Release date November, 2003

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Standardization of the Q-factor Method

Q-factor Technologies and Applications

Executive overview The measurement procedure for rapid estimation of the bit error rate using the Q-factor method was standardized by the ITU-T in July, 2003. Above all, the measurement results that can be obtained with the different methods available for determining the Q-factor must be comparable. The Appendix to ITU-T O.201 (IEC 61280-2-8) describes the decision level shifting method with dual decision circuit as the reference method. This method delivers the most reliable results and works regardless of the transmitted bit pattern. A reminder: What is the Q-factor? The Q-factor is defined as the electrical signal to noise ratio of a digital trans-mission signal.

The bit error rate of the signal can be estimated from the noise that is measured.

1 - 0 Q = s -s 1 0
The bit error rate corresponds to the cross-sectional area under the amplitude histogram for zeros and ones, assuming that zeros and ones occur with equal frequency. What are the limitations? It should be noted that, in the case of digitally regenerated sections, the results obtained apply only to the regenerated section whose receiver is under test. Errors generated in upstream regenerated sections may generate an error plateau which may have to be taken into account in the error performance evaluations of the regenerator sections under test.
P(1/0) 1 1, s1

These methods are applicable to the determination of the error performance in respect of amplitude-based impairments. Jitter may also affect the error performance of a system, and its effect requires other methods of determination. If the error performance is dominated by jitter impairments, the amplitude-based methods described here will lead to BER values which are lower than the actual value. An accurate estimation of a systems transmission performance, or Q-factor, must take into consideration the effects of all sources of performance degradation, both fundamental and those due to real-world imperfections. Two important sources are amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) noise and intersymbol interference (ISI). Additive noise originates primarily from ASE of optical amplifiers. ISI arises from many effects, such as chromatic dispersion, fiber non-linearities, multi-path interference, polarization mode dispersion and use of electronics with finite bandwidth. There may be other effects as well; for example, a poor impedance match can cause impairments such as long fall times or ringing on a waveform.

Decision threshold 0 Sampling point P(0/1) 0, s0

The following applies:

BER = 1 4 erfc - 0 2 s0 + 1 4 erfc 1 - 2 s1

Summary of methods used

Asynchronous sampling (voltage histogram, figure 2) All the amplitude values of the eye diagram (including the amplitude values of the transient regions) are sampled asynchronously resulting in a histogram representing the PDF of the complete signal including the transient regions. The main objective in acquiring an evaluation of the performance is to determine the PDF of the optimum sampling phase. The contribution of the transient regions to the overall PDF is to hide the PDF of the sampling phase. The transient region samples fill up the center between the two means. Two possible solutions for correction are the cut and flip or the cut and delete methods. The idea behind this is that the histograms edges are only influenced by the noise distributions, and not by the transient. In the first case, the edges representing noise distributions are flipped inside to get a more appropriate model of the PDF. In the second case, the center (which is affected by the transient samples) is omitted leaving the edges for evaluation. The characteristics of the asynchronous sampling method make it very difficult to fit the Gaussian functions to the measurement results which are necessary for the BER calculation. The BER calculation for the signal will not give high accuracy for the optimum sampling phase as the PDF

needs to be prepared to provide a better estimation. Synchronous sampling (digital sampling scope, figure 3) The main drawback of asynchronous sampling is that the transient regions affect the result. To overcome this limitation and gain higher accuracy, synchronous sampling must be performed. Synchronous sampling needs clock recovery and is therefore more complex. The sampling phase is locked to the optimum phase and can therefore give a more accurate result for the BER estimation. Synchronous sampling concentrates more on the detection phase rather than on the whole signal. One disadvantage of this method is that the digital sampling scopes used often do not have the sampling rate needed for Q-factor measurements. A typical sampling rate would be 100,000 samples per second. Assuming a 10 Gbps signal (10,000,000,000 bits per second) is received, only one bit out of 100,000 would be sampled. An additional disadvantage is that due to the low statistical probability of a sample being affected during measurement occurring at the tail of the Gaussian function, the samples tend to be concentrated at the 0 and 1 levels. This gives a good estimation around the mean values of the two Gaussian

distribution functions, although the estimation of the correct standard deviations and hence the bell curve is difficult to determine. The shape of the bell curve, however, contributes greatly to the BER estimation as the evaluation takes place mostly at the tail of the bell curve. Although this method gives a higher degree of accuracy than the asynchronous histogram method, it is still not very accurate and mostly shows lower Q-factor values (higher BER) than the more accurate synchronous pseudo-BER methods which are described next.

