Ghost Pulse Suppression in Quasi-Linear Optical Data Transmission Systems via Constrained Coding

Nonlinear effects play an essential role in modern high-speed dispersion-managed optical links. In this paper, a popular class of systems limited by the so-called "ghost pulses" resulting from intrachannel four-wave mixing (IFWM) is considered. In previous work, a potential data rate improvement of about 50% was demonstrated through the application of constrained coding. Here, we show that the choice of the coding scheme is important. Since IFWM is highly pattern-dependent, codes with certain statistical properties reduce the ghost pulse formation and yield a lower probability of error. Our qualitative conclusions are confirmed by numerical simulations