Experimental validation of GNPy in a multi-vendor flex-grid flex-rate WDM optical transport scenario

We experimentally test the accuracy of a quality of transmission estimator (QoT-E) within a laboratory flex-grid flex-rate framework, considering eight multi-vendor transceivers (TRXs) with symbol rates ranging from 33 to 69 Gbaud, and variable constellations [quadrature phase shift keying, 8-quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM), and 16-QAM probabilistic constellation shaping], for data rates of 100 Gbits/s up to 300 Gbits/s, and a flex-grid wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) spectrum, with channel spacings of 50 and 75 GHz. As a QoT-E, we utilize an enhanced implementation of the open-source GNPy project. We demonstrate that this QoT-E provides a high level of accuracy in generalized signal-to-noise ratio (GSNR) computation, with an average error value not exceeding 0.5 dB, for the scenario under investigation. These values are computed with respect to the measured bit-error ratio converted to the GSNR using the TRX model obtained via back-to-back characterization. These results demonstrate that the optimal management of flex-grid flex-rate WDM optical transport arises by managing power spectral densities instead of power per channel, as in traditional fixed-grid systems.