Adaptive Data Rates for Flexible Transceivers in Optical Networks

Efforts towards commercializing higher-speed optical transmission have demonstrated the need for advanced modulation formats, several of which require similar transceiver hardware architecture. Adaptive transceivers can be built to have a number of possible operational configurations selected by software. Such software-defined transceiver configurations can create specific modulation formats to support sets of data rates, corresponding tolerances to system impairments, and sets of electronic digital signal processing schemes chosen to best function in a given network environment. In this paper, we discuss possibilities and advantages of reconfigurable, bitrate flexible transceivers, and their potential applications in future optical networks. Index Terms — bit-rate flexible transceivers, softwaredefined optics, dynamic networks, transmission constraints