Joint timing/frequency offset estimation and correction based on FrFT encoded training symbols for PDM CO-OFDM systems

A joint timing offset (TO) and frequency offset (FO) estimation algorithm is proposed for polarization division multiplexing (PDM) coherent optical orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (CO-OFDM) systems. It is realized by taking the advantage of the time-frequency property of the fractional Fourier transformation (FrFT) encoded training symbols. Compared with the classical Schmidl & Cox method, the proposed algorithm exhibits robust estimation result of timing offset with poor optical signal-to-noise ratio (OSNR) and nonlinear interference. For the frequency offset estimation, a quite large FO estimation ranges of [-5GHz + 5GHz] can be achieved. The mean normalized estimation error can be kept under 0.002 and the max normalized estimation error is no more than 0.008. The feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed joint estimation algorithm has been verified by experiments. The transmission performances with [-5GHz + 5GHz] FO are compared under the OSNR range from 14 to 27dB in a 106.8Gbit/s 16-ary quadrature amplitude modulation (16-QAM) PDM CO-OFDM transmission system. The proposed TO/FO estimation algorithm performs robustly and accurately without any induced BER degradations.