Frequency-domain averaging-based hybrid channel estimation for short-reach discrete multitone transmission systems

Abstract

Channel estimation is a key digital signal processing algorithm in optical discrete multitone (DMT) transmission systems. The least-square (LS)-based channel estimation is a simple method, but it is very sensitive to various noises and other interference. The estimation accuracy can be improved using the LS-based intrasymbol frequency-domain averaging (ISFA) channel estimation method. However, there exists inaccurate channel estimation for the edge data subcarriers caused by chromatic dispersion and nonsymmetric averaging windows. We propose a hybrid channel estimation method with LS-based intersymbol frequency-domain averaging and modified ISFA to improve the estimation accuracy of edge data subcarriers and the stability of the bit error rate (BER) performance. The proposed hybrid channel estimation method is experimentally investigated in a short-reach 16-ary quadrature amplitude modulation-encoded DMT transmission system. After 20-km standard single-mode fiber transmission, with the help of the proposed hybrid channel estimation and at a BER of 3.8 × 10 − 3, the receiver sensitivity in terms of the received optical power can be improved by about 1.8 dB compared to that of the conventional ISFA. Furthermore, the proposed hybrid channel estimation has better BER stability.