Abstract In this paper, we present an accurate blind

method for chromatic dispersion estimation in coherent

optical receivers. The method is independent on modulation
formats and signal spectra. Additionally, the estimation
method is proven to be robust against sampling phase,
polarization mode dispersion, carrier phase and frequency
offset, and clock frequency offset. Excellent performance is
demonstrated even in extremely bandlimited systems, so-
called faster than Nyquist systems.
Keywords Chromatic dispersion, polarization-mode
dispersion, coherent detection, digital receiver, performance
monitoring.
I. INTRODUCTION
NHANCED digital signal processing (DSP) has
significantly improved the performance of coherent
optical transmission systems. Due to IC technology
advances, longer transmission distances can be achieved
due to the digital compensation of chromatic dispersion
(CD), polarization mode dispersion (PMD), laser noise,
nonlinear effects, hardware imperfections, etc. Higher
order modulation formats and efficient spectral shaping
are currently one of the main research topics. The
modulation format and baud rate are supposed to be
flexible in the next generation (elastic) optical networks.
In such networks, the network management will be able to
select the best/optimum transmission scenario depending
on the link parameters.
Some link parameters, such as the amount of CD, must
be initially efficiently estimated, and later compensated in
the digital domain. Estimation techniques can be divided
into two categories: i) blind non-data added methods
without training symbols (additional redundancy), and ii)
training based methods utilizing specially designed
sequences. Techniques in both groups have their own
advantages and disadvantages related to complexity,
accuracy, tracking capability, required redundancy,
sensitivity to sampling clock and laser frequency offset,
and various related aspects.
In CD uncompensated links, after coherent detection
and correct signal amplification and quantization, the first
most important operation in digital coherent receivers is
CD estimation. Accumulated CD is efficiently
compensated using frequency domain equalization.

The authors are with Huawei Technologies Duesseldorf GmbH,
Riesstrasse 25, 80992, Munich, Germany.
(e-mail: nebojsa.stojanovic@huawei.com).


Specially designed training sequences can be used to
estimate channel imperfections such as CD and PMD [1
2]. These methods introduce significant redundancy for
significant CD estimation and require careful handling of
the carrier and clock phase/frequency offset. However,
when fast start-up is required their complex hardware
realizations may prohibit the use of these methods. On the
other hand, blind methods based on the received signal (or
signal modifications) autocorrelation functions [35]
(directly related to the clock tone quality) completely fail
in Nyquist systems with a roll-off factor (ROF) equal to 0.
Additionally, none of these algorithms can work in faster
than Nyquist systems (FTN) [6] that has become very
attractive in strongly bandlimited systems applications. In
case of fast start-up, hardware complexity becomes a
critical issue for algorithms presented in [45] which also
do not distinguish the sign of CD. A simple blind
algorithm based on the peak-to-average-power ration
(PAPR) is presented in [7]. This algorithm is extremely
robust in any transmission scenario and can be realized
with small implementation effort.
In this paper, we present a novel CD estimation
algorithm that is also applicable in any scenario, while at
the same time is more accurate than the PAPR method.
The new method is based on monitoring small signal
values (MSSV) that fall below the predefined threshold.
Some algorithm modifications are discussed as well.
II. AUTOMATIC GAIN CONTROL IN COHERENT OPTICAL
RECEIVERS
The block diagram of a polarization division
multiplexed (PDM) coherent receiver is presented in
Fig. 1. After a polarization-beam splitter (PBS), the two
orthogonal polarizations are mixed with a local oscillator
(LO) laser in two 90 22 optical hybrids and sampled by
an analog-to-digital converter (ADC). The automatic gain
control (AGC) follows the power signal variations, which
are mainly caused by switching channels in wavelength-
division multiplexing (WDM) systems, and adjusts the
signal swing to the ADC input in order to effectively
exploit ADC resolution and to avoid serious ADC
clipping. DSP is realized in a parallel structure with clocks
between 100 and 500 MHz in 32-GBaud systems, and
performs the operation by block processing. Some slow
varying processes such as tuning laser frequency, AGC
parameters adjustment, and ADC levels optimization, can
be efficiently estimated and controlled by the use of a
micro-controller (C). The phase detectors (PD) output is
filtered by a low-pass filter (LPF) and controls a voltage
Efficient and Low-Complexity Chromatic
Dispersion Estimation in Coherent Optical
Systems
Nebojsa Stojanovic, Member, IEEE, Bangning Mao, and Fotini Karinou
E
21st Telecommunications forum TELFOR 2013 Serbia, Belgrade, November 26-28, 2013.
978-1-4799-1420-3/13/$31.00 2013 IEEE 153

