Joint linear and nonlinear noise monitoring techniques based on spectrum analysis

As one of the key indicators of signal quality in fiber communication systems, optical signal-to-noise ratio (OSNR) needs to be accurately monitored to ensure reliable network planning, operation, and reconfiguration. OSNR monitoring techniques considering only accumulated amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) noise are no longer suitable for dispersion unmanaged long-haul and dense wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) systems, where the contribution of fiber nonlinearity to total SNR cannot be neglected. In this paper, we propose a modulation-format-transparent, accurate joint linear and nonlinear noise monitoring scheme based on calculation of correlation between two spectral components at the upper and lower sideband of the signal spectrum. Different characteristics of flat linear noise spectrum and non-flat nonlinear noise spectrum are used to distinguish the influences on the correlation value from both noise sources. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme can accurately monitor SNR linear and SNR nonlinear within a wide launch power range from −5 dBm to 5 dBm per channel for multi-channel WDM systems with a 915-km single mode fiber (SMF) link. The performance of the proposed scheme is further experimentally verified in up-to-7 channel WDM systems over a 915 km SMF link.