Equalization of fiber impairments using high-speed digital signal processing

We present modulation-transparent digital signal processing algorithms for the equalization of linear and nonlinear fiber impairments. A three-dimensional Stokes space algorithm is shown to provide universal polarization demultiplexing, by employing a best fitting plane strategy. Intra-channel nonlinear impairments are digitally counteracted by a simplified Volterra series nonlinear equalizer, based on parallel array of one-dimensional frequency-domain filters. Finally, we show hardware implementation results of a time-domain chromatic dispersion equalizer using a Virtex-6 FPGA.