Electronics and Communications in Japan, Part 1, Vol. 86, No.
5, 2003
Translated from Denshi Joho Tsushin Gakkai Ronbunshi, Vol. J85-B, No. 2, February 2002, pp. 159–168
Eye Openings in WDM Transmission Systems with Optical SSB
Modulation Using a Hilbert Transformer and with Electrical
Low-Frequency Band Equalization
Kikuji Tanaka,1 Katsumi Takano,2 Kazuhiro Kondo,2 and Kiyoshi Nakagawa2
1
Photonics Research & Development Group, Tokyo Communication Equipment Mfg. Co., Ltd., Yonezawa, 992-0003 Japan
2
Faculty of Engineering, Yamagata University, Yonezawa, 992-8510 Japan
SUMMARY
A narrowband optical modulation model was devised
based on an optical single sideband (SSB) modulator using
a finite-order Hilbert transformer. The model’s wavelength
multiplexing transmission characteristics were analyzed by
evaluating the eye openings obtained by computer simula-
tion. First, we evaluated a transmission model with no
adjacent channels and found that the transmission eye open-
ings after demodulation were degraded by the charac-
teristics of the optical SSB modulation and the frequency
response of a channel separation filter. The degradation of
the eye openings could clearly be corrected by applying
electrical attenuation equalization in the low-frequency
band after baseband demodulation. Next, we evaluated the
eye openings obtained by the optimum channel separation
filter determined as a function of the order of the Hilbert
transformer by evaluating the transmission model extended
to three-channel multiplexing that includes adjacent chan-
nels. It was found that applying electrical attenuation
equalization improved the received signal characteristics as
the order of the Hilbert transformer increased. © 2003
Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electron Comm Jpn Pt 1, 86(5):
1–11, 2003; Published online in Wiley InterScience
(www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/ecja.10058
Key words: optical SSB modulation; narrowband
optical modulation/demodulation; Hilbert transformer;
1
channel separation filter; electrical attenuation equaliza-
tion.
1. Introduction
Single sideband (SSB) modulation is a communica-
tion scheme featuring a narrower transmitted signal band-
width and lower transmitted power, and has been a research
topic particularly in the wireless communication field for a
long time. Over the past few years, these features have been
effective even in the optical communication field that has
focused on high-density wavelength multiplexed transmis-
sion. In particular, superior effects such as more wavelength
channels in wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) and
a longer fiber propagation distance due to improved robust-
ness to chromatic dispersion can be expected because the
spectral efficiency can be increased.
A recent paper discussed the construction of an inte-
grated optical circuit prototype and the evaluation of an
optical SSB modulator [1]. Other papers have reported that
signal degradation caused by chromatic dispersion could be
expected due to the electrical dispersion compensator after
detection in single channel transmission using optical SSB
modulation [2, 3]. The SSB signal generation method called
phase shifting [4] that is used in this optical SSB modula-
tion requires a 90° phase shifter called a Hilbert transformer
for shifting with respect to the baseband signal. On the other
hand, since the frequency response of the Hilbert trans-
© 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
former approaches the ideal characteristics, the main-lobe
suppression characteristics in optical SSB modulation are
improved and superior sideband suppression tends to be
exhibited [5].
In this paper, we assume dense WDM transmission
based on optical SSB modulation, and present the results of
analyzing the eye openings obtained by a computer simu-
lation on the effect of sideband suppression varied by the
order of the Hilbert transformer. First, the optical SSB
modulator is described with the configuration of the Hilbert
transformer. Next, based on a single channel transmission
model, we present its effects on sideband suppression under
the condition of no adjacent channel interference and the Fig. 1. Optical SSB modulator.
transmission characteristics due to the channel separation
filter, and the analysis results. The electrical attenuation
equalization and its effectiveness are explained based on
these results. We also evaluate the three-channel multiplex- where Vπ is the voltage phase-shifted by π with respect to
ing transmission model as the transmission model that the optical carrier frequency ωc by the optical phase modu-
accounts for adjacent channel interference. The optimum lator, Vbias is the control voltage center correction to match
channel separation filter corresponding to the order of the the control voltage applied to the optical phase modulator
Hilbert transformer and its transmission characteristics are at the center point of the amplitude of the modulation signal
determined, then the analysis results are described. Finally, f(t) to Vπ/2, and A is the range 0 ≤ A ≤ 1 for the modulation
we present conclusions. depth that controls the amplitude of the modulation signal.
In this paper, the modulation depth A is fixed at 0.1 in order
to suppress the degradation in the sideband suppression of
the SSB modulation produced as the modulation depth
2. Optical SSB Modulator
increases [5]. The modulation signal f(t) has its DC compo-
nent removed and is controlled so that the amplitude is from
This section explains the simulation model of the −0.5 ≤ f(t) ≤ 0.5. Vbias was set to 0.5 based on these settings.
optical SSB modulator. The optical SSB modulation circuit Similarly, the voltages V+Im(t) and V−Im(t) are given by
has the advantage of being able to reduce the transmitted
power compared to an optical filter by suppressing the (3)
carrier component. Consequently, we used SSB-suppressed (4)
carrier (SSB-SC) incorporating the four-branch Mach–
Zehnder interferometer (MZI) proposed in Ref. 3. Since the
phase response of the Hilbert transformer can implement where ^f(t) is the modulation signal f(t) phase-shifted by 90°
the 90° shift equivalent to the ideal Hilbert transformer, a with a Hilbert transformer.
discrete-time, finite-order model based on a finite impulse However, the optical SSB modulator model in Ref. 3
response (FIR) digital filter was used. clearly cannot be implemented because the Hilbert trans-
former has an ideal transfer function. Therefore, to ap-
proach a modulator model that can be implemented in the
2.1. The four-branch MZI SSB-SC optical SSB modulator used in this paper, an approximated
modulation scheme [3] Hilbert transformer is studied.

