Experimental investigation of 400 Gb/s data center interconnect using unamplified high-baud-rate and high-order QAM single-carrier signal

Abstract

In this article, we review the latest progress on data center interconnect (DCI). We then discuss different perspectives on the 400G pluggable module, including form factor, architecture, digital signal processing (DSP), and module power consumption, following 400G pluggable optics in DCI applications. Next, we experimentally investigate the capacity-reach matrix for high-baud-rate and high-order quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) single-carrier signals in the unamplified single-mode optical fiber (SMF) link. We show that the 64 GBd 16-QAM, and 64-QAM signals can potentially enable 400 Gb/s and 600 Gb/s DCI application for 40 km and beyond of unamplified fiber link.