A utilização, em sistemas de comunicações ópticas, de formatos de modulação digitais é vista, atualmente, como uma forma promissora de aumentar a eficiência espectral, frente aos diversos efeitos de degradação do sinal em fibra óptica, sem alterar a infraestrutura já implantada. É neste contexto que surge a técnica OFDM (orthogonal frequency division multiplexing) que estabelece sobreposição espectral das subportadoras e, desta forma, permite a transmissão dos dados em forma multiplexada com grande eficiência espectral. No presente trabalho, foi proposta a simulação da técnica OFDM com modulação QAM (quadrature amplitude modulation) no software Optisystem, versões 9.0 e 10.0. O objetivo principal da pesquisa é estudar algumas configurações de sistemas OFDM óptico, com detecção direta e coerente, visando avaliar seu desempenho sistêmico frente a efeitos de propagação. Usando as figuras de mérito BER e diagrama de constelação para estabelecer a meta de ótimo desempenho, analisamos a técnica OFDM com detecção coerente em configurações aplicáveis, principalmente, para redes ópticas de acesso com alcance estendido. Para validação dos resultados, são apresentados também estudos que relacionam as degradações do sinal em fibra óptica e a técnica OFDM. Estes resultados foram comparados com os existentes na literatura, apresentando boa concordância. / The development of digital modulation formats in optical communications systems is considered to be a promising way to increase the spectral efficiency and to combat the effects of signal degradation in optical fiber without changing the infrastructure already deployed. In this context, the technique called OFDM (orthogonal frequency division multiplexing) establishes a particular spectral overlap of the subcarriers, which allows data transmission to be multiplexed with high spectral efficiency. The main objective of the research is to study some configurations of optical OFDM systems with direct detection and coherent in order to evaluate their performance against propagation effects. Using the figures of merit BER and constellation diagram to establish the goal of optimal performance, we analyze the OFDM technique with coherent detection in configurations more applicable for optical access networks with extended reach. To validate the results we also present some studies that relate the degradation of the signal in an optical fiber and the OFDM technique. These results were compared with those described in literature, showing good agreement.

At the heart of high harmonic generation lies a combination of optical and collision physics entwined by a strong laser field. An electron, initially tunnel-ionized by the field, driven away then back in the continuum, finally recombines back to rest in its initial ground state via a radiative transition. The emitted attosecond (atto=10^-18) XUV light pulse carries all the information (polarization, amplitude and phase) about the photorecombination continuum-to-ground transition dipolar field. Photorecombination is related to the time-reversed photoionization process. In this perspective, high-harmonic spectroscopy extends well-established photoelectron spectroscopy, based on charged particle detection, to a fully coherent one, based on light characterization. The main achievement presented in this thesis is to use high harmonic generation to probe femtosecond (femto=10^-15) chemical dynamics for the first time. Thanks to the coherence imposed by the strong driving laser field, homodyne detection of attosecond pulses from excited molecules undergoing dynamics is achieved, the signal from unexcited molecules acting as the reference local oscillator. First, applying time-resolved high-harmonic spectroscopy to the photodissociation of a diatomic molecule, Br2 to Br + Br, allows us to follow the break of a chemical bond occurring in a few hundreds of femtoseconds. Second, extending it to a triatomic (NO2) lets us observe both the previously unseen (but predicted) early femtosecond conical intersection dynamics followed by the late picosecond statistical photodissociation taking place in the reaction NO2 to NO + O. Another important realization of this thesis is the development of a complementary technique to time-resolved high-harmonic spectroscopy called LAPIN, for Linked Attosecond Phase INterferometry. When combined together, time-resolved high-harmonic spectroscopy and LAPIN give access to the complex photorecombination dipole of aligned excited molecules. These achievements lay the basis for electron recollision tomographic imaging of a chemical reaction with unprecedented angstrom (1 angstrom= 0.1 nanometer) spatial resolution. Other contributions dedicated to the development of attosecond science and the generalization of high-harmonic spectroscopy as a novel, fully coherent molecular spectroscopy will also be presented in this thesis.

