Stokes space-based optical modulation format recognition for digital coherent receivers

We present a technique for modulation format recognition for heterogeneous reconfigurable optical networks. The method is based on Stokes space signal representation and uses a variational Bayesian expectation maximization machine learning algorithm. Differentiation between diverse common coherent modulation formats is successfully demonstrated numerically and experimentally. The proposed method does not require training or a constellation diagram to operate, is insensitive to polarization mixing or frequency offset and can be implemented in any receiver capable of measuring Stokes parameters.