Robust Frame and Frequency Synchronization Based on Alamouti Coding for RGI-CO-OFDM

We propose an algorithm for carrying out joint frame and frequency synchronization in reduced-guard-interval coherent optical orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (RGI-CO-OFDM) systems. The synchronization is achieved by using the same training symbols (TSs) employed for training-aided channel estimation (TA-CE), thereby avoiding additional training overhead. The proposed algorithm is designed for polarization division multiplexing (PDM) RGI-CO-OFDM systems that use the Alamouti-type polarization-time coding for TA-CE. Due to their optimal TA-CE performance, Golay complementary sequences have been used as the TS in the proposed algorithm. The frame synchronization is accomplished by exploiting the cross correlation between the received TS from the two orthogonal polarizations. The arrangement of the TS is also used to estimate the carrier frequency offset. Simulation results of a PDM RGI-CO-OFDM system operating at 238.1-Gb/s data rate (197.6 Gb/s after coding), with a total overhead of 9.2% (31.6% after coding), show that the proposed scheme has accurate synchronization, and is robust to linear fiber impairments.