Optical performance monitoring using artificial neural network trained with asynchronous amplitude histograms

We propose an optical performance monitoring technique for simultaneous monitoring of optical signal-to-noise ratio (OSNR), chromatic dispersion (CD), and polarization-mode dispersion (PMD) using an artificial neural network trained with asynchronous amplitude histograms (AAHs). Simulations are conducted to demonstrate the technique for both 40-Gb/s return-to-zero differential quadrature phase-shift keying (RZ-DQPSK) and 40-Gb/s noneturn-to-zero 16 quadrature amplitude modulation (16-QAM) systems. The OSNR, CD, and PMD monitoring range and root-mean-square (rms) errors are 10-30 and 0.43 dB, 0-400 and 9.82 ps/nm, and 0-10 and 0.92 ps, respectively, for RZ-DQPSK systems. For 16-QAM system, the monitoring range and rms errors are 1030 and 0.2 dB, 0-400 and 9.66 ps/nm, and 0-30 and 0.65 ps for OSNR, CD, and PMD, respectively. As the generation of AAH does not require any clock or timing recovery, the proposed technique can serve as a low-cost option to realize in-service multiparameter monitoring for the next-generation transparent optical networks.