DFE and BCJR Performance with SD FEC in 112 GBd PAM4 IMDD Systems

Soft information quality of different DSP schemes followed by hybrid soft/hard decision FEC is investigated. We demonstrate in simulations and experiments that BCJR achieves a significant gain over DFE by providing better soft information.

Automated summary

This study explores the soft information quality of different DSP schemes and the performance of hybrid soft/hard decision FEC. Through simulations and experiments, it is shown that BCJR outperforms DFE by providing superior soft information, leading to significant gains.