Baud rate timing recovery and slicer threshold estimation for the adaptive dispersion compensation of fiber optical channels

The performance of an optical fiber channel is degraded by some limiting factors including chromatic dispersion (CD), polarization mode dispersion (PMD), and bandwidth limitations of the receiver. Inter-symbol interference (ISI) due to the dispersion can be compensated by various methods among which using an adaptive decision feedback equalizer (DFE) provides a low power solution. In this paper we examine the optimization of the parameters in the design space of this compensation technique for directly detected fiber optical signals. In particular, we discuss the adaptive equalizer coefficients, baud rate sampling time, and slicer threshold estimation methods in order to have a fully automated DFE.