controlled oscillator (VCO) that provides the reference
clock to the 4 ADCs. In practical implementations, each
ADC block consists of subunits clocked at much lower
frequencies.
The AGC control unit should prevent signal clipping in
both AGC and ADC block. Often, AGC is realized as a
two-stage block. The first block uses feedback loop in
order to track fast power variations without signal
clipping. The second one is used for fine signal tuning to
avoid signal clipping in the ADC block. The DSP provides
the control signal to the second block by monitoring
quantized values in outer bins. Usually, signal from both
quadratures of the same polarization are monitored and
one control signal is used for the AGC adjustment of the
two AGC responsible for two real signals amplification in
a single polarization. In the paper, an 8-bit ADC is used to
obtain all simulation results. Absolute values of outer
ADC limits are set to one. The C control signal adjusts
the second amplifier so that outer ADC bins contain only
1/256 percent of quantized data.
III. ESTIMATION METHOD DESCRIPTION AND SIMULATION
RESULTS
In coherent receivers, CD is efficiently compensated in
the frequency domain. Polarization demultiplexing of two
polarizations and PMD compensation are done by a 22
MIMO filter. Before CD compensation the residual CD
value must be known. Therefore, we need accurate
algorithms for estimating this value. In Fig. 2, we have
plotted the histograms of the real part of a single
polarization of a 32-GBaud PDM-QPSK signal with the
following parameters: OSNR=12 dB, laser frequency
offset of 300 MHz, laser linewidth (LW) of 100 kHz, and
ROF=0.2, for four CD values. The size of the histogram
bin was 1/254, and two samples per symbol have been
used. Values on y-axis represent the number of
observations of signal amplitudes falling in the considered
bin. The x-axis represents signal amplitudes before
quantization (after AGC, but before ADC). It is easy to
observe that the portion of small amplitudes is minimal for
CD=0. The amount of small amplitudes increases with
CD. One can conclude that monitoring small values can be
used to indicate the amount of CD. However, when LW
and LO were set to 0 the signal statistics for CD=0 has
changed the shape as presented in the last histogram
(QPSK has two levels per quadrature). In practical
systems, LOs linewidth is equivalent to at least several
MHz. Using only 32000 symbols in 32-GBaud systems
with CD=0 and LO=1 MHz one can obtain the histogram
similar to the first histogram in Fig. 2. Later we will
demonstrate that frequency offset does not influence the
accuracy of the estimation method.
Motivated by results presented in Fig. 2 we have
developed the new estimation method that scans CD over
the predefined range and monitor small quantized
amplitudes. CD corresponding to the smallest number of
counted quantized data falling below the specified
monitoring threshold MT is selected. Let us denote by
R I
x x jx = + the complex signal from an arbitrary
polarization. Several MSSV variants are investigated
which count the following events:
a) ( )
R
abs x MT < ,
-2 0 2
0
1
2
3
4
x 10
4
data before ADC
h
i
s
t
o
g
r
a
m
CD=0
-2 0 2
0
1
2
3
4
5
x 10
4
data before ADC
h
i
s
t
o
g
r
a
m
CD=500ps/nm
-2 0 2
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
x 10
4
data before ADC
h
i
s
t
o
g
r
a
m
CD=1000ps/nm
-2 0 2
0
2
4
6
8
x 10
4
data before ADC
h
i
s
t
o
g
r
a
m
CD=10000ps/nm
-2 0 2
0
500
1000
1500
2000
data before ADC
h
i
s
t
o
g
r
a
m
CD=0
LO=0
LW=0

Fig. 3. Histograms of data before ADC for different CD values

-2 0 2
0
1
2
3
4
x 10
4
data before ADC
h
i
s
t
o
g
r
a
m
CD=0
-2 0 2
0
1
2
3
4
5
x 10
4
data before ADC
h
i
s
t
o
g
r
a
m
CD=500ps/nm
-2 0 2
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
x 10
4
data before ADC
h
i
s
t
o
g
r
a
m
CD=1000ps/nm
-2 0 2
0
2
4
6
8
x 10
4
data before ADC
h
i
s
t
o
g
r
a
m
CD=10000ps/nm
-2 0 2
0
500
1000
1500
2000
data before ADC
h
i
s
t
o
g
r
a
m
CD=0
LO=0
LW=0


Fig. 2. Histograms of data before ADC for different CD values.


Fig. 1. Phase- and polarization- diversity optical coherent receiver.
154

b)
2
R
x MT < ,
c) ( ) ( )
R I
abs x abs x MT + < , and
d)
2 2
R I
x x MT + < .
The simulation results of 32-GBaud PDM-QPSK signal
with OSNR=10 dB, CD=10000 ps/nm, LO=300 MHz,
LW=100 kHz, ROF=0.1, and MT=0.5 using 2
15
symbols
are presented in Fig. 3a. A cost function CF represents the
normalized number of counted events for the specific CD
value (CF normalization was different in figures 5, 6, and
7 that does not influences final conclusions). All four
methods provide identical estimation results with zero
estimation error. In the same figure we present the PAPR
estimation results. We can observe that this method
produces an estimation error of 300 ps/nm (marked in the
figure). In Fig. 3b and 3c we present the estimation results
with MT=0.2 and MT=0.4, respectively. Different methods
requires different MT values in order to maximize the ratio
max(CF)/min(CF), and to decrease the estimation error.
For example, the first two methods should use MT=0.1,
the third one MT=0.4, and the last estimation method
performs well with MT=0.2.
We have investigated the estimation method in 32-
Gbaud PDM-QPSK (OSNR=12 dB) and 16QAM
(OSNR=17 dB) systems with CD=10000 ps/nm and ROF
of 0 and 0.5. Also, estimation for both modulation formats
is carried out in FTN systems with 25 GHz 3-dB Gaussian
optical spectrum. In all cases we have applied the method
a) with MT=0.1 over 2
15
symbols. The results presented in
Fig. 4 confirm the excellent performance of the new
estimation method. In all six investigated cases the
estimation error was 0. Unlike methods using
autocorrelation [35], the new method performs well in
case of ROF=0 and in FTN systems.
The accuracy of estimation depending on sampling
phase and PMD has been investigated. First, we have
simulated 32 sampling phases within one symbol interval
for the QPSK with OSNR=14dB and ROF=0. The
simulation results presented in Fig. 5 indicate that the
absolute maximum estimation error caused by sampling
phase variations can reach 120 ps/nm. In the second type
of simulations, we have introduced the first-order PMD
-1000 -500 0 500 1000
0.18
0.2
0.22
0.24
0.26
0.28
0.3
CD-10000 (ps/nm)
C
F


