Peak-to-average power ratio mitigation and adaptive bit assignment in single-carrier frequency division multiplexing access via hierarchical modulation

A hierarchical modulation with multilevels is proposed for an optical single-carrier frequency division multiplexing access (SC-FDMA) system. It can mitigate the nonlinearity by reducing the peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) of the SC-FDM signal. According to different optical signal-to-noise ratio requirements, the adaptive bit allocation can be implemented on different levels during hierarchical modulation. In the experiment, the PAPR of the hierarchical-modulated SC-FDM signal outperforms the conventional SC-FDM signal by 0.7 dB. Signals with 4- and 6-bit hierarchical modulation are successfully demodulated by the optical network unit with power penalties less than 0.2 and 0.45 dB, respectively.