Nonlinear blind equalization for 16-QAM coherent optical OFDM using support vector machines

A novel blind nonlinear equalizer (BNLE) based on support vector machines is experimentally demonstrated for ∼41-Gb/s 16-QAM CO-OFDM at 2000 km. For 2 dBm launched optical power, BNLE reduces the fiber nonlinearity penalty by ∼1 dB compared to Volterra-based NLE.