1.55-µm high-speed modelocked semiconductor lasers are theoretically and experimentally studied for various coherent photonic system applications. The modelocked semiconductor lasers (MSLs) are designed with high-speed (>5 GHz) external cavity configurations utilizing monolithic two-section curved semiconductor optical amplifiers. By exploiting the saturable absorber section of the monolithic device, passive or hybrid mode-locking techniques are used to generate short optical pulses with broadband optical frequency combs. Laser frequency stability is improved by applying the Pound-Drever-Hall (PDH) frequency stabilization technique to the MSLs. The improved laser performance after the frequency stabilization (a frequency drifting of less than 350 MHz), is extensively studied with respect to the laser linewidth (~ 3 MHz), the relative intensity noise (RIN) (< -150 dB/Hz), as well as the modal RIN (~ 3 dB reduction). MSL to MSL, and tunable laser to MSL synchronization is demonstrated by using a dual-mode injection technique and a modulation sideband injection technique, respectively. Dynamic locking behavior and locking bandwidth are experimentally and theoretically studied. Stable laser synchronization between two MSLs is demonstrated with an injection seed power on the order of a few microwatt. Several coherent heterodyne detections based on the synchronized MSL systems are demonstrated for applications in microwave photonic links and ultra-dense wavelength division multiplexing (UD-WDM) system. In addition, efficient coherent homodyne balanced receivers based on synchronized MSLs are developed and demonstrated for a spectrally phase-encoded optical CDMA (SPE-OCDMA) system.

Over the last decade, rapid growth of broadband services necessitated research aimed at increasing transmission capacity in fiber-optic communication systems. Wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) technology has been widely used in fiber-optic systems to fully utilize fiber transmission bandwidth. Among optical amplifiers for WDM transmission, semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) is a promising candidate, thanks to its broad bandwidth, compact size, and low cost. In transmission systems using SOAs, due to their large noise figures, high signal launching powers are required to ensure reasonable optical signal-to-noise ratio of the received signals. Hence the SOAs are operated in the saturation region and the signals will suffer from SOA impairments including self-gain modulation, self-phase modulation, and inter channel crosstalk effects such as cross-gain modulation, cross-phase modulation, and four-wave mixing in WDM. One possibility to circumvent these nonlinear impairments is to use constant-intensity modulation format in the 1310 nm window where dispersion is also negligible. In this dissertation, differential phase-shift keying (DPSK) WDM transmission in the 1310 nm window using SOAs was first considered to increase the capacity of existing telecommunication network. A WDM transmission of 4 x 10 Gbit/s DPSK signals over 540 km standard single mode fiber (SSMF) using cascaded SOAs was demonstrated in a recirculating loop. In order to increase the transmission reach of such WDM systems, those SOA impairments must be compensated. To do so, an accurate model for quantum-dot (QD) SOA must be established. In this dissertation, the QD-SOA was modeled with the assumption of overall charge neutrality. Static gain was calculated. Optical modulation response and nonlinear phase noise were studied semi-analytically based on small-signal analysis. The quantitative studies show that an ultrafast gain recovery time of ~0.1 ps can be achieved when QD-SOAs are under high current injection, which leads to high saturation output power. However more nonlinear phase noise is induced when the QD-SOAs are used in the transmission systems operating at 10 Gbit/s or 40 Gbit/s. Electronic post-compensation for SOA impairments using coherent detection and digital signal processing (DSP) was investigated next in this dissertation. An on-off keying transmission over 100 km SSMF using three SOAs at 1.3 [micrometer] were demonstrated experimentally with direct detection and SOA impairment compensation. The data pattern effect of the signal was compensated effectively. Both optimum launching power and Q-factor were improved by 8 dB. For advanced modulation formats involving phase modulation or in transmission windows with large dispersion, coherent detection must be used and fiber impairments in WDM systems need to be compensated as well. The proposed fiber impairment compensation is based on digital backward propagation. The corresponding DSP implementation was described and the required calculations as well as system latency were derived. Finally joint SOA and fiber impairment compensations were experimentally demonstrated for an amplitude-phase-shift keying transmission.

