Superchannel transmission system based on multi-channel equalization

We proposed a new method for superchannel transmission based on the newly proposed multi-channel equalization technique. This method allows us to realize tight channel spacing (equal to the baud rate) without using frequency-locked lasers and complex spectral shaping techniques at the transmitter. The inter-channel interference originated from the tight channel spacing is removed at the receiver by joint equalization of multiple adjacent channels. When the channel spacing is equal to the baud rate, our simulation results show that, with conventional oversample ratio (2 samples per symbol), realistic laser frequency offset and laser linewidth, the proposed multi-channel-equalization based method can achieve better performance than the traditional method using spectral shaping plus single channel equalization, although at the expense of a moderate increase in DSP complexity. The paper also gives a simple method to process the data after conventional chromatic dispersion compensation, which enables subsequent multi-channel equalization for long-haul transmissions.