Phase estimation for coherent optical OFDM

Abstract

Phase estimation is one of the enabling functionalities in coherent optical orthogonal frequency-division-multiplexing (CO-OFDM) receivers. In this letter, we compare pilot-aided and data-aided phase estimation methods for a CO-OFDM transmission experiment at 8 Gb/s over 1000-km standard single-mode fiber without optical dispersion compensation. We also show that as few as five subcarriers are sufficient for pilot-aided phase estimation. © 2007 IEEE.