Quasi-Constant Modulus Design for Nonlinearity-Tolerant Geometric Shaped Four Dimensional Modulation Format

TL;DR

This paper introduces QCM-QAM, a novel four-dimensional modulation format with quasi-constant modulus properties, enhancing fiber nonlinearity tolerance and improving spectral efficiency, mutual information, and transmission reach in optical systems.

Contribution

It proposes a new family of QCM-QAM constellations that theoretically improve nonlinear tolerance and demonstrate practical benefits in WDM systems over standard fibers.

Findings

QCM-QAM shows increased optimal launch power and SNR in SSMF and NZDSF.

GMI gains of up to 0.24 bit/4D-sym at 13 bit/4D-sym.

Transmission reach extends by up to 1.8% with QCM-QAM.

Abstract

In this paper, the quasi-constant modulus (QCM) property is analyzed and leveraged in the design of nonlinearity-tolerant four-dimensional (4D) modulation formats. Accordingly, we propose a family of QCM-based quadrature amplitude modulation (QCM-QAM) constellations with high spectral efficiencies (SEs) of 9, 11, and 13 bit/4D-sym, respectively. The quasi-constant modulus design theoretically enhances tolerance to fiber nonlinearities. Meanwhile, QCM-QAM is evaluated in an unrepeatered wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) system over both standard single-mode fiber (SSMF) and non-zero dispersion-shifted fiber (NZDSF). Across all SEs, QCM-QAM demonstrates robust nonlinear tolerance in both SSMF and NZDSF. This is evidenced by a consistent shift of the optimal launch power toward higher values and a significant improvement in effective signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). QCM-QAM also delivers generalized mutual information (GMI) gains of 0.22, 0.09, and 0.21 bit/4D-sym in SSMF, and 0.24, 0.10, and 0.22 bit/4D-sym, in NZDSF at the optimal transmission power, corresponding to the SEs of 9, 11, and 13 bit/4D-sym. Furthermore, QCM-QAM achieves transmission reach extensions of 1.6%, 0.9%, and 1.7% in SSMF, and 1.7%, 1.5%, and 1.8% in NZDSF, respectively, for the three SE levels.