Les systèmes de transmission optiques (STOs) déployés actuellement utilisent la détection cohérente pour les débits de 40 Gb/s et 100 Gb/s. Une modulation QPSK ( « Quadrature Phase Shift Keying »), c’est à dire avec 4 niveaux de phase, associée à un multiplexage de polarisation (« PDM » pour « Polarization Division Multiplexing ») permet de transporter 4 bits par symbole. L’utilisation des formats de modulation plus complexes, tels que le 16QAM (pour « Quadrature Amplitude Modulation »), avec 16 états possibles, permet d’augmenter le débit transmis. Cependant, cette méthode réduit fortement la portée de transmission. Par exemple, si on passe de 100 Gb/s PDM-QPSK à 200 Gb/s PDM-16QAM, la portée est réduite par un facteur cinq. Une approche nouvelle et en rupture afin d’augmenter la capacité est le multiplexage en mode (MDM, pour « Mode Division Multiplexing »). Cette approche est investiguée dans le cadre de ma thèse. Je commence ma thèse avec des généralités sur les STOs, suivi d’une présentation de leur évolution historique dans le contexte de la demande de capacité croissante dans les réseaux de télécommunications. Ensuite je montre plusieurs options pour continuer la croissance de capacité dans les STOs avant de me focaliser sur le MDM. Je décris tous les nouveaux éléments clés d’un système MDM typique, notamment la fibre et l’amplificateur légèrement multimodaux, le multiplexeur / démultiplexeur de modes et le nouveau système de réception, en me fondant sur des résultats théoriques, numériques et expérimentaux. Je termine avec une présentation des expériences de transmission MDM, où nous étions parmi les premières équipes mondiales à réaliser une telle démonstration / Currently deployed optical transmission systems use coherent detection for data rates of 40 Gb/s and 100 Gb/s. Quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) modulation using four phase levels in combination with polarization division multiplexing (PDM) allows transmitting four bits per symbol. The use of more complex modulation formats, such as 16 level quadrature amplitude modulation (16QAM) allows increasing the data rate. However, this method reduces dramatically the transmission reach. For example, when passing from 100 Gb/s PDM-QPSK to 200 Gb/s PDM-16QAM, the reach is reduced by a factor of five. A new and disruptive approach in order to increase the capacity is mode division multiplexing (MDM), and this approach is investigated in the frame of my thesis. I start my thesis with some generalities on optical transmission systems followed by a presentation of their historical evolution against the background of the increasing capacity demand in the worldwide telecommunication networks. Afterwards I show some ways to continue the capacity growth in optical transmission systems before focusing on MDM. I describe the new key elements, notably the few-mode fiber and the few-mode amplifier, the mode-multiplexer / -demultiplexer and the new receiver system. I finish with a presentation of some experiments using entire MDM systems, which allowed us to be among the first research teams worldwide to realize a successful MDM transmission

The objective of this research work is to develop reliable and power-efficient synchronization algorithms for continuous phase modulation (CPM). CPM is a bandwidth and power efficient signaling scheme suitable for wireless and mobile communications. Binary CPM schemes have been widely used in many commercial and military systems. CPM with multilevel symbol inputs, i.e., M-ary CPM, can achieve a higher data rate than binary CPM. However, the use of M-ary CPM has been limited due to receiver complexity and synchronization problems. In the last decade, serially concatenated CPM (SCCPM) has drawn more attention since this turbo-like coded scheme can achieve near Shannon-limit performance by performing iterative demodulation/decoding. Note that SCCPM typically operates at a low signal-to-noise ratio, which makes reliable and power-efficient synchronization more challenging. In this thesis, we propose a novel timing and phase recovery technique for CPM. Compared to existing maximum-likelihood estimators, the proposed data-aided synchronizer can achieve a better acquisition performance when a preamble is short or channel model errors are present. We also propose a novel adaptive soft-input soft-output (A-SISO) module for iterative detection with parameter uncertainty. In contrast to the existing A-SISO algorithms using linear prediction, the parameter estimation in the proposed structure is performed in a more general least-squares sense. Based on this scheme, a family of fixed-interval A-SISO algorithms are utilized to implement blind iterative phase synchronization for SCCPM. Moreover, the convergence characteristics of iterative phase synchronization and detection are analyzed by means of density evolution. Particularly, an oscillatory convergence behavior is observed when cycle slips occur during phase tracking. In order to reduce performance degradation due to this convergence fluctuation, design issues, including delay depth of the proposed algorithms, iteration-stopping criteria and interleaver size, are also discussed. Finally, for completeness of the study on phase synchronization, we investigate the error probability performance of noncoherently detected full-response CPM, which does not require channel (or phase) estimation.

