Optical transmitter for 320-Gb/s PDM-RZ-16QAM generation using electrical binary drive signals

We propose a new 16QAM optical transmitter based on a combination of a dual-drive Mach-Zehnder modulator (DD-MZM) and a dual-parallel Mach-Zehnder modulator (DP-MZM) with electrical binary drive signals. For 16QAM generation, two arms of DD-MZM are independently driven by two different binary data, and consequently, the DD-MZM produces an offset square 4QAM of the 16QAM constellation. This 4QAM signal is then switched over other quadrants through a typical QPSK modulation scheme by the following DP-MZM, and resulting in 16QAM. By using the proposed transmitter together with a digital coherent receiver, we successfully demonstrate the 224-Gb/s and 320-Gb/s PDM-RZ-16QAM systems. Their OSNR sensitivities at 3.8x10-3 BER are observed to be 19.8 dB and 23 dB, respectively.