Influence of Pre- and Post-compensation of Chromatic Dispersion on Equalization Enhanced Phase Noise in Coherent Multilevel Systems

In this paper we present a comparative study in order to specify the influence of equalization enhanced phase noise (EEPN) for pre- and post-compensation of chromatic dispersion in high capacity and high constellation systems. This is - to our knowledge - the first detailed study in this area for pre-compensation systems. Our main results show that the local oscillator phase noise determines the EEPN influence in post-compensation implementations whereas the transmitter laser determines the EEPN in pre-compensation implementations. As a result of significance for the implementation of practical longer-range systems it is to be emphasized that the use of chromatic dispersion equalization in the optical domain - e.g. by the use of dispersion compensation fibers - eliminates the EEPN entirely. Thus, this seems a good option for such systems operating at high constellations in the future.