Enhanced Performance of Artificial-Neural-Network-Based Equalization for Short-Haul Fiber-Optic Communications

This work proposes an efficient and easy-to-implement single-layer artificial neural network (ANN)-based equalizer with improved compensation performance. The proposed equalizer is used for effectively mitigating the distortions induced in the short-haul fiber-optic communication systems based on intensity modulation and direct detection (IMDD). The compensation performance of the ANN equalizer is significantly improved, exploiting an introduced advanced training scheme. The efficiency and robustness of the proposed ANN equalizer are illustrated through 10- and 28-Gbaud short-reach optical-fiber communication systems. Compared to the efficient but computationally expensive maximum likelihood sequence estimator (MLSE), the proposed ANN equalizer not only significantly reduces its computational equalization cost and storage memory requirements, but it also outperforms its bit error rate performance.