VPIphotonics Design Suite Version 9.7 provides access to professional application-specific simulation tools with common usability, design process and data analysis capabilities.
Among the new features compared to the previous versions are enhancements of the user interface, in particular a better support for creation of complex parameter expressions, as well as advances in simulation capabilities: support of multicore fiber systems, N-dimensional modulations formats, new lab equipment, and many more.
VPIphotonics’ software solutions have proven to be beneficial in winning and successfully performing many research and design projects — for commercial companies as well as for educational institutions. With the improved capabilities provided in Version 9.7, VPIphotonics Design Suite is set to deliver the same outstanding results in the future.
Photonic Design Environment (PDE) of Version 9.7
Generation and detection of arbitrary N-dimensional modulation formats, spanning over IQ, XY, time, frequency, fiber modes and cores, and others
Analysis of N-dimensional modulated signals including BER and SER estimation, LLR computation, symbol-to-bits decoding, automatic constellation alignment
New adaptive equalizer model combining functionality of feed-forward and decision feedback equalizer (FFE/DFE) and nonlinear Volterra equalizer, which simplifies comparative studies of different equalizer types and settings
The multimode signal model has been extended to support heterogeneous multicore fibers with cores that can have different parameters and support different number of modes.
Modules that supported multimode signals in the previous version already (e.g., fibers, couplers, amplifiers, etc.) now support signals of multicore fibers as well.
Improved visualization and analysis of multimode signals by VPIphotonicsAnalyzer, including signals in multicore fibers; signal selection by core number, radial and azimuthal index
Analysis of mPAM signals – Estimation of Q-factor and eye opening of amplitude modulated multilevel signals including pulse amplitude modulation (PAM)
New and enhanced DSP Algorithms are provided:
– digital Nyquist filtering using realistic pulse shaping
– Blind Phase Search (BPS) for carrier phase recovery (CPR)
– superchannels using 32, 64, 128QAM or higher order
– generic multi-modulus algorithm (MMA) for optimal equalization
of higher-order modulation using adaptive MIMO filter
VPIphotonicsAnalyzer – automatic calculation of electrical signal metrics in time domain: power, RMS, peak positive/negative, Crest factor, and peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR)
VPIphotonicsAnalyzer – automatic calculation of offset, phase error, frequency error to analyze imperfections of received constellation
New interface modules to the Anritsu MS2830A Vector Signal Generator (VSG) and Signal Analyzer enabling to link simulation and lab environment for a better support of radio-over-fiber, analog photonics or wireless applications
Noise generation in the PhotonicsTLM module is much faster now, while resulting ASE spectrum stays in full agreement with any applied gain spectrum model
Simplified usage of the PhotonicsTLM module with varying number of device sections
The new Parameter Watch function of the PDE allows observing and tracing the actual value of parameters that are defined using for instance complex Tcl or Python expressions or initialization scripts.
The new Macro Manager simplifies the creation and management of user defined macros
Enhancements to scripting and cosimulation capabilities like:
– Function parameters available for cosimulation modules
– easy handling of file and directory parameters
– improved automatic value conversion for Python expressions
– improved support for debugging Python scripts using
third-party debuggers
Existing demonstrations have been modified and new ones added to illustrate the functionality and applications of the new features and modules. There are over 800 demonstrations available now.
This demonstration illustrates the use of multi-dimensional coding for WDM applications. Transmitted symbols are defined
in 8 dimensions ((I,Q) (X,Y), two time slots) using an input text file. Each symbol carries two bits of information. It has
been shown in [1] that such a modulation format has a better performance than DP-BPSK for the same baudrate in both, linear
and nonlinear regime. This behavior is demonstrated here as well.
[1] A. D. Shiner, et al., "Demonstration of an 8-dimensional modulation format with reduced inter-channel nonlinearities
in a polarization multiplexed coherent system," Optics Express, pp.20366-74, Aug 2014.
Setup & results for a comparison of DP-BPSK and 8D-modulation formats