This dissertation is aimed at examining signal integrity degradation factors and realizing signal integrity enhancement circuits for both wired and wireless communication systems. For wired communication systems, an optical coherent system employing an electrical equalization circuit is studied as a way of extending the transmission distance limited by optical fiber dispersion mechanisms. System simulation of the optical coherent receiver combined with the feed-forward equalizers is performed to determine the design specification of the equalizer circuit. The equalization circuit is designed and implemented in a 0.18 µm complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) process and demonstrates the capability to extend the transmission reach of long-haul optical systems over single-mode fiber to 600 km. Additionally, for wireless applications, signal integrity issues found in a full-duplex wireless communication network are examined. Full-duplex wireless systems are subject to interference from their own transmitter leakage signals; thus, a transmitter leakage cancellation circuit is designed and implemented in a 0.18 µm CMOS technology. The proposed cancellation circuit is integrated with a low-noise amplifier and demonstrates over 20 dB of transmitter leakage signal suppression.

The success of the Internet-of-Things (IoT) paradigm relies on, among other things, developing energy-efficient communication techniques that can enable information exchange among billions of battery-operated IoT devices. With its technological capability of simultaneous information and energy transfer, ambient backscatter is quickly emerging as an appealing solution for this communication paradigm, especially for the links with low data rate requirements. However, many challenges and limitations of ambient backscatter have to be overcome for widespread adoption of the technology in future wireless networks. Motivated by this, we study the design and implementation of ambient backscatter systems, including non-coherent detection and encoding schemes, and investigate techniques such as multiple antenna interference cancellation and frequency-shift backscatter to improve the bit error rate performance of the designed ambient backscatter systems. First, the problem of coherent and semi-coherent ambient backscatter is investigated by evaluating the exact bit error rate (BER) of the system. The test statistic used for the signal detection is based on the averaging of energy of the received signal samples. It is important to highlight that the conditional distributions of this test statistic are derived using the central limit theorem (CLT) approximation in the literature. The characterization of the exact conditional distributions of the test statistic as non-central chi-squared random variable for the binary hypothesis testing problem is first handled in our study, which is a key contribution of this particular work. The evaluation of the maximum likelihood (ML) detection threshold is also explored which is found to be intractable. To overcome this, alternate strategies to approximate the ML threshold are proposed. In addition, several insights for system design and implementation are provided both from analytical and numerical standpoints. Second, the highly appealing non-coherent signal detection is explored in the context of ambient backscatter for a time-selective channel. Modeling the time-selective fading as a first-order autoregressive (AR) process, we implement a new detection architecture at the receiver based on the direct averaging of the received signal samples, which departs significantly from the energy averaging-based receivers considered in the literature. For the proposed setup, we characterize the exact asymptotic BER for both single-antenna (SA) and multi-antenna (MA) receivers, and demonstrate the robustness of the new architecture to timing errors. Our results demonstrate that the direct-link (DL) interference from the ambient power source leads to a BER floor in the SA receiver, which the MA receiver can avoid by estimating the angle of arrival (AoA) of the DL. The analysis further quantifies the effect of improved angular resolution on the BER as a function of the number of receive antennas. Third, the advantages of utilizing Manchester encoding for the data transmission in the context of non-coherent ambient backscatter have been explored. Specifically, encoding is shown to simplify the detection procedure at the receiver since the optimal decision rule is found to be independent of the system parameters. Through extensive numerical results, it is further shown that a backscatter system with Manchester encoding can achieve a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) gain compared to the commonly used uncoded direct on-off keying (OOK) modulation, when used in conjunction with a multi-antenna receiver employing the direct-link cancellation. Fourth, the BER performance of frequency-shift ambient backscatter, which achieves the self-interference mitigation by spatially separating the reflected backscatter signal from the impending source signal, is investigated. The performance of the system is evaluated for a non-coherent receiver under slow fading in two different network setups: 1) a single interfering link coming from the ambient transmission occurring in the shifted frequency region, and 2) a large-scale network with multiple interfering signals coming from the backscatter nodes and ambient source devices transmitting in the band of interest. Modeling the interfering devices as a two dimensional Poisson point process (PPP), tools from stochastic geometry are utilized to evaluate the bit error