Figure 1 shows the optical SSB modulator based on
the four-branch MZI SSB-SC modulation scheme. The
modulation signal f(t) is transformed by the optical phase
modulation control block (PM Controller) into the un-
shifted control voltages V+Re(t) and V−Re(t) and the 90° phase-
shifted control voltages V+Im(t) and V−Im(t). V+Re(t) and
V−Re(t) are given by
2.2. Finite-order Hilbert transformer
The ideal transfer function HHT(ejω) of the Hilbert
transformer [6] in a discrete time system is given by Eq. (5).
At the radian frequency ω = 2πf in the equation, f is the
normalized frequency where the sampling frequency is 1,
and k is an integer.

(1)
(5)
(2)

2
The transfer function HHT(ejω) in Eq. (5) repeats with a 2π
period because the system is a discrete time system. We see
that this functions as a Hilbert transformer in the frequency
range of −π ≤ ω < π at k = 0 in the baseband. The impulse
response hHT(n) shown below is found by applying the
discrete time inverse Fourier transform to Eq. (5). n is a
discrete time variable denoted by an integer.
(6)
It is seen from Eq. (6) that this impulse response is infinite
and does not satisfy causality because the center of the
impulse response sequence is the time origin n = 0. Thus,
to actually implement the Hilbert transformer, this infinite
impulse response converges to a finite length and is ap-
proximate. Furthermore, an overall time shift is required for
the approximate impulse response sequence to satisfy cau-
sality. This finite-order approximation method is the Remez
Exchange [7], which has the advantages of being able to
have equiripple approximation in the passband and the
stopband and implement this approximation with the lowest
order.
Usually, the finite Mth-order FIR digital filter H(z)
satisfying causality is given by
(7)
where Ki denotes the filter coefficients approximating the
impulse response hHT(n). The center of the approximate
impulse response shifts to the time position depending on
the order M from the time origin 0 and satisfies causality.
First, we explain the definitions related to the order
M used in the approximation. The impulse response se-
quence in Eq. (6) is approximated while maintaining the
right–left symmetry about the center. Because the impulse
response that appears in one jump from the center is 0, the
orders M = 1, 5, 9, 13, 17, 21, . . . cannot maintain right–left
symmetry and are excluded. The remaining orders are
grouped into groups of three consecutive orders, M = {2, 3,
4}, {6, 7, 8}, {10, 11, 12}, . . . . The three orders forming
each group eventually exhibit the same approximation due
to the existence of the zero response. If the approximation
order M corresponding to M = {2, 3, 4} is defined as order
3, and the approximation order M corresponding to M = {6,
7, 8} as order 7, the approximate Hilbert transformer starts
from order 3 and jumps by four orders as in M = 3, 7, 11,
15, 19, 23, . . . .
To determine the approximate order, the time shift,
which is the time shift of the entire impulse response to
satisfy causality, is found. When the definition of the ap-
3
proximate order described above is used, the time origin 0
in Eq. (6) shifts to (M – 1)/2. By using the finite-order
Hilbert transformer, the signal expressed in discrete time of
the signal ^f(t) in Eqs. (3) and (4) becomes a signal delayed
by this time shift. Furthermore, the signal ^f(t) is a signal
