Flexible FEC codes for next-generation software-defined optical transceivers

The tremendous increase of the traffic and fluctuation of the optical networks during the last decade imposes the development of flexible transceivers capable of adapting effectively to different signal qualities, power requirements and transmission rates. Conventionally, optical transceivers are rarely reconfigured. However, recent advances in the domain of the software-defined optical transceivers (SDOT) for future flexible optical made possible the change of the fixed properties of the optical channels. For the realization of such schemes, the development of advanced electro-optical components is required. The scope of this paper is to present an overview of the various existing trade-offs concerning the hardware realization of such flexible electronic components. More specifically, emphasis is laid on the design and verification of flexible FEC schemes. A HW/SW FPGA-based framework for rapid verification is presented, as well.