rate for the large-scale network setup. / Doctor of Philosophy / The emerging paradigm of Internet-of-Things (IoT) has the capability of radically transforming the human experience. At the heart of this technology are the smart edge devices that will monitor everyday physical processes, communicate regularly with the other nodes in the network chain, and automatically take appropriate actions when necessary. Naturally, many challenges need to be tackled in order to realize the true potential of this technology. Most relevant to this dissertation are the problems of powering potentially billions of such devices and enabling low-power communication among them. Ambient backscatter has emerged as a useful technology to handle the aforementioned challenges of the IoT networks due to its capability to support the simultaneous transfer of information and energy. This technology allows devices to harvest energy from the ambient signals in the environment thereby making them self-sustainable, and in addition provide carrier signals for information exchange. Using these attributes of ambient backscatter, the devices can operate at very low power which is an important feature when considering the reliability requirements of the IoT networks. That said, the ambient backscatter technology needs to overcome many challenges before its widespread adoption in IoT networks. For example, the range of backscatter is limited in comparison to the conventional communication systems due to self-interference from the power source at a receiver. In addition, the probability of detecting the data in error at the receiver, characterized by the bit error rate (BER) metric, in the presence of wireless multipath is generally poor in ambient backscatter due to double path loss and fading effects observed for the backscatter link. Inspired by this, the aim of this dissertation is to come up with new architecture designs for the transmitter and receiver devices that can improve the BER performance. The key contributions of the dissertation include the analytical derivations of BER which provide insights on the system design and the main parameters impacting the system performance. The exact design of the optimal detection technique for a communication system is dependent on the channel behavior, mainly the time-varying nature in the case of a flat fading channel. Depending on the mobility of devices and scatterers present in the wireless channel, it can either be described as time-selective or time-nonselective. In the time-nonselective channels, coherent detection that requires channel state information (CSI) estimation using pilot signals can be implemented for ambient backscatter. On the other hand, non-coherent detection is preferred when the channel is time-selective since the CSI estimation is not feasible in such scenarios. In the first part of this dissertation, we analyze the performance of ambient backscatter in a point-to-point single-link system for both time-nonselective and time-selective channels. In particular, we determine the BER performance of coherent and non-coherent detection techniques for ambient backscatter systems in this line of work. In addition, we investigate the possibility of improving the BER performance using multi-antenna and coding techniques. Our analyses demonstrate that the use of multi-antenna and coding can result in tremendous improvement of the performance and simplification of the detection procedure, respectively. In the second part of the dissertation, we study the performance of ambient backscatter in a large-scale network and compare it to that of the point-to-point single-link system. By leveraging tools from stochastic geometry, we analytically characterize the BER performance of ambient backscatter in a field of interfering devices modeled as a Poisson point process.

Dans cette thèse, des algorithmes à faible complexité et des architectures parallèles et efficaces sont explorés pour les systèmes CO-OFDM. Tout d'abord, des algorithmes de faible complexité pour la synchronisation et l'estimation du décalage en fréquence en présence d'un canal dispersif sont étudiés. Un nouvel algorithme de synchronisation temporelle à faible complexité qui peut résister à grande quantité de retard dispersif est proposé et comparé par rapport aux propositions antérieures. Ensuite, le problème de la réalisation d'une architecture parallèle à faible coût est étudié et une architecture parallèle générique et évolutive qui peut être utilisée pour réaliser tout type d'algorithme d'auto-corrélation est proposé. Cette architecture est ensuite étendue pour gérer plusieurs échantillons issus du convertisseur analogique/numérique (ADC) en parallèle et fournir une sortie qui suive la fréquence des ADC. L'évolutivité de l'architecture pour un nombre plus élevé de sorties en parallèle et les différents types d'algorithmes d'auto-corrélation sont explorés. Une approche d'adéquation algorithme-architecture est ensuite appliquée à l'ensemble de la chaîne de l'émetteur-récepteur CO-OFDM. Du côté de l'émetteur, un algorithme IFFT à radix-22 est choisi pour et une architecture parallèle Multipath Delay Commutator (MDC). Feed-forward (FF) est choisie car elle consomme moins de ressources par rapport aux architectures MDC-FF en radix-2/4. Au niveau du récepteur, un algorithme efficace pour l'estimation du Integer CFO est adopté et implémenté de façon optimisée sans l'utilisation de multiplicateurs complexes. Une réduction de la complexité matérielle est obtenue grâce à la conception d'architectures efficaces pour la synchronisation temporelle, la FFT et l'estimation du CFO. Une exploration du compromis entre la précision des calculs en virgule