phase-shifted by 90° with reference to the signal phase of
f(t) in Eqs. (1) and (2). Therefore, the discrete time signal,
which is the discrete-time representation of signal f(t), must
have the same time shift.
Table 1 lists the Hilbert transform transfer functions
of orders 3 to 23 that are approximations compatible with
Eq. (7) and are time-shifted. To keep the sideband suppres-
sion ratio to –60 dB or less, the ripple tolerance in the
approximation was set to 0.008 dB or less.
Figures 2 and 3 show the frequency responses for
orders 3 and 23. The phase responses show the shifts where
the reference is the time-shifted discrete time real signal.
The frequency axis in the figures is normalized as in Eq.
(5).
It is seen from Figs. 2 and 3 that the phase responses
indicate 90° shifting equivalent to the ideal Hilbert trans-
former in Eq. (5) regardless of the order. The differences
due to the order appear in the flatness of the passband in the
amplitude response. The flatness is superior for a high-or-
der Hilbert transformer, and the completely flat amplitude
response in Eq. (5) is approached.
Figure 4 is a block diagram of a third-order Hilbert
transformer. The modulation signal f(t) is converted into a
digital signal by an analog-to-digital (A/D) converter and
then processed by a Hilbert transformer constructed from a
FIR digital filter. The signal fRe(t) time-shifted by only
z − (M−1) / 2 to satisfy causality and the fIm(t) that was Hilbert
transformed by the Hilbert transformer are output through
separate digital-to-analog (D/A) converters.
Table 1. Approximate Hilbert transform function
 Thus, Eqs. (1) and (2) are given by

(8)
(9)

Similarly, Eqs. (3) and (4) are given by

(10)
(11)

3. Transmission Characteristics in a Single

Channel
Fig. 2. Frequency responses of a third-order Hilbert
transformer.
3.1. Transmission characteristics without
equalization

Figure 5 is a single-channel transmission model for

Fig. 3. Frequency responses of a 23rd-order Hilbert
transformer.
evaluating the transmission characteristics under the condi-
tion of no adjacent channel interference.
The modulation signal f(t) is a pseudorandom NRZ
signal having a pattern length of 27 – 1 generated by the
signal generator, and filtered by a fifth-order low-pass
Bessel filter (LPF). The single-frequency light source (LD)
has a radian frequency of ωc. The optical SSB modulator
provides a finite-order Hilbert transformer described in the
previous section. The transmission fiber is Back-to-Back,
which does not consider the length, and the effects of the
fiber, such as losses and dispersion.
At the beginning of the receiver, the channel separa-
tion filter (BPF) has a Gaussian bandpass response. Natu-
rally, the BPF output signal is an SSB modulated signal with
the carrier wave suppressed. Thus, the carrier component
should be restored for detection. The single-frequency local
oscillator (LO) has the same frequency as LD. The local
oscillator carrier power had 100 times the SSB signal
power, and PD was a square-law detector having a quantum
efficiency of 1.0. The mixing of noise and distortion during
detection is not considered. The baseband signal detected
by PD is filtered by the output signal filter (Filter) con-
structed from a fifth-order Bessel low-pass filter and be-
comes the output signal (Output). As will be described in

Fig. 4. Third-order Hilbert transformer. Fig. 5. Single-channel transmission model.

