Sensitivity Analysis

Minimum optical power that

must be present at the receiver
in order to achieve the
performance level required for a
given system.

Factors that will affect this analysis
1. Source Intensity Noise - Refers to noise generated
by the LED or Laser
Phase Noise - the difference in the phases of two
optical wavetrains separated by time, cut out of
the optical wave
Amplitude Noise - caused by the laser emission
process.
2. Fiber Noise
Relates to modal partition noise
3. Receiver Noise
Photodiode, conversion resistor
4. Time Jitter and Intersymbol Interference
Time Jitter - short term variation or instability in
the duration of a specified interval
Intersymbol Interference
result of other bits interfering with the bit of
interest
inversely proportional to the bandwidth
Eye diagrams - to see the effects of time jitter and
intersymbol interference

5. Bit error rate - main quality criterion for a digital
transmission system

BER = Q [\I
MIN
2
/ (4 . N
0
. B) ]

where :
N
0
= Noise power spectral density (A
2
/Hz)

I
MIN
= Minimum effective signal amplitude (Amps)
B = Bandwidth
Q(x) = Cumulative distribution function (Gaussian distribution)

Eye Diagrams
Digital Transmission System (DTS)
The design of optical receiver is much more complicated than that of optical transmitter
because the receiver must first detect weak, distorted signals and the n make decisions
on what type of data was sent.
Error Sources in DTS
!
) (
) (
0
n
e
N n P
E
h
dt t P
h
N
N
n
r

=
= =
}
t
v
q
v
q
is the average number of electron-hole pairs in photodetector,
is the detector quantum efficiency and E is energy received in a time
interval and is photon energy, where is the probability
that n electrons are emitted in an interval .
N
q
t
v h
) (n P
r
t
[1]
[2]
InterSymbol Interference (ISI)
Pulse spreading in an optical signal, after traversing along optical fiber,
leads to ISI. Some fraction of energy remaining in appropriate time slot
is designated by , so the rest is the fraction of energy that has spread
into adjacent time slots.

Receiver Configuration
The binary digital pulse train incident on the photodetector can be written in the
following form:





t. all for positive is which shape pulse received the is ) ( and
digit message th the of parameter amplitude an is period, bit is where
) ( ) (
t h
n b T
nT t h b t P
p
n b
n
b p n
+
=
= [3]
In writing down eq. [3], we assume the digital pulses with amplitude V
represents bit 1 and 0 represents bit 0. Thus can take two values
corresponding to each binary data. By normalizing the input pulse to
the photodiode to have unit area




represents the energy in the nth pulse.

the mean output current from the photodiode at time t resulting from pulse
train given in eq. [3] is (neglecting the DC components arising from dark
current noise):
n
b
) (t h
p
}
+

=1 ) ( dt t h
p
n
b

+
=
9 = =
n
b p n o
nT t h b M t MP
h
q
t i ) ( ) ( ) (
v
q
[4]
Bit Error Rate (BER)









Probability of Error= probability that the output voltage is
less than the threshold when a 1 is sent + probability that the
output voltage is more than the threshold when a 0 has been
sent.
b
e
t
e
T B
Bt
N
N
N
t
t
/ 1
during ed transmitt pulses of # total
interval me certain ti a over error of #
Error of y Probabilit BER
= =
=
= =
[5]
Probability distributions for received logical 0 and 1 signal pulses.
the different widths of the two distributions are caused by various signal
distortion effects.
th
v
ed transmitt 0 if , exceeds tage output vol equalizer that the probablity ) 0 | ( ) (
ed transmitt 1 if , than less is tage output vol equalizer that the probablity ) 1 | ( ) (
0
1
v dy y p v P
v dy y p v P
v
v
}
}

=
=
[6]








Where are the probabilities that the transmitter sends 0 and 1
respectively.

For an unbiased transmitter




} }


+ =
+ =
th
th
v
v
th th e
dy y p q dy y p q
v P q v P q P
) 1 | ( ) 1 | (
) ( ) (
0 1
0 0 1 1
[7]
0 1
and q q
5 . 0
1 0
= = q q
1 0
1 q q =
Gaussian Distribution
dv
b v
dy y p v P
dv
b v
dy y p v P
th th
th th
v v
th
v
on
v
th
} }
} }

= = =
(

= = =
2
off
2
off
off
0
2
on
2
on
1
2
) (
exp
2
1
) 0 | ( ) (
2
) (
exp
2
1
) 1 | ( ) (
o
o t
o
o t
mean
mean
[8]
If we assume that the probabilities of 0 and 1 pulses are equally likely, then
using eq [7] and [8] , BER becomes:
Q
Q
Q
dx x Q P
Q
e
/2) exp(-

