Experimental Evaluation of Commercial OTN Transceivers under Emulated Weak Turbulence

In next-generation networks, the integration of satellite network segments within the existing terrestrial ones represents a key element to deliver high-speed connectivity with increased coverage, scalability, and reliability. The development of optical satellite links could be eased by taking advantage of the mature technology deployed in fiber-based networks. Differently from fiber optics propagation, laser beams traveling across the atmosphere experience turbulence-induced fading. Considering that commercial hardware has been designed to work in the static fiber channel, degradation of the communication performance is expected when the same devices are employed in scintillation-affected links. We present the first experimental performance assessment of commercial Optical Transport Network (OTN) equipment under the effect of scintillation. Our study focuses on a pre-amplified receiver employing coherent 100G and IM/DD 10G transceivers. We setup a testbed that emulates weak turbulence, reproducing the scintillation statistics at the receiver typical of feeder links. Our results highlight differences between 100G coherent and 10G IM/DD transceivers in terms of reliability, providing insights for hardware optimization and network design in future optical feeder links systems.