Mismatched Models to Lower Bound the Capacity of Optical Fiber Channels

Abstract: A correlated phase-and-additive-noise (CPAN) mismatched model is developed for wavelength division multiplexing over optical fiber channels governed by the nonlinear Schr\"odinger equation. Both the phase and additive noise processes of the CPAN model are Gauss-Markov whereas previous work uses Wiener phase noise and white additive noise. Second order statistics are derived and lower bounds on the capacity are computed by simulations. The CPAN model characterizes nonlinearities better than existing models in the sense that it achieves better information rates. For example, the model gains 0.35 dB in power at the peak data rate when using a single carrier per wavelength. For multiple carriers per wavelength, the model combined with frequency-dependent power allocation gains 0.14 bits/s/Hz in rate and 0.8 dB in power at the peak data rate.