Performance Study of 1 Tbits/s WDM Coherent Optical OFDM System

This paper investigates the architecture of Tbits/s Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) system by using a Coherent Optical Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (CO-OFDM) with 4-QAM for long haul transmissions of 1800 Km SM. A simulation of 20 WDM channels spaced at 50 GHz, and 20 OFDM signals each with 50 Gbits/s bitrate to produce data rate of 1 Tbits/s is built. The system performance is studied by observing the constellation diagram of the signal and the relationship of BER and OSNR with regard to transmission distance. The results show that the BER increases as the transmission distance increases. Also, as the transmission distance increases, the OSNR needs to be increased to maintain BER in less than 10-3.