Dynamic range of optical links employing optical single side-band modulation

The dynamic range of optical single side-band modulated systems is analyzed for both small-signal and large-signal regimes. Under small-signal conditions the achievable link bandwidth is mainly limited by the combined effect of fiber nonlinearities and fiber dispersion. Whereas, under large-signal regime, the sidebands of the optical field at harmonics of the modulation frequency become significant, and the link bandwidth is limited by the interaction between the different optical field harmonics affected by different phase changes due to the fiber dispersion.