4
Section 3.2, when the degradation of the low-frequency
band by the channel separation filter (BPF) must be cor-
rected, an electrical attenuation equalizer is added immedi-
ately before this output signal filter (Filter).
The output signal is evaluated by the eye opening
defined as
(eye opening width in optimum discrimination time)
× 100
(maximum output signal – minimum output signal)
= VEO × 100[% ] (12)
where the cutoff frequencies Fcul and Fcuf were set to Fcul =
B and Fcuf = 2B for the bit rate B bits/s of the signal to keep
the degradation in the eye opening caused by LPF and Filter
to within 10%.
Figure 6 shows the power spectral density (PSD) of
the output signal of the optical SSB modulator with sup-
pressed upper sideband when using a 23rd-order and a
3rd-order Hilbert transformer. fc (= ωc/2π) is the carrier
frequency. B is the bit rate of the modulation signal output
previously. Since the sampling frequency of the Hilbert
transformer is 4B, it functions as a Hilbert transformer in
the frequency ranges less than or equal to fc – 2B and greater
than fc + 2B in Fig. 6. Figure 6 reveals that the sideband
suppression was superior when using the 23rd-order Hilbert
transformer, and the sideband suppression clearly degraded
with the low 3rd-order Hilbert transformer.
Figure 6 also presents an example of the BPF setting
that assumes channel separation during dense WDM trans-
mission. In the BPF design example, the center frequency
of the BPF was Fcnb = (fc – 0.5B) to achieve bandpass
characteristics in the target lower sideband. To quantita-
tively represent the full-width half-maximum (FWHM) of
the BPF, first, the channel width is determined during
Fig. 6. Optical SSB power spectral density and channel
separation filter (top panel: using the 23rd-order Hilbert
transformer; bottom panel: using the 3rd-order Hilbert
transformer).
5
wavelength multiplexing transmission. Previously publish-
ed results on WDM transmission tests achieve a spectral
efficiency of 0.4 bit/s per Hz by using double sideband
modulation and NRZ codes [8]. In this paper that uses
single sideband modulation, the spectral efficiency is set to
0.8 bit/s per Hz, twice the value for double sideband modu-
lation, and channel separation is set to 1.25 times the
modulated signal band. The FWHM of the BPF in this paper
must be optimized when considering the interference from
adjacent channels. In this section, FWHM is fixed at one-
half the channel separation, B/1.6 Hz. Section 4 examines
the optimization of FWHM.
Figure 7 plots the eye opening of the output signal as
a function of the order of the Hilbert transformer. The BPF
center frequency Fcnb is represented by Fcnb = (fc – αB) in
terms of the BPF offset parameter α. The results are shown
for each α of 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, 0.6, and 0.7 centered on α = 0.5.
For comparison, the eye opening is also shown when there
is no BPF. Figure 8 shows the eye diagram of the output
signal obtained by using the 23rd-order Hilbert transformer.
From Fig. 7, the eye opening severely degrades as the
BPF offset parameter α increases for all of the evaluated
orders. For the same α, as the Hilbert transform order
increases, that is, as the sideband suppression improves, the
eye opening exhibits low values. From the eye diagram in
Fig. 8(c), the eye narrows as the waveform is dominated by
the low-frequency component, that is, as the signal changes
become smaller.
3.2. Transmission characteristics when using
electrical attenuation equalization
To analyze the results of the previous section, we
determine the baseband frequency responses affected by
SSB modulation and the BPF. The amplitude response
Fig. 7. Eye opening obtained by single-channel
transmission.

