Application of a digital non-linear compensation algorithm for evaluating the performance of root-raised-cosine pulses in 112 Gbit s−1 DP-QPSK transmission

In this paper, we numerically investigate the non-linear tolerance of root-raised-cosine (RRC) pulse shaping by interpolating finite impulse response (FIR) filters in conjunction with digital backward propagation (DBP) in coherent 112 Gbit s−1 dual-polarization quadrature phase shift keying (DP-QPSK) transmission. The results depict that RRC pulses are more tolerant to intra-channel non-linearities, i.e. self-phase modulation (SPM), as compared to standard RZ-33 and NRZ pulses. The non-linear threshold point is improved by using RRC pulses by a factor of 2 dB signal input power as compared to RZ pulses and by 4 dB signal launch power as compared to NRZ pulses. The behavior of RRC pulses is also investigated with standard single mode fiber (SMF), non-zero dispersion shifted fiber (NZDSF) and next-generation large Aeff pure silica core fiber (LA-PSCF). Most importantly multi-span DBP is implemented and in the case of RRC pulses the computational efforts of the conventional DBP algorithm are reduced by 80% with a diminutive Q-penalty of 0.74 dB. The duty cycle of the RRC pulses is further optimized for efficient system performance. We have also compared the performance of single-channel transmission with the multi-channel transmission, where the performance is limited due to inter-channel non-linear effects. Furthermore, the non-linear tolerance of RRC pulses is investigated with; (a) different amplifier spacing and (b) variation in transmission link design information for the DBP algorithm. (paper)