Identifying modulation formats using integrated clustering algorithm.

Modulation format identification (MFI) is crucial in next-generation optical networks such as cognitive optical networks. An integrated-clustering-algorithm-based MFI scheme in a coherent optical communication system is proposed herein. Numerical simulations are performed to test the performance of the scheme on the platform of a polarization domain multiplexing system at a symbol rate of 28 Gbaud. Simulations show that the MFI scheme can achieve an accuracy of 100% for five modulation formats considered in this study when the optical signal-to-noise ratio values are lower than the 7% forward error correction threshold. Tolerances to residual chromatic dispersion (CD) are discussed, and the results show that the proposed scheme can perform well as the residual CD changes over a wide range of values. Moreover, by selecting a number of key blocks, the proposed scheme is less complex than other clustering-based MFI schemes.