We propose a novel "orthogonal" TDM transmission scheme using an optical Nyquist pulse that enables us to achieve an ultrahigh data rate and spectral efficiency simultaneously without any intersymbol interference (ISI). We analytically describe the principle of orthogonal TDM, and demonstrate a 160 Gbaud optical orthogonal TDM transmission using 40 GHz optical Nyquist pulses. Tolerance to GVD and the dispersion slope is significantly improved by virtue of the orthogonality, reduced bandwidth, and minimum ISI.

We demonstrate an optical Nyquist pulse TDM (Nyquist OTDM) transmission at 160 Gbaud with a substantial increase in the dispersion tolerance compared with a conventional OTDM transmission. Optical Nyquist pulses can be bit-interleaved to ultrahigh symbol rate without suffering from intersymbol interference due to its zero-crossing property at every symbol interval. This allows the signal bandwidth to be greatly narrowed compared to typical pulse waveforms such as Gaussian or sech profile. By virtue of this property, a dispersion tolerance over ± 8 ps/nm was successfully realized in 160 Gbaud, 525 km transmission.

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