Universal Virtual Lab: A Fast and Accurate Simulation Tool for Wideband Nonlinear DWDM Systems

We introduce the concept of the universal virtual lab, an extension to the virtual lab platform of [Golani et al. 2016], enabling a fast and accurate simulation of wideband nonlinear DWDM systems. The universal virtual lab is compliant with non-ideal transmitter and receiver architectures, distributed optical filters in the optical link, inter-channel stimulated Raman scattering, and it provides accurate performance predictions even when adaptive equalization methods are applied. In comparison with the conventional full-bandwidth split step Fourier transform method, we show with different test scenarios that the universal virtual lab provides accuracy errors below 0.1 dBQ and 0.09 bit/4D-symb in Q-factor and GMI assessments respectively, with runtime speedup factors exceeding 1000. We also report performance assessments in an ultra-wideband (11 THz) C+L system and discuss equalization gain under different compensation scenarios. The estimated speedup factor with respect to the full-bandwidth split step Fourier transform method is assessed to be greater than 35,000.

Automated summary

The concept of a universal virtual lab is introduced as an extension to a virtual lab platform that enables accurate simulation of wideband nonlinear DWDM systems. The universal virtual lab is compatible with various system architectures and provides accurate performance predictions, even with adaptive equalization methods. It shows significant improvements in accuracy and runtime speed in comparison to traditional methods.