Experimental demonstrations of electronic dispersion compensation for long-haul transmission using direct-detection optical OFDM

We present experimental demonstrations using direct-detection and optical-orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (DD-OOFDM) for the compensation of chromatic dispersion in long-haul optical fiber links. Three transmitter designs of varying electrical and optical complexity are used for optical single sideband (OSSB) transmission and the theory behind each design is discussed. The data rates achieved for the three systems are 10, 12, and 20 Gbit/s for fiber distances between 320 and 400 km. A discussion of system overheads is provided together with simulations of the required optical signal-to-noise ratio (OSNR).