Optical Communications

Analysis of transmission systems

2007-2008
Henrique Salgado
hsalgado@fe.up.pt
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Optical Communications - Analysis of transmission systems
Point-to-point system
The project of a point-to-point link involves, in
general, many interrelated variables: ber, optical
source and photodetector. Hence the design and
analysis of the system may require several
iterations before the they completed satisfactorily.
System requirements:
The desired (or possible) transmission distance
The data rate or channel bandwidth
The bit-error rate (BER)
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Optical Communications - Analysis of transmission systems
Point-to-point link
Components
Optical ber
Multimode or monomode
Step/graded-index
Interrelation with optical source and ber dispersion
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Optical Communications - Analysis of transmission systems
Point-to-point link
LED MM ber
Relative index difference !

Higher ! means more injected power but higher

dispersion
LD MM ber
Maximum transmission rate ! distance is maximum
Less injected power
Design of transmitter more complex
Fiber splices more critical
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Optical Communications - Analysis of transmission systems
Link analysis
Link Power Budget
Rise-Time Budget
Two types of analysis are usually carried out to ensure
the required system performance is achieved:

f
(dB/km): ber loss coecient
l
c
(dB): connector insertion loss l
sp
(dB): splice loss
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Optical Communications - Analysis of transmission systems
Link power budget
The transmission range of the system is obtained taking
into consideration:
Power margin between the coupled power at transmitter and
minimum required power at the receiver
Loss present in the link
Loss = 10 log
P
out
P
in
P
s
(dB): coupled power into the ber by the optical source
P
r
(dB): Sensitivity of the receiver
P
T
(dB): Total loss
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Optical Communications - Analysis of transmission systems
Link power budget
Example:
Bit rate 20 Mb/s, BER = 10
-9
PIN @ 850 nm, P
r
= - 42 dBm
LED @ -13 dBm coupled power into ber
P
T
= P
s
P
r
= 2l
c
+
f
L + system margin
P
T
= 12 + 42 = 29 dB
2 conectors : 1 dB/conector
system margin = 6 dB
29 dB = 2 dB +
f
L +6 dB
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Optical Communications - Analysis of transmission systems
Link power budget
power budget plot

f
= 3.5 dB/km L = 6 km
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Optical Communications - Analysis of transmission systems
Rise-time budget
The dispersion analysis in digital systems is
equivalent to assessing the rise time of the link.
In the power budget we neglect the dispersion effect, which
is the same as consider the bandwidth of the system to be
large enough to be able to transmit the required bit rate. !
The dispersion reduces the available bandwidth which may
limit not only the transmission rate, but also the sensitivity
of the receiver and consequently the power budget due to
intersymbol interference.
t
sys
=

i
t
2
i
=

t
2
tx
+t
2
rx
+t
2
mod
+t
2
mat

1/2
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Optical Communications - Analysis of transmission systems
Rise-time budget
Empirical criteria
NRZ:
RZ:
Relation between bandwidth and rise time of Rx
assume a low-pass lter of rst-order
rise-time measured between 10 and 90%
the response to a step input, u(t), is
t
sys
< 0.7T
b
, T
b
: bit period
< 0.7/B, B : Bit rate
t
sys
< 0.35T
b
, = 0.35/B
t
rx
=
350
B
rx
, B
rx
in MHz and t
rx
in nanoseconds
g(t) =

1 e
2B
rx
t

u(t)
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Optical Communications - Analysis of transmission systems
Rise-time budget
Material dispersion
Modal dispersion
empirical expression for the bandwidth B
M
in a link of
length L
!
"
: spectral width of the source (nm)
D
mat
: material dispersion parameter (ps/(nmkm))
L: ber length (km)
t
mat
=

|D
mat
|()L
B
0
: bandwidth of 1 km length of cable
B
M
(L) =
B
0
L
q
, 0.5 q 0.1 (typical q = 0.7)
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Optical Communications - Analysis of transmission systems
Rise-time budget
Relation between ber rise time (modal dispersion)
and the 3-dB bandwidth
assume the optical power emerging from the ber has a
Gaussian temporal response
taking the Fourier transform
the time to t
1/2
for the pulse to reach its half-maximum
value, , is
g(t) =
1

2
e
t
2
/2
2
G() =
1

2
e

2
/2
g(t
1/2
) = 0.5g(0) t
1/2
= (2 ln 2)
1/2

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Optical Communications - Analysis of transmission systems
Fiber rise time
Full width of the pulse at half-maximum t
FWHM
3-dB optical bandwidth
frequency at which the received optical power has fallen
to 0.5 of the zero frequency
t
FWHM
= 2t
1/2
= 2(2 ln 2)
1/2
e

2
/2
=
1
2
f
3dB
=
1
2
(2 ln2)
1/2

f
3dB
=
2

(ln2)
2
t
FWHM
=
0.44
t
FWHM
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Optical Communications - Analysis of transmission systems
Rise-time budget
Using B
M
, dened previously, as the 3-dB bandwidth of
the ber and letting t
FWHM
be the rise time for modal
dispersion we obtain
If t
mod
is expressed in nanoseconds and B
M
is given in
Megahertz, then
t
mod
=
0.44
B
M
=
0.44L
q
B
0
t
mod
=
440L
q
B
0
t
sys
=

t
2
tx
+D
2
mat

L
2
+

440L
q
B
0

350
B
rx

1/2
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Optical Communications - Analysis of transmission systems
Example
LED: t
tx
= 15 ns, ! = 40 nm
Dispersion D
mat
(850 nm) = 0.0875 ns/(nm km)
Receiver: B
rx
= 25 MHz, t
rx
= 350/B
rx
MM ber: B
0
= 400 MHz km (q = 0.7)
t
mat
= 21 ns
t
rx
= 14 ns
t
mod
= 3.9 ns
t
sys
=

(15 ns)
2
+ (21 ns)
2
+ (3.9 ns)
2
+ (14 ns)
2

1/2
= 30 ns
t
sys
<
0.7
20 10
6
= 35 ns
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Optical Communications - Analysis of transmission systems
Example
For the 20 Mb/s NRZ data stream t
sys
falls below the
maximum allowable rise time degradation. System is
not dispersion limited but rather power limited.
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