Receiver structure trade-offs in equalized high-speed fiber-optic links

We experimentally investigate receiver structure trade-offs for equalized OC-192 fiber-optic links relying on Viterbi-algorithm-based sequence estimation. Our results prove that energy detection provides better performance than few-samples-per-bit detection at shorter distances of propagation. Alternatively, few-samples-per-bit detection provides longer reach at the cost of over-sampling and substantial power penalty for smaller amounts of accumulated dispersion