Comparison of discrete multi-tone and pulse amplitude modulation for beyond 100 Gbps short-reach application

Advanced multi-level modulation is an attractive modulation technique for beyond 100 Gbps short reach optical transmission system. Above all, discrete multi-tone (DMT) technique and pulse amplitude modulation (PAM) technique are the strong candidates. We compared the 100 Gbps transmission characteristics of DMT and PAM by simulation and experiment. The comparison was done by using same devices and only the digital signal processing was changed. We studied the transmission distance dependence for 0.5 to 40 km and the impact of the frequency responses of the optical devices. Finally we discuss the features of the both modulation techniques.