We investigate the performance of 25-Gbps dual-polarized orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM)-based modulation in a directly modulated distributed feedback (DFB)-laser over 25 km of single-mode fiber. A Volterra equalizer is used to compensate for the nonlinear effects of the optical fiber. The results show that FBMC-OQAM modulation outperforms OFDM, universal filtered multicarrier (UFMC), and generalized frequency division multiplexing (GFDM) waveforms. Indeed, a target bit error rate of similar to 3.8 x 10(-3) [forward error correction (FEC) limit] for FBMC, UFMC, OFDM, and GFDM can be achieved at -30.5, -26, -16, and -14.9 dBm, respectively. The effect of the DFB laser is also investigated for UFMC, OFDM, and GFDM, and they undergo a Q penalty of 2.44, 2.77, and 4.14 dB, respectively, at their FEC limit points. For FBMC-OQAM, the signal is perfectly recovered when excluding the DFB laser at -30.5 dBm. (C) 2020 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE)