Maximizing Fiber Capacity in Flex-Grid Coherent Systems Through Symbol Rate Optimization

We demonstrate that, in an actual network, maximizing the transmission spectral efficiency requires not only to take into account transceiver impairments, but also to consider WSS filtering and flex-grid specifications. In a WDM transmission experiment over a 10-span link covering $\sim 38$ nm, we study achievable rate, bitrate and spectral efficiency for different symbol rates of 62.5, 75, 87.5, 100 and 112.5Gbaud with corresponding channel spacings of 75, 87.5, 100, 112.5, 125GHz, therefore accounting for few GHz bandguard required for potential WSS filtering effect, as well as being compatible with flex-grid configuration. While maximum achievable information rate per transceiver (wavelength) is achieved for the lowest symbol rate, and operating at larger symbol rate maximizes the bitrate per wavelength, to maximize overall fiber spectral efficiency (and therefore, capacity), operation at intermediate symbol rates, from 75 to 100Gbaud in our study, is required as a trade-off between the penalties from transceiver impairments and WSS filtering.