Fig. 8. Eye diagrams of output signal obtained in
single-channel transmission using the
23rd-order Hilbert transformer.
|HSSB(ejωT)| of the SSB modulator with upper sideband
suppression is shown below in terms of HHil(ejωT), the
approximate Hilbert transform function having a finite
order shown in Table 1. The sampling frequency (1/T) of
the Hilbert transformer is 4B, and k is an integer.
(13)
The frequency response combining equation (13) and the
BPF amplitude response are superposed to become the
baseband frequency response |Hbase| indicated by the solid
line in Fig. 9. The parameters used in Fig. 9 are the same as
those in Fig. 6.
Fig. 9. Baseband frequency characteristics of the
optical SSB modulator and BPF (dashed lines:
using the electrical low-frequency band
attenuation equalizer).
6
From Fig. 9, the amplitude peak is positioned near
the frequency B/2, and the amplitude decreases in the
low-frequency range near the 0 frequency. The difference
between the peak amplitude and the amplitude near the 0
frequency becomes large for a Hilbert transformer with a
high order. This is considered to be related to the degrada-
tion in the eye opening at the higher order as seen in Fig. 7.
Furthermore, from the eye diagram in Fig. 8(c), the signal
does not vary and is attenuated where the low-frequency
component dominates, and the eye narrows. Based on these
results, we can expect the ability to correct the degradation
of the eye openings in Figs. 7 and 8 by equalizing the
amplitude attenuation in the low-frequency range seen in
Fig. 9.
Therefore, a low-frequency band attenuation equal-
izer in the electrical stage was prepared to equalize the
amplitude attenuation in the low frequency in Fig. 9 to the
flat amplitudes indicated by the dashed lines in Fig. 9, and
added immediately before the output signal filter (Filter) in
Fig. 5. Then the evaluation was repeated.
Figure 10 shows the equalization frequency response
|Heq| corresponding to the baseband frequency response in
Fig. 9. Figure 11 shows the eye opening of the output signal
obtained by applying this attenuation equalizer. Figure 12
shows the eye diagram of the output signal obtained by
using the 23rd-order Hilbert transformer. As in Figs. 7 and
8, the BPF offset parameter α is used.
From the results of this repeated evaluation, the eye
openings are superior particularly for the BPF offset
parameter α = 0.5 due to the application of the electrical
attenuation equalizer. Instead of little amplitude attenu-
ation in the low-frequency region of the BPF center
frequency Fcnb as when α = 0.3 due to the low BPF
amplitude response near the optical carrier wave fre-
Fig. 10. Frequency responses of low-frequency band
attenuation equalizers.

Fig. 11. Eye opening obtained by single-channel
transmission using an attenuation equalizer.
quency fc, there is a great deal of attenuation in the
high-frequency region, which is not a target of attenu-
ation equalization, and eye opening degradation is not
adequately corrected even after correction by low-fre-
quency attenuation equalization. For the BPF amplitude
response where the BPF center frequency Fcnb is greatly
separated from the optical carrier frequency fc as when
α = 0.7, the range corrected by attenuation equalization
and the correction become large. The error between the
amplitude response of the SSB modulator given by Eq.
(13), which is used to determine the attenuation equali-
zation characteristics, and the amplitude response due to
the optical SSB modulator configuration in Fig. 1 is
easily affected. The best result of α = 0.5 in Fig. 11
occurs when these two characteristics have the best bal-
ance. It is seen that the degradation error due to differ-
ences in the order of the Hilbert transformer becomes
small due to attenuation equalization.
Fig. 12. Eye diagrams obtained by single-channel
transmission using a 23rd-order
Hilbert transformer with an
attenuation equalizer.
7
4. WDM Transmission Characteristics
Figure 13 shows the three-channel WDM transmis-
sion model for evaluating the transmission characteristics
including adjacent channel interference. Two adjacent
channels are added to the basic single-channel model in Fig.
5. The optical SSB modulator output of each channel is
multiplexed by the couplers. The channel to be evaluated is
the channel having the carrier radian frequency ωc. The
optical SSB modulators in all of the channels were Hilbert
transformers having the same order. The bit rates of the
modulation signals f(t), f1(t), and f2(t) are all B bits/s. The
carrier radian frequencies ωc1 and ωc2 of the adjacent chan-
nels can be represented by ωc1 = ωc − 2π(1.25B) and
ωc2 = ωc + 2π(1.25B) by using the channel separation de-
termined in the previous section.
Figure 14 shows the multiplexing optical SSB power
spectral densities (PSD) when using a 23rd-order and a
3rd-order Hilbert transformer. As in Fig. 6, fc is the optical
carrier frequency in the channel to be evaluated, and B is
the modulation signal bit rate. Figure 14 reveals that when
the 23rd-order Hilbert transformer is used, the spectrum of
each channel is divided until differentiation is possible.
When the low-order 3rd-order Hilbert transformer is used,
the interference caused by adjacent channels increases, and
differentiation of each channel becomes somewhat diffi-
cult. For comparison, Fig. 14 also shows an example BPF
setting assuming channel separation as in Fig. 6.
This WDM transmission model was used to deter-
mine the channel separation filter characteristics having
the highest eye opening and the eye opening for those
characteristics as a function of the order of the Hilbert
transformer. Based on a modulation signal f(t) of the
evaluation channel in the adjacent channel, the four
Fig. 13. Three-channel WDM transmission model.
 Fig. 14. Three-channel multiplexing SSB power Fig. 16. Eye opening obtained using the optimum
spectral density and channel separation filter single-channel separation filter.
(top panel: using 23rd-order Hilbert
transformer; bottom panel: using
3rd-order Hilbert transformer).

