title: High spectral density transmission emulation using amplified spontaneous emission noise.
abstract: We demonstrate the use of spectrally shaped amplified spontaneous emission (SS-ASE) noise for wideband channel loading in the investigation of nonlinear transmission limits in wavelength-division multiplexing transmission experiments using Nyquist-spaced channels. The validity of this approach is explored through statistical analysis and experimental transmission of Nyquist-spaced 10 GBaud polarization-division multiplexing (PDM) quadrature phase-shift keying and PDM-16-ary quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) channels, co-propagated with SS-ASE over single mode fiber. It is shown that this technique, which is simpler to implement than a fully modulated comb of channels, is valid for distances exceeding 240 km for PDM-16QAM with dispersion of 16 ps/nm/km, yields a good agreement with theory, and provides a conservative measure of system performance.
authors.forename: Daniel J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Elson
authors.forename: Lidia
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Galdino
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Maher
authors.forename: Robert I
authors.initials: RI
authors.lastname: Killey
authors.forename: Benn C
authors.initials: BC
authors.lastname: Thomsen
authors.forename: Polina
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Bayvel