Common phase error estimation in coherent optical OFDM systems using best-fit bounding box

In this paper, we investigate and characterize a new approach of adopting best-fit bounding box method for common phase error estimation in coherent optical OFDM systems. The method is based on the calculation of the 2-D convex hull of the received signal constellation, which is generally adopted in image processing area to correct the skew of images. We further perform detailed characterizations including root mean square error analysis, laser linewidth tolerance, noise tolerance, and computation complexity analysis, via numerical simulations and experiments. The results show the proposed method achieves much improved spectral efficiency and comparable system performance than the pilot-aided method, while it exhibits good estimation accuracy and reduced complexity than the blind phase searching method.