  In this paper, we highlight the class of spatially coupled codes and discuss
their applicability to long-haul and submarine optical communication systems.
We first demonstrate how to optimize irregular spatially coupled LDPC codes for
their use in optical communications with limited decoding hardware complexity
and then present simulation results with an FPGA-based decoder where we show
that very low error rates can be achieved and that conventional block-based
LDPC codes can be outperformed. In the second part of the paper, we focus on
the combination of spatially coupled LDPC codes with different demodulators and
detectors, important for future systems with adaptive modulation and for
varying channel characteristics. We demonstrate that SC codes can be employed
as universal, channel-agnostic coding schemes.