The channel separation filter is represented by the

BPF offset parameter α with the center frequency described
in the previous section. FWHM is represented by β ×
modulation signals in Fig. 15 were prepared by using (1.25B) in terms of the BPF full-width half-maximum
positive logic, negative logic, the same phase, and a 1/2 bit parameter β, which represents the percentage of the channel
phase delay. Sixteen combinations of f1(t) and f2(t) were
interval. Both α and β changed the filter characteristics in
prepared. The simulations of all 16 combinations were
0.01 units. Table 2 shows the α and β that obtained the eye
performed for each channel separation filter characteristic.
openings during three-channel multiplexing.
The eye opening having the lowest value was set as the eye
From Figure 16, whether or not an adjacent channel
opening for this channel separation filter characteristic.
is present, when there is no attenuation equalization, the
Figure 16 plots the eye opening obtained by applying
degradation worsens for a Hilbert transformer with a high
attenuation equalization and the eye opening obtained with-
order. The amplitude attenuation in the low-frequency base-
out equalization. For comparison, the eye openings simi-
band region described in the previous section is believed to
larly obtained without an adjacent channel are also shown.
Figure 17 shows the output signal eye diagrams obtained also have an effect here. From the value of the BPF offset
by using the 3rd; 23rd; and 31st-order Hilbert transformers
when multiplexing three channels in Fig. 16.

Fig. 17. Eye diagram of output signal obtained by

three-channel multiplexing transmission
(upper panel: attenuation equalizer;
Fig. 15. Modulation signal patterns for adjacent lower panel: no attenuation
channels. equalizer).

8
 Table 2. Single-channel separation filter obtaining the
highest eye opening in three-channel multiplexing
parameter α shown in Table 2, no attenuation equalization
exhibits a value around 0.3 offset in the direction of the
optical carrier frequency compared to when there is attenu-
ation equalization. This shows that even if there is some
margin in the degradation caused by adjacent channel in-
terference, the optimum α exists in the direction that pre-
vents the effects caused by the attenuation equalization of
the low-frequency baseband region.
In contrast, when an attenuation equalizer is inserted,
similarly, a superior eye opening tends to be exhibited for
a high-order Hilbert transformer whether or not adjacent
channels are present. As a result, the effects of equalization
become more apparent in optical SSB modulation using a
higher-order Hilbert transformer.
Next, if the eye openings with and without equaliza-
tion are compared when adjacent channels are removed,
higher values are exhibited for the eye openings with
equalization than when there is no equalization for all
orders of the transformers in the figure. The effects are an
approximate 4% difference when using the 3rd-order Hil-
bert transformer and an approximate 15% difference when
using the 31st-order Hilbert transformer. And when adja-
cent channels are included and the effects compared, the
equalization effects increase for higher-order Hilbert trans-
formers. An approximate 11% improvement and an ap-
proximate 78% eye opening are obtained for the 31st-order
transformer. The equalization effect can be clearly verified
from the eye diagrams in Figs. 17(b) and 17(c).
However, in the results including adjacent channels
that used low-order Hilbert transformers, although the over-
all disorder is low in the eye obtained when equalized as is
seen in eye diagram (a) in Fig. 17, the equalization effect
of the transformers having order 7 or less is greatly weak-
ened in Fig. 16. And the result is the eye opening degrades
with a difference of about 4% more than when there is no
equalization when using the 3rd-order transformer. This
point is discussed next.
In contrast to correcting the attenuation, the equalizer
that corrects the attenuation of the low-frequency baseband
9
region is accompanied by the side effect of emphasis and
amplification until the interference component of the adja-
cent channel included in this band. In SSB modulation
using a low-order Hilbert transformer, in particular, more
interference components with the adjacent channels occur
and this side effect easily affects the modulation because
sideband suppression is inadequate as is clear from Figs. 6
and 14. Therefore, in SSB modulation particularly using the
3rd- or 7th-order low-order Hilbert transformer, the base-
band signal correction effect by attenuation equalization is
believed to cancel the increase in the interference compo-
nent.
5. Conclusion
The transmission model based on optical SSB modu-
lation using finite-order Hilbert transformers was created
and simulated. The dense WDM transmission charac-
teristics having a spectral efficiency of 0.8 bits/s per Hz
were evaluated and analyzed.
Initially, the output signal obtained under the condi-
tion of no adjacent channel interference was evaluated. It
was found that the degradation in the eye opening appearing
in the output signal depended on both the sideband suppres-
sion characteristics determined by the order of the Hilbert
transformer and the channel separation filter charac-
teristics. Next, the analysis of the baseband frequency re-
sponse after demodulation showed that this evaluation was
the result of the degradation in the low-frequency charac-
teristics of the demodulated signal caused by the degrada-
tion in the eye opening due to the offset in the channel
separation filter. Therefore, the evaluation was repeated
when an electrical attenuation equalizer was applied to the
transmission model. In the results of the repeat evaluation,
the degraded eye opening can be favorably corrected, and
the usefulness of the electrical attenuation equalizer can be
proven in the compensation of the channel separation filter
characteristics.
Next, the three-channel multiplexing transmission
model was applied, and the output signal obtained from the
optimum channel separation filter characteristics was
evaluated. This result showed that as the order of the Hilbert
transformer increased, the effect of the electrical attenu-
ation equalizer improved and an eye opening above 77%
was obtained for orders 15 and higher. In the 7th or 3rd
low-order Hilbert transformer, the effect of adjacent chan-
nel interference increased, and the equalization effect was
inadequate.
In the future, we plan to study the effect of the
modulation during optical SSB modulation on the transmis-
sion characteristics, the effect of the dispersion charac-
teristics on the fiber path, and the waveform equalizer
including the high-frequency band.
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2000, ThW4-3, p 323–325, Maryland, 2000.

