Nokia Solutions and Networks Oy

Nokia Technologies Oy

Alcatel-lucent USA Inc.

Nokia of America Corporation

Joon Ho Cho

Peter Johannes Winzer

Roland Ryf

Nicolas K Fontaine

Chandrasekhar Sethumadhavan

Yannick Lefevre

Gregory Raybon

Xi Chen

A shaping encoder capable of improving the performance of PCS in nonlinear optical channels by performing the shaping in two or more stages. In an example embodiment, a first stage employs a shaping code of a relatively short block length, which is typically beneficial for nonlinear optical channels but may cause a significant penalty in the energy efficiency. A second stage then employs a shaping code of a much larger block length, which significantly reduces or erases the penalty associated with the short block length of the first stage while providing an additional benefit of good performance in substantially linear optical channels. In at least some embodiments, the shaping encoder may have relatively low circuit-implementation complexity and/or relatively low cost and provide relatively high energy efficiency and relatively high shaping gain for a variety of optical channels, including but not limited to the legacy dispersion-managed fiber-optic links.

Multi-stage probabilistic signal shaping

A communication system in which multiple shaping codes are selectively and iteratively used to encode a data frame such that possible energy inefficiencies associated with the use of constant-probability codes and/or transmission of dummy constellation symbols can be relatively small. In an example embodiment, the used shaping codes have different respective code rates, and a code selector of the shaping encoder operates to select one of the shaping codes by adaptively matching the rate of the code to the effective rate needed to efficiently encode the unprocessed portion of the data frame. The encoding is carried out in a manner that enables the shaping decoder to unequivocally determine the shaping codes that have been used for encoding each particular data frame based on the same rate-matching criteria as those used by the shaping encoder. At least some embodiments advantageously lend themselves to being implemented using circuits of relatively low complexity.

Probabilistic signal shaping using multiple codebooks

An optical data transmitter comprising two or more serially connected optical modulators, each driven using a respective DAC. The digital signals applied to the individual DACs are produced using different respective subsets of the set of bitstreams representing the digital waveform or data stream to be transmitted, with the bitstream subsets being selected, e.g., such that (i) each of the individual DACs is able to support the digital resolution and sampling rate needed for properly handling the subset of bitstreams applied thereto and (ii) differences between average driving powers applied to different optical modulators are relatively small. In different embodiments, the two or more serially connected optical modulators can be arranged for generating optical communication signals of different modulation formats, e.g., PSK, ASK, PAM, IM, and QAM. Some embodiments can advantageously be used for generating optical communication signals employing constellations of relatively large sizes, e.g., larger than 1000 symbols.

Optical transmitter having cascaded modulators

A communication system in which probabilistic signal shaping and FEC coding are jointly applied in a manner that enables the use of substantially any constellation template, e.g., a template in which the constellation symbols include a constellation symbol of zero amplitude and/or are arranged in an asymmetric manner. In an example embodiment, the transmitter's electronic encoder can be configured to apply two different respective shaping codes to the information bits and to the corresponding parity bits. The resulting shaped streams can then be appropriately multiplexed and transmitted over the optical communication channel to realize a significant shaping gain. Advantageously, the constellation template(s), two distribution matchers, and FEC code can be flexibly selected and/or adapted to achieve nearly optimal system operation under substantially arbitrary (e.g., arbitrarily bad) channel conditions.

Methods and apparatus for joint use of probabilistic signal shaping and forward error correction

We disclose a transmitter that uses at least first and second fixed constellations in which the same bit-words are assigned to different respective constellation symbols of different respective transmit energies. The transmitter generates an outgoing data frame by first generating two data frames using the first and second constellations, respectively, and then selecting the one of the two data frames that has the lower overall transmit energy and discarding the other. The first and second constellations are constructed in a manner that enables the transmitter to realize a significant shaping gain. Some embodiments of the transmitter are compatible with the use of forward-error-correction coding and provide a shaping gain for the transmission of both information and parity bits. An example embodiment of the transmitter can advantageously be implemented with relatively low complexity by employing constellation mappers and demappers that operate using relatively small look-up tables.

Low-complexity constellation shaping

A communication system in which probabilistic signal shaping and FEC coding are jointly applied using a partial amplitude-shaping scheme, under which bit-words representing binary labels of the transmitted amplitudes may have (i) a fixed number of amplitude most-significant bits (MSBs) generated using a shaping code and (ii) a fixed number of amplitude least-significant bits (LSBs) generated using an FEC code, e.g., without the shaping code being applied thereto. In various embodiments, the transmitted constellation symbols can carry, as sign bits, some original information bits and/or the parity bits generated by FEC-encoding some combination of the MSBs, the LSBs, and said some original information bits. Some embodiments are compatible with convolutional FEC codes, such as the trellis-coded modulation. Some embodiments can be used in communication systems relying on discrete multi-tone modulation, such as the systems providing DSL access over subscriber lines.

Partial probabilistic signal shaping

An apparatus, e.g. an optical oscilloscope, includes an optical receiver front end, including an optical device, and an optical delay. The receiver front end is configured to receive at least one input optical signal and produce by the optical device at least first and second output optical signals. The receiver front end is further configured to gate said at least one input optical signal or said at least first and second output optical signals. An optical combiner is configured to combine said at least first and second output optical signals, and the optical delay is located in an optical path of said first optical output signal between said optical receiver front end and the optical combiner. An optical detector is configured to receive a combined optical signal from said optical combiner and to produce therefrom an analog-electrical signal representative of the combined optical signal.

Growing community of inventors

Holmdel, NJ, United States of America

Joon Ho Cho