Spectral efficiency estimation in coherent receivers

摘要

The present invention relates to optical transmission systems. In particular, the present invention relates to a method and system for estimating the spectral efficiency which may be achievable in an optical transmission network and for adapting the parameters of the transmission network to the achievable spectral efficiency. A method and system for controlling an optical transmission system comprising a first and a second optical transmission channel is described. The first optical transmission channel is affected by the second optical transmission channel. The method comprises the steps of measuring the inverse signal-to-noise ratio of the first channel for a plurality of input power levels used by the first and second channel; determining a contribution of the second channel to the inverse signal-to-noise ratio; and determining the input power to the second channel, such that an overall throughput of the first and second channel is maximized.