A Simple Joint Modulation Format Identification and OSNR Monitoring Scheme for IMDD OOFDM Transceivers Using K-Nearest Neighbor Algorithm

In this study, a joint modulation format identification and optical signal-to-noise ratio (OSNR) monitoring algorithm is proposed and experimentally demonstrated using the k-nearest neighbor algorithm for intensity modulation and direct detection (IMDD) orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems. A modified amplitude histogram of received signal is employed to serve as the classification feature to simplify the computation. Experimental results show that five common quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) modulation formats, including 4-QAM, 16-QAM, 32-QAM, 64-QAM and 128-QAM, can be identified under 100% accurate estimation at the received optical power of -11 dBm. Robustness of the proposed scheme to constellation rotation is also experimentally assessed. At the same time, system OSNR monitoring also can be achieved and the average prediction mean square error (MSE) is 0.69 dB(2), which is similar to that using an artificial neural network. Computational complexity assessment demonstrated that similar performance but less computing resource consumption can be achieved by using the proposed scheme rather than the artificial neural network-based scheme.