Building a digital twin of EDFA: a grey-box modeling approach

To enable intelligent and self-driving optical networks, high-accuracy physical layer models are required. The dynamic wavelength-dependent gain effects of non-constant-pump erbium-doped fiber amplifiers (EDFAs) remain a crucial problem in terms of modeling, as it determines optical-to-signal noise ratio as well as the magnitude of fiber nonlinearities. Black-box data-driven models have been widely studied, but it requires a large size of data for training and suffers from poor generalizability. In this paper, we derive the gain spectra of EDFAs as a simple univariable linear function, and then based on it we propose a grey-box EDFA gain modeling scheme. Experimental results show that for both automatic gain control (AGC) and automatic power control (APC) EDFAs, our model built with 8 data samples can achieve better performance than the neural network (NN) based model built with 900 data samples, which means the required data size for modeling can be reduced by at least two orders of magnitude. Moreover, in the experiment the proposed model demonstrates superior generalizability to unseen scenarios since it is based on the underlying physics of EDFAs. The results indicate that building a customized digital twin of each EDFA in optical networks become feasible, which is essential especially for next generation multi-band network operations.

Multicarrier Modulation-Based Digital Radio-over-Fibre System Achieving Unequal Bit Protection with Over 10 dB SNR Gain

We propose a multicarrier modulation-based digital radio-over-fibre system achieving unequal bit protection by bit and power allocation for subcarriers. A theoretical SNR gain of 16.1 dB is obtained in the AWGN channel and the simulation results show a 13.5 dB gain in the bandwidth-limited case.

A Grey-box Launch-profile Aware Model for C+L Band Raman Amplification

Based on the physical features of Raman amplification, we propose a three-step modelling scheme based on neural networks (NN) and linear regression. Higher accuracy, less data requirements and lower computational complexity are demonstrated through simulations compared with the pure NN-based method.

Physics-informed EDFA Gain Model Based on Active Learning

We propose a physics-informed EDFA gain model based on the active learning method. Experimental results show that the proposed modelling method can reach a higher optimal accuracy and reduce ~90% training data to achieve the same performance compared with the conventional method.

Fast and accurate waveform modeling of long-haul multi-channel optical fiber transmission using a hybrid model-data driven scheme

The modeling of optical wave propagation in optical fiber is a task of fast and accurate solving the nonlinear Schr\"odinger equation (NLSE), and can enable the optical system design, digital signal processing verification and fast waveform calculation. Traditional waveform modeling of full-time and full-frequency information is the split-step Fourier method (SSFM), which has long been regarded as challenging in long-haul wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) optical fiber communication systems because it is extremely time-consuming. Here we propose a linear-nonlinear feature decoupling distributed (FDD) waveform modeling scheme to model long-haul WDM fiber channel, where the channel linear effects are modelled by the NLSE-derived model-driven methods and the nonlinear effects are modelled by the data-driven deep learning methods. Meanwhile, the proposed scheme only focuses on one-span fiber distance fitting, and then recursively transmits the model to achieve the required transmission distance. The proposed modeling scheme is demonstrated to have high accuracy, high computing speeds, and robust generalization abilities for different optical launch powers, modulation formats, channel numbers and transmission distances. The total running time of FDD waveform modeling scheme for 41-channel 1040-km fiber transmission is only 3 minutes versus more than 2 hours using SSFM for each input condition, which achieves a 98% reduction in computing time. Considering the multi-round optimization by adjusting system parameters, the complexity reduction is significant. The results represent a remarkable improvement in nonlinear fiber modeling and open up novel perspectives for solution of NLSE-like partial differential equations and optical fiber physics problems.

An Interpretable Mapping from a Communication System to a Neural Network for Optimal Transceiver-Joint Equalization

In this paper, we propose a scheme that utilizes the optimization ability of artificial intelligence (AI) for optimal transceiver-joint equalization in compensating for the optical filtering impairments caused by wavelength selective switches (WSS). In contrast to adding or replacing a certain module of existing digital signal processing (DSP), we exploit the similarity between a communication system and a neural network (NN). By mapping a communication system to an NN, in which the equalization modules correspond to the convolutional layers and other modules can been regarded as static layers, the optimal transceiver-joint equalization coefficients can be obtained. In particular, the DSP structure of the communication system is not changed. Extensive numerical simulations are performed to validate the performance of the proposed method. For a 65 GBaud 16QAM signal, it can achieve a 0.76 dB gain when the number of WSSs is 16 with a -6 dB bandwidth of 73 GHz.

Low Complexity Component Nonlinear Distortions Mitigation Scheme for Probabilistically Shaped 64-QAM Signals

We propose a degenerated hierarchical look-up table (DH-LUT) scheme to compensate component nonlinearities. For probabilistically shaped 64-QAM signals, it achieves up to 2-dB SNR improvement, while the size of table is only 8.59% compared to the conventional LUT method.

Optical Fiber Channel Modeling Using Conditional Generative Adversarial Network

In this paper, we use CGAN (conditional generative adversarial network) to model the fiber-optic channel and the performance is similar with the conventional method, SSFM (split-step Fourier method), while the running time is reduced from several minutes to about 2 seconds at 80-km distance.