Abstract
Next-generation optical access networks are evolving towards ultra-high bit rate (above 50 Gbps per wavelength) and extended reach architectures. This trend will likely push the optoelectronics to their limits, thus requiring impairment compensation based on Digital Signal Processing (DSP) techniques in the transceivers. In this paper, which is an invited follow-up of a tutorial given at ECOC2023, we first present an overview of this evolving scenario and then we propose a unified analytical model that is able to predict the performance of these new systems for both direct-detection and coherent transceiver types. We believe that this model can be useful for both preliminary scalability studies of new access architectures (as it happens in international standardization bodies) and then, when they are deployed, as a base for network planning tools, particularly if future transceivers will be, as expected, highly re-configurable at the DSP level.
https://zenodo.org/records/10624610
