Nowadays, a large proportion of global data traffic is processed in large datacenters comprising tens of thousands of servers. The amount of data to be processed has been growing exponentially for decades and therefore the connections between the servers and switches must also scale accordingly. Despite the relatively short ranges within datacenters, strong signal distortions occur that are challenging to equalize due to the use of intensity-modulation and direct-detection. As data rates increase, the influence of signal interference also increases significantly.

This book investigates how digital signal processing can contribute to improving transmission quality. Hereby the focus is the analysis and mitigation of multipath interference, an effect caused by the reflection of optical signals that significantly impairs signal quality. This is particularly widespread due to the use of contaminated fiber connectors in data centers.

Through both a simulation-based analysis and an experimental validation, the various signal processing algorithms are evaluated and compared in terms of their effectiveness in reducing multipath interference.

Sophie Thiele completed her Master’s degree in Electrical and Information Engineering at Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel. Since 2025, she has been working there as a research assistant and PhD student at the Chair of Communication Engineering.