The fundamental-mode arrayed waveguide grating (AWG) for all-optical discrete Fourier transformer (DFT) shows significant feasibility in the system tolerance of all-optical sampling orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (AOS-OFDM) systems. We discuss the system tolerance of AWG-based DFT designs for 100/160Gbps OFDM transmission system in comparison with coupler-based DFT designs. (C) 2011 Optical Society of America