An Effective Artificial Neural Network Equalizer with S-shape Activation Function for High-speed 16-QAM Transmissions using Low-cost Directly Modulated Laser

We firstly conceive an artificial neural network (ANN) equalizer with a special $Q$ -shape activation function to decimate linear/nonlinear impairments. By means of this ANN equalizer, we achieve a large improvement of ∼4.67 dB in Q-factor.