AUTHORS (from left to right)

Kikuji Tanaka (member) received his B.E. degree in electrical and electronics engineering from Hosei University in
1987 and a D.Eng. degree in systems and information engineering from Yamagata University in 2002. He joined Casio Computer
Co. in 1987. At Casio Hamura R&D Center, he performed research and development on audio signal processing systems, and
designed sound generator chips for electronic musical instruments. He joined Tokyo Communication Equipment Mfg. Co. in
1997, and has been engaged in research and development of optical signal processing systems and optical fiber communication
systems. He is currently Senior Research Engineer of the Photonics R&D Group. He is a member of the Acoustical Society of
Japan and IEEE.

Katsumi Takano (member) received his B.S. degree in electrical communication engineering and M.S. degree from
Tohoku University in 1991 and 1993. He then joined Mitsubishi Electric Corporation. He has been a research associate on the
Faculty of Engineering of Yamagata University since 1998. He performs research on optical fiber communication systems,
optical fiber amplifiers, and photonic crystal technology. He is a member of the Japan Society of Applied Physics and IEEE.

Kazuhiro Kondo (member) received his B.E. degree in electronic communications, M.E., and Ph.D. degrees from Waseda
University in 1982, 1984, and 1998. He joined Hitachi, Ltd. in 1984. At Hitachi Central Research Laboratory, he performed
research and development on speech signal processing system for communication and video coding systems for digital video
recorders. He joined Texas Instruments Tsukuba R&D Center in 1992, and became a member of the Technical Staff, Media
Technologies Laboratory, Texas Instruments Inc. (USA) in 1996. He has been an associate professor on the Faculty of
Engineering of Yamagata University since 1999. He currently conducts research and development primarily on speech and
acoustic signal processing for communication systems. He is a member of the Acoustical Society of Japan and IEEE.

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 AUTHORS (continued)

Kiyoshi Nakagawa (member) received his B.E., M.E., and D.Eng. degrees in electrical communication engineering from
Osaka University in 1968, 1970, and 1980. He joined NTT Electrical Communication Laboratories in 1970, and was engaged
in research and development of millimeter waveguide transmission systems and optical fiber digital transmission systems. Since
1996, he has been a professor at Yamagata University, specializing in research on communication systems engineering. He
received the 1983 and 1990 IEICE Achievement Awards, and the 1989/1990 Oliver Lodge Premium from IEE. He is a senior
member of IEEE, and a member of OSA.

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