Simulation and optimization of 100 Gbit/s single channel modulation formats

The performance of various modulation schemes for 100 Gbit/s single channel serial transmission is investigated by means of numerical simulations. Different ASK and PSK modulation formats are compared in terms of total system reach for a 10-9 BER requirement. RZ-DQPSK format with a 1,920 km reach, without FEC and the support of additional Raman amplification, outperforms all the other schemes including 10×10 Gbit/s NRZ DWDM inverse multiplexing.