WDM monitoring using blind signal separation based on higher-order statistics

WDM transmission performance in optical networks can be monitored efficiently by first separating the electronic baseband channel mixtures that result after direct photodetection. We carry out this process through a blind signal separation (BSS) method based on higher-order statistics (HOS). Relative to a previously proposed method for WDM-channel extraction, the HOS-based procedure shows a reduced complexity with the number of channels, no stability problems, and an improved performance, as demonstrated by computer experiments.