Optical Communications

Analysis of transmission systems 2007-2008

Henrique Salgado
hsalgado@fe.up.pt

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)

Optical Communications - Analysis of transmission systems

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Point-to-point link
Components
Optical ber
Multimode or monomode Step/graded-index Interrelation with optical source and ber dispersion

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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
Two types of analysis are usually carried out to ensure the required system performance is achieved: Link Power Budget Rise-Time Budget

f (dB/km): ber loss coecient

lc (dB): connector insertion loss
Optical Communications - Analysis of transmission systems

lsp (dB): splice loss

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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

Pout Pin

Ps (dB): coupled power into the ber by the optical source Pr (dB): Sensitivity of the receiver PT (dB): Total loss

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Link power budget

PT = Ps Pr = 2lc + f L + system margin

Example:

Bit rate 20 Mb/s, BER = 10-9 PIN @ 850 nm, Pr = - 42 dBm LED @ -13 dBm coupled power into ber

PT = 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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Link power budget

f = 3.5 dB/km L = 6 km

power budget plot

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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.
tsys =
i

t 2 = t2 + t 2 + t2 + t 2 tx rx mod mat i

1/2

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Rise-time budget
Empirical criteria
NRZ: tsys < 0.7Tb , RZ:
tsys
Tb : bit period < 0.7/B, B : Bit rate

< 0.35Tb , = 0.35/B

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
trx =
g(t) = 1 e2Brx t u(t)
350 Brx ,

Brx in MHz and trx in nanoseconds

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Optical Communications - Analysis of transmission systems

Rise-time budget
Material dispersion
tmat = |Dmat |()L

!": spectral width of the source (nm) Dmat: material dispersion parameter (ps/(nmkm)) L: ber length (km)

Modal dispersion
empirical expression for the bandwidth BM in a link of length L
BM (L) = B0 , Lq 0.5 q 0.1 (typical q = 0.7)

B0: bandwidth of 1 km length of cable

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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
g(t) =
2 2 1 et /2 2

taking the Fourier transform

2 2 1 G() = e /2 2

the time to t1/2 for the pulse to reach its half-maximum value, g(t1/2 ) = 0.5g(0) , is t1/2 = (2 ln 2)1/2
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Fiber rise time

Full width of the pulse at half-maximum tFWHM
tF W HM = 2t1/2 = 2(2 ln 2)1/2

3-dB optical bandwidth

frequency at which the received optical power has fallen to 0.5 of the zero frequency
e
2

2 /2

f3dB f3dB

1 2 1 (2 ln 2)1/2 = 2 2 (ln 2)2 0.44 = = tF W HM tF W HM =

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Optical Communications - Analysis of transmission systems

Rise-time budget
Using BM, dened previously, as the 3-dB bandwidth of the ber and letting tFWHM be the rise time for modal dispersion we obtain
tmod 0.44 0.44Lq = = BM B0

If tmod is expressed in nanoseconds and BM is given in Megahertz, then

tmod =
tsys = t2 tx +
2 2 Dmat L2

440Lq B0

440Lq B0

350 Brx

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Example
LED: ttx = 15 ns, ! = 40 nm Dispersion Dmat (850 nm) = 0.0875 ns/(nm km)
tmat = 21 ns

Receiver: Brx = 25 MHz, trx = 350/Brx

trx = 14 ns

MM ber: B0 = 400 MHz km (q = 0.7)

tmod = 3.9 ns
tsys = (15 ns)2 + (21 ns)2 + (3.9 ns)2 + (14 ns)2 = 30 ns 0.7 = 35 ns tsys < 20 106
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Example
For the 20 Mb/s NRZ data stream tsys falls below the maximum allowable rise time degradation. System is not dispersion limited but rather power limited.

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