Adaptive Filtering in Optical Coherent Flexible Bit-Rate Receivers in the Presence of State-of-Polarization Transients and Colored Noise

Abstract

In this article, we analyze the performance of adaptive filtering in the context of dual-polarization coherent optical flexible bit-rate transceivers. We investigate the ability of different adaptive algorithms to track fast state-of-polarization (SOP) transients in the presence of colored noise. Colored noise exists due to the concatenation of Wavelength Selective Switches (WSSs) and polarization dependent loss (PDL) which can be considered as spatially dependent noise. We consider the use of different modulation formats, and the practical limitation of error signal feedback delay in decision-directed adaptive filters is also taken into account. The back-to-back required signal-to-noise ratio (RSNR) penalty that can be tolerated determines the maximum SOP rate of change that can be tracked by the adaptive filters as well as the filter’s adaptive step size. We show that the recursive least squares algorithm, using the covariance matrix as an aggressive “step size,” has a much better convergence speed compared to the least mean squares (LMS) and normalized LMS (NLMS) algorithms in the presence of colored noise in the fiber. However, the three algorithms have similar tracking capabilities in the absence of colored noise.