QPSK FTN
16QAM FTN
a)

-1000 -500 0 500 1000
0.2
0.25
0.3
CD-10000 (ps/nm)
C
F


QPSK ROF=0
16QAM ROF=0
b)

-1000 -500 0 500 1000
0.1
0.15
0.2
0.25
0.3
0.35
CD-10000 (ps/nm)
C
F


QPSK ROF=0.5
16QAM ROF=0.5
c)

Fig. 4. Estimation results in different systems: a) FTN, b) ROF=0, c) ROF=0.5.
-600 -400 -200 0 200 400 600
1
1.5
2
2.5
CD-10000(ps/nm)
C
F
120ps/nm

Fig. 5. Estimation results over 32 sampling phases.
-5000 0 5000
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7


X: -300
Y: 0.2078
CD-10000 (ps/nm)
C
F
a
b
c
d
PAPR
a)

-5000 0 5000
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
CD-10000 (ps/nm)
C
F


a
b
c
d
b)

-5000 0 5000
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
CD-10000 (ps/nm)
C
F


a
b
c
d
c)

Fig. 3. Estimation results of four proposed methods: a) MT=0.1, b) MT=0.2, c) MT=0.4.
155

defined by a polarization rotation angle and a differential
group delay of half a symbol interval. The polarization
angle was varied from 0 to 345 in step of 15. In this
scenario, the absolute estimation error was 210 ps/nm as
one can observe in Fig. 6. All these problems are
overcome by using several short blocks of data (e.g. 1024
symbols), scanning CD over each block, and summing up
all estimation results. Using this method, the results
presented in Fig. 3 and 4 will not influenced by sampling
phase and PMD variations.
The estimation method behavior of two modulation
formats, QPSK and 16QAM, has been investigated in the
presence of frequency offset (ROF=0). Frequency offset
was varied from 0 to 2 GHz in step of 100 MHz. The clock
offset of 200 ppm was also added. The estimation results
presented in Fig. 7 prove the robustness of the new method
against the frequency and clock offset. The estimation
accuracy was not affected at all.
IV. IMPLEMENTATION
All commercial coherent receivers include the CD
compensation block. CD scanning can be easily done per
data block (e.g. block of 1024 samples) that can be frozen
in the input buffer of the CD compensation block. For
each data block, CF values can be collected in counters
corresponding to CD values. After several data blocks the
final CD estimation can be done (selecting CD value
corresponding to the smallest CF value). Hardware
requirements for CD estimation are only CF counters and
comparators for selection of samples with values lower
than MT (e.g. the first proposed method). As all operations
can be done in hardware at CMOS speed, the proposed
method can also provide very fast start-up.
After summarizing all simulation results, including
minimum hardware requirements, and comparing the
method with other algorithms already discussed in
Introduction, the novel method most probably stands out
as the best candidate for CD estimation in coherent optical
receivers.
V. CONCLUSION
Fast start-up in coherent receivers is dominated by
channel parameters estimation. We have proposed the
novel method for fast and low-complexity CD estimation
that can be easily implemented in the CMOS ASIC part of
the digital receiver. The method is robust against sampling
phase, PMD, and laser frequency offset. The accuracy of
the proposed method can be additionally improved by
optimizing the monitoring threshold.
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-600 -400 -200 0 200 400 600
1.4
1.6
1.8
2
2.2
2.4
2.6
2.8
CD-10000(ps/nm)
C
F
210ps/nm

Fig. 6. Estimation results in the presence of first-order
PMD with 24 different power coupling factors.
-1000 -500 0 500 1000
1
1.5
2
2.5
CD-10000(ps/nm)
C
F
QPSK
16QAM

Fig. 7. Estimation results in the presence of frequency
offset.
-600 -400 -200 0 200 400 600
1.4
1.6
1.8
2
2.2
2.4
2.6
2.8
CD-10000(ps/nm)
C
F
210ps/nm

Fig. 6. Estimation results in the presence of first-order
PMD with 24 different power coupling factors.
156