30 Gbps 4-PAM transmission over 200 m of MMF using an 850 nm VCSEL.

We present high speed real time, error free 4-PAM transmission for short range optical links based on a VCSEL operating at 850 nm, a multimode fibre and a simple intensity detector. Transmission speeds of 25 Gbps and 30 Gbps are demonstrated, and the maximum fibre reaches were 300 m and 200 m, respectively. The 4-PAM is also compared with OOK transmission at 25 Gbps, and we find that at this bit rate 4-PAM increases the error free transmission distance in the multimode fibre by 100 m, compared to OOK.

Experimental comparison of modulation formats in IM/DD links.

We present an experimental comparison of modulation formats for optical intensity modulated links with direct detection. Specifically, we compare OOK, QPSK on an electrical subcarrier and a new modulation format named OOPSK. The OOPSK modulation format is shown to have better sensitivity than the other modulation formats, in agreement with theoretical predictions.

Power efficient subcarrier modulation for intensity modulated channels.

We compare formats for optical intensity modulation limited by thermal noise with the assumption of having ideal devices. At the same bitrate and bandwidth, a hitherto unknown format turns out to be more power efficient than known formats. This new modulation, which is a hybrid between on-off keying and phase-shift keying, belongs to the subcarrier modulation family.