Optical SEFDM System; Bandwidth Saving Using Non-Orthogonal Sub-Carriers

We propose and demonstrate a new optical spectrally efficient frequency division multiplexing (O-SEFDM) system, where non-orthogonal and overlapping sub-carriers are employed to provide higher spectral efficiency relative to optical-orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (O-OFDM). The O-SEFDM technique can increase spectral efficiency in both the electrical and optical domains. It is experimentally shown that for bandwidth saving up to 25%, we can achieve the same performance as O-OFDM. This is the first experimental verification of 25% optical faster than the Nyquist rate. Furthermore, for approximately the same spectral efficiency, 4QAM O-SEFDM outperforms standard 8QAM by 1.6 dB. It is experimentally shown that a lower-order modulation format can achieve a better performance by replacing a higher one.