Spectral Efficiency-Adaptive Optical Transmission Using Time Domain Hybrid QAM for Agile Optical Networks

We report the transmission of time domain hybrid QAM (TDHQ) signals for agile optical networks. A continuous tradeoff between spectral efficiency and achievable distance by mixing modulation formats including QPSK, 8QAM, and 16QAM is demonstrated in two scenarios: 1) 28 Gbaud non-return-to-zero (NRZ) signal for fixed 50 GHz grid systems; 2) superchannel transmission at date rates of up to 1.15 Tb/s and spectral efficiencies of up to 7.68 b/s/Hz. The TDHQ signal is generated using high-speed digital-to-analog converters (DACs) at the transmitter, and low-complexity digital signal processing (DSP) is proposed for processing the TDHQ signals at the receiver. Moreover, the nonlinearity tolerance of hybrid QAM signals with different configurations is investigated.