2
1

)
2
( erf 1
2
1
) exp(
1
) ( BER
2
2 /
2
t
t
~
(

= = =
}

[9]
dy y x
v b b v
Q
x
th th
}
=

=
0
2
on
on
off
off
) exp(
2
) ( erf
t
o o
[9]
[10]
Approximation of error function
Variation of BER vs Q,
according to eq [9].
Special Case
In special case when:
V b b = = = =
on off on off
, 0 & o o o
2 / V v
th
=
Eq [8] becomes:
(

= )
2 2
( erf 1
2
1
) (
o
o
V
P
e
[11]
ratio. noise - rms - to - signal peak is
o
V
Quantum Limit
Minimum received power required for a specific BER assuming that the
photodetector has a 100% quantum efficiency and zero dark current. For
such ideal photo-receiver,




Where is the average number of electron-hole pairs, when the incident
optical pulse energy is E and given by eq [1] with 100% quantum
efficiency .
Eq [12] can be derived from eq [2] where n=0.

Note that, in practice the sensitivity of receivers is around 20 dB higher
than quantum limit because of various nonlinear distortions and noise
effects in the transmission link.
) exp( ) 0 (
1
N P P
e
= =
[12]
N
) 1 ( = q
Analog Transmission System
In photonic analog transmission
system the performance of the system
is mainly determined by signal-to-
noise ratio at the output of the
receiver.
In case of amplitude modulation the
transmitted optical power P(t) is in
the form of:

where m is modulation index, and s(t)
is analog modulation signal.
The photocurrent at receiver can be
expressed as:



)] ( 1 [ ) ( t ms P t P
t
+ =
B
I
I
m
A
=
)] ( 1 [ ) (
0
t ms MP t i
r s
+ 9 = [13]
Analog LED modulation
By calculating mean square of the signal and mean square of the total
noise, which consists of quantum, dark and surface leakage noise currents
plus resistance thermal noise, the S/N can be written as:

t eq B D P
P
t eq B D r
r
N
s
F R TB k B M F M I I q
MmI
F R TB k B M F M I P q
MmP
i
i
N
S
) / 4 ( ) ( ) ( 2
) )( 2 / 1 (

) / 4 ( ) ( ) ( 2
) )( 2 / 1 (
2
2
2
0
2
0
2
2
+ +
=
+ + 9
9
= =
power optical received average : amplifier; baseband of figure noise :
amplifier and load tor photodetec of resistance equivalent : bandwidth; noise effective :
factor noise photodiode excess : ) ( current; leakage - Surface :
current; dark bulk primary : ; nt photocurre primary :
0
r t
eq
x
L
D r P
P F
R B
M M F I
I P I
~
9 =
[14]
pin Photodiode S/N
For pin photodiode, M=1:
F R TB k
P m
F R TB k
m I
N
S
eq B
r
t eq B
P
) / 4 (
) 2 / 1 (
) / 4 (
) )( 2 / 1 (
2 2
0
2 2
9
= ~
Low input signal level
[15]
qB
P m
N
S
r
4
0
2
9
~
Large signal level [16]
SNR vs. optical power for photodiodes
Receiver Sensitivities vs. Bit Rate
The Si PIN & APD and InGaAsP PIN plots for BER= . The InGaAs APD plot is for
BER= .
9
10

11
10

Transmission Distance for MM-Fiber

NRZ signaling, source/detector: 800-900 nm LED/pin or AlGaAs
laser/APD combinations. ; LED output=-13 dBm;fiber loss=3.5
dB/km;fiber bandwidth 800 MHz.km; q=0.7; 1-dB connector/coupling loss
at each end; 6 dB system margin, material dispersion ins 0.07 ns/(km.nm);
spectral width for LED=50 nm. Laser ar 850 nm spectral width=1 nm; laser
ouput=0 dBm, Laser system margin=8 dB;
9
10 BER

=
Transmission Distance for a SM Fiber
Communication at 1550 nm, no modal dispersion, Source:Laser;
Receiver:InGaAs-APD (11.5 log B -71.0 dBm) and PIN (11.5log B-60.5
dBm); Fiber loss =0.3 dB/km; D=2.5 ps/(km.nm): laser spectral width 1
and 3.5 nm; laser output 0 dBm,laser system margin=8 dB;