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Modern optical communication systems transmit multiple frequency channels, each operating very close to its theoretical limit. The total bandwidth can reach 10 THz limited by the optical amplifiers. Maximizing spectral efficiency, the throughput per bandwidth is thus crucial. Replacing independent lasers with an optical frequency comb can enable very dense packing by overcoming relative drifts. However, to date, interference from non-ideal spectral shaping prevents exploiting the full potential of frequency combs. Here, we demonstrate comb-enabled multi-channel digital signal processing, which overcomes these limitations. Each channel is detected using an independent coherent receiver and processed at two samples-per-symbol. By accounting for the unique comb stability and exploiting aliasing in the design of the dynamic equalizer, we show that the optimal spectral shape changes, resulting in a higher signal-to-noise ratio that pushes the optimal symbol rate towards and even above the channel spacing, resulting in the first example of frequency-domain super-Nyquist transmission with multi-channel detection for optical systems. The scheme is verified both in back-to-back configuration and in single span transmission of a 21 channel superchannel originating from a 25 GHz-spaced frequency comb. By jointly processing three wavelength channels at a time, we achieve spectral efficiency beyond what is possible with independent channels. At the same time, one significantly relaxes the hardware requirements on digital-to-analog resolution and bandwidth, as well as filter tap numbers. Our results show that comb-enabled multi-channel processing can overcome the limitations of classical dense wavelength division multiplexing systems, enabling tighter spacing to make better use of the available spectrum in optical communications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Laser frequency combs with repetition rates on the order of 10 GHz and higher can be used as multi-carrier sources in wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM). They allow replacing tens of tunable continuous-wave lasers by a single laser source. In addition, the comb's line spacing stability and broadband phase coherence enable signal processing beyond what is possible with an array of independent lasers. Modern WDM systems operate with advanced modulation formats and coherent receivers. This introduces stringent requirements in terms of signal-to-noise ratio, power per line, and optical linewidth which can be challenging to attain for frequency comb sources. Here, we set quantitative benchmarks for these characteristics and discuss tradeoffs in terms of transmission reach and achievable data rates. We also highlight recent achievements for comb-based superchannels, including >10  Tb/s transmission with extremely high spectral efficiency, and the possibility to significantly simplify the coherent receiver by realizing joint digital signal processing. We finally discuss advances with microresonator frequency combs and compare their performance in terms of flatness and conversion efficiency against state-of-the-art electro-optic frequency comb generators. This contribution provides guidelines for developing frequency comb sources in coherent fiber-optic communication systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate the performance of single-pilot-tone locked frequency comb-based superchannel transmission for distances up to 1200km. In our scheme, electro-optic transmitter and receiver combs are locked by leaving one of the transmitter carriers unmodulated and regenerating the receiver comb via optical injection locking. This approach significantly reduces carrier offsets and therefore leads to reduced digital signal processing complexity. We experimentally assess how transmission impairments such as noise added by optical amplifiers and fiber nonlinearities affect the quality of the comb regeneration. Our results show that while the operating conditions are more stringent at longer distances, the single pilot is robust to impairments. At optimal launch power, similar performance with respect to an intradyne receiver is observed, showing that the optical pilot tones can be co-transmitted with data channels even at distances spanning hundreds of kilometer. The total superchannel spectral efficiency (throughput), including the pilot tone and guardbands, is 9.6 bits/s/Hz (12 Tbit/s) after 480 km and 8.4 bits/s/Hz (10.5 Tbit/s) after 960km. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We demonstrate transmission of a comb-based 10 Tb/s 50 $\times$ 20 Gbaud PM-64QAM superchannel using frequency comb regeneration to reduce carrier offsets and allow for self-homodyne detection. The regeneration is enabled by transmitting two optical pilot tones which are filtered and recovered in the receiver using optical injection locking and an electrical phase-locked loop. We show that by utilizing frequency combs together with optical pilot tones, self-homodyne detection similar to systems using one pilot tone per wavelength channel, can be achieved. Sharing the overhead for pilot tones reduces the complexity and limits the overhead to 4%. This enabled a total superchannel spectral efficiency of 7.7 b/s/Hz. To evaluate the performance, we perform both back-to-back measurements and transmission over 80 km of standard single-mode fiber. Successful self-homodyne detection of all 50 data channels in the 10-nm-wide superchannel demonstrates that the spectral coherence from frequency combs, combined with the use of optical pilots, can overcome limitations arising from frequency offset and phase noise in high-order QAM transmission while keeping the pilot overhead low. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We exploit the coherence of frequency combs for high spectral efficiency superchannel transmission via effective sharing of a single pilot tone. By phase-locking the receiver comb to the transmitted pilot tone, carrier offsets are suppressed while both the overhead and complexity associated with the pilot tone are reduced. We form a 55 carrier superchannel using a 25-GHz spaced electro-optic frequency comb seeded by a 100-kHz linewidth laser. At a pilot tone overhead of <2%, the reduction in carrier offsets is shown to facilitate blind DSP-based carrier recovery of all 54 × 24 Gbaud PM-128QAM data channels. The resulting superchannel spectral efficiency is 10.3 bits/s/Hz assuming a 28% overhead for forward error correction. Our results show the potential for optical pilot tones to reduce both overhead and complexity in systems using comb-based superchannels together with high-order modulation formats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]