fixe et la complexité du matériel est réalisée pour la chaîne complète de l'émetteur- récepteur, de façon à trouver des points de fonctionnement qui n'affectent pas le taux d'erreur binaire (TEB) de manière significative. Les algorithmes proposés sont validés à l'aide d'une part d'expériences off-line en utilisant un générateur AWG (arbitrary wave- form generator) à l'émetteur et un oscilloscope numérique à mémoire (DSO) en sortie de la détection cohérente au récepteur, et d'autre part un émetteur-récepteur temps-réel basé sur des plateformes FPGA et des convertisseurs numériques. Le TEB est utilisé pour montrer la validité du système intégré et en donner les performances. / In this thesis, low-complexity algorithms and architectures for CO-OFDM systems are explored. First, low-complexity algorithms for estimation of timing and carrier frequency offset (CFO) in dispersive channel are studied. A novel low-complexity timing synchro- nization algorithm, which can withstand large amount of dispersive delay, is proposed and compared with previous proposals. Then, the problem of realization of low-complexity parallel architecture is studied. A generalized scalable parallel architecture, which can be used to realize any auto-correlation algorithm, is proposed. It is then extended to handle multiple parallel samples from ADC and provide outputs, which can match the input ADC rate. The scalability of the architecture for higher number of parallel outputs and different kinds of auto-correlation algorithms is explored. An algorithm-architecture approach is then applied to the entire CO-OFDM transceiver chain. At the transmitter side, radix-22 algorithm for IFFT is chosen and parallel Mul- tipath Delay Commutator (MDC) Feed-forward (FF) architecture is designed which con- sumes lesser resources compared to MDC FF architectures of radix-2/4. At the receiver side, efficient algorithm for Integer CFO estimation is adopted and efficiently realized with- out the use of complex multipliers. Reduction in complexity is achieved due to efficient architectures for timing synchronization, FFT and Integer CFO estimation. Fixed-point analysis for the entire transceiver chain is done to find fixed-point sensitive blocks, which affect bit error rate (BER) significantly. The algorithms proposed are validated using opti- cal experiments by the help of arbitrary waveform generator (AWG) at the transmitter and digital storage oscilloscope (DSO) and Matlab at the receiver. BER plots are used to show the validity of the system built. Hardware implementation of the proposed synchronization algorithm is validated using real-time FPGA platform.

Neste trabalho a técnica de multiportadoras OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing), aplicada a sistemas ópticos, é estudada, com foco principal na geração e transmissão dos chamados supercanais ópticos modulados em altíssimas taxas (até Terabits/s). O OFDM prevê um melhor aproveitamento da largura de banda e, quando comparada à técnica FDM (Frequency Division Multiplexing), permite uma redução de aproximadamente 50% do espectro ocupado. Esta economia proporcionada pela técnica torna-a forte candidata para uso em redes ópticas reconfiguráveis, pois provê melhor eficiência espectral aos sinais com reconfiguração de tráfego remoto. Dois cenários serão abordados: o primeiro, em que o sinal com multiportadoras moduladas de forma híbrida (QAM - quadradure amplitude modulation) é gerado no domínio elétrico para, em seguida, modular uma portadora óptica; e o segundo, no qual as multiportadoras são geradas no domínio óptico e, posteriormente, moduladas individualmente também no domínio óptico - e neste caso o formato de modulação pode variar. Para o segundo caso, três técnicas de geração de supercanais serão estudadas e avaliadas a fim de se realizar uma comparação entre elas. Neste trabalho também serão comparadas as técnicas de recepção óptica direta e coerente, aplicadas a sistemas OFDM. Os resultados para o estudo da geração de multiportadoras ópticas, obtidos através de simulações no software Optisystem v. 9.0, são validados por resultados experimentais obtidos no Laboratório de Comunicações Ópticas da Fundação CPqD. / This manuscript presents a study on the multicarrier modulation technique OFDM (Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing) applied to optical systems. The OFDM technique provides a better use of bandwidth and, compared with FDM (Frequency Division Multiplexing), provides a nearly 50% reduction of the occupied bandwidth. This feature makes the OFDM technique an ideal candidate for reconfigurable optical networks because it allows better spectral efficiency to the signals with remote traffic reconfiguration. The study focuses, mainly, on the theoretical investigation of OFDM applied to the transmission of the so-called optical superchannels, modulated at very high bit rates (above Terabits/s). Two scenarios are discussed: in the first, the multicarrier signal, modulated in a hybrid format (QAM - quadrature amplitude modulation), is generated in the electrical domain before modulating the optical carrier, and in the second the multicarrier beam is generated in the optical domain and subsequently each subcarrier is digitally modulated. In this second approach, three superchannel generation techniques are studied and evaluated for being compared. This work will also compare the direct and coherent detection techniques applied to OFDM systems. The results for the optical multicarrier generation study, obtained by numerical simulation (platform Optisystem v. 9.0), are validated by experimental results obtained at the Laboratory of Optical Communication CPqD Foundation.