Maximizing transmission capacity in optical communication systems utilizing a microresonator comb laser source with adaptive modulation and bandwidth allocation strategies

Traditional optical communication systems employ bulky laser arrays that lack coherence and are prone to severe frequency drift. Dissipative Kerr soliton microcombs offer numerous evenly spaced optical carriers with a high optical signal-to-noise ratio (OSNR) and coherence in chip-scale packages, potentially addressing the limitations of traditional wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) sources. However, soliton microcombs exhibit inhomogeneous OSNR and linewidth distributions across the spectra, leading to variable communication performance under uniform modulation schemes. Here, we demonstrate, for the first time, to our knowledge, the application of adaptive modulation and bandwidth allocation strategies in optical frequency comb (OFC) communication systems to optimize modulation schemes based on OSNR, linewidth, and channel bandwidth, thereby maximizing capacity. Experimental verification demonstrates that the method enhances spectral efficiency from 1.6 to 2.31 bit ⋅ s −1 ⋅ Hz −1 , signifying a 44.58% augmentation. Using a single-soliton microcomb as the light source, we achieve a maximum communication capacity of 10.68 Tbps after 40 km of transmission in the C-band, with the maximum single-channel capacity reaching 432 Gbps. The projected combined transmission capacity for the C- and L-bands could surpass 20 Tbps. The proposed strategies demonstrate promising potential of utilizing soliton microcombs as future light sources in next-generation optical communication.