Dual-polarization NFDM transmission with continuous and discrete spectral modulation

Nonlinear distortion experienced by signals during their propagation through optical fibers strongly limits the throughput of optical communication systems. Recently, a strong research focus has been dedicated to nonlinearity mitigation and compensation techniques. At the same time, a more disruptive approach, the nonlinear Fourier transform (NFT), aims at designing signaling schemes more suited to the nonlinear fiber channel.

In a short period, impressive results have been reported by modulating either the continuous spectrum or the discrete spectrum. Additionally, very recent works further introduced the opportunity to modulate both spectra for single polarization transmission. Here, we extend the joint modulation scheme to dual-polarization transmission by introducing the framework to construct a dual-polarization optical signal with the desired continuous and discrete spectra.

After a brief analysis of the numerical algorithms used to implement the proposed scheme, the first experimental demonstration of dual-polarization joint nonlinear frequency division multiplexing (NFDM) modulation is reported for up to 3200 km of low-loss transmission fiber. The proposed dual-polarization joint modulation schemes enables to exploit all the degrees of freedom for modulation (both polarizations and both spectra) provided by a single-mode fiber (SMF).