less than 35 MHz under a FFT size of 2048. The correct function of the proposed FOE method is finally experimentally verified for 25 Gbaud 16QAM DSM signals under scenarios of both back-to-back (B2B) and standard single-mode fiber (SSMF) transmissions.