PDF Std. dev. s1 1 mean (1)

PDF Std. dev. s1 1 mean (1)

0 mean (0) j=0 j=p j = 2p Amplitude Std. dev. s0

0 mean (0) j=0 j=p j = 2p Amplitude Std. dev. s0

figure 2 Asynchronous sampling

figure 3 Synchronous sampling histogram method

Synchronous sampling method (single decision threshold method, figure 4) Rather than taking the histogram to determine the shape of the PDF (and thus the estimated BER), BER measurements at different decision threshold levels can be taken to extrapolate the estimated BER. The BER measurement method described in ITU-T standards can be time consuming, given that the measurement time depends on fulfilling the requirement for a certain degree of statistical confidence. By taking decision threshold levels which are correlated to BERs of 10-4 to 10-8, the measurement can be completed much faster (table 1). Assuming the distributions of the PDFs are Gaussian, the BER of the optimum threshold level can be evaluated, resulting in an estimated BER as opposed to an actual measured value.

By using the pseudo-BER method, the number of samples per second is the same as the bit rate. For example, a 10 Gbps signal results in 10,000,000,000 samples per second, which is a much higher rate than that of a sampling scope. The block diagram shows how the single decision threshold method works. A known data pattern, which can be a pseudo-random binary sequence (PRBS) is sent on the transmitter side. The signal is detected on the receiver side with variable decision threshold levels. A second path is required to provide the known data pattern (PRBS) as a reference signal. The detected signal and the reference signal are compared with each other to identify the bit errors. The errors are then counted over a certain time frame to determine the BER. This process is repeated at different threshold levels.

Once the BERs have been measured, an extrapolation can be made to determine the optimum decision threshold level. Different threshold levels also allow better evaluation at the tail of the PDF, as the area investigated is much closer to the tail than it is with the histogram method. This results in a better fitting of the Gaussian curve and in turn a higher confidence and accuracy of the BER estimation at the optimum detection point. BER estimation using this method may be completed in just under 1 minute.

BER OC-48/ STM-16 OC-192/ STM-64

10-4 0.004 ms 0.001 ms

10-8 0.04 s 0.01 s

10-14 11 hours 3 hours

10-15 6 days 8 hours

10-16 46 days 12 days

10-18 13 years 3 years

10-20 1268 years 317 years

table 1 Time forone error to occur at different bit rates

PDF Std. dev. s1 1 mean (1)

0 mean (0) j=0 j=p j = 2p Amplitude sync PRBS PRBS Error count Std. dev. s0

figure4 Single decision threshold method

Synchronous sampling method (dual decision threshold method, figure 5) The single decision threshold method is based on traditional BER testing using a known bit pattern (PRBS). This, of course, has the drawback that the single decision threshold method can only be performed in out-of-service mode. The dual decision threshold method is applied to overcome this disadvantage. The receiver has two signal paths, one set to the assumed optimum threshold (used as reference path or signal), the other operating with variable decision threshold levels . The two paths are compared in order to count bit errors, which means that the known data pattern at the receiver side is no longer needed. Being independent of both bit rate and specific test pattern, this method clearly shows its benefits as an in-service performance measurement. The results of the Q-factor measurement can be graphically displayed in a diagram with the x-axis representing the threshold level and the y-axis representing the BER (error count referred to the reference threshold level and estimated BER).

Each threshold level generates a data point in the range of 10-4 to 10-8 to ensure a short measurement time. Extrapolation using the measured BERs (light area in figure 5) allows for an estimation of the BER for the optimum threshold level (Q-factor point in figure 5). The estimated BER can be expressed as a Q-factor. Noise adding receiver sensitivity method In this method, optical or electrical noise is added to the signal at the optical input. The power level of the receiver is reduced until bit errors occur. This method has the advantage of testing directly the system receiver of interest.

Signal interference method In this method a discrete low frequency signal is added instead of noise to decrease the quality (SNR) of the signal under test. Knowing the PDF of the interfering signal, the BER of the undistorted signal can be extrapolated.

PDF Std. dev. s1 1 mean (1)

0 mean (0) j=0 j=p j = 2p Amplitude Std. dev. s0

Error count

figure 5 Dual decision threshold method

Error limits, intrinsic noise compensation Because the intrinsic noise of the measurement receiver (Q-factor meter) is also included in the result (squared summation of noise components in the test signal before and after the measurement receiver), a method of intrinsic noise compensation is also described. In this, the intrinsic noise of each individual measurement receiver is determined in a calibration step and is stored in the instrument so that it can be subtracted when measurements are made. The results are thus not falsified by the intrinsic noise of the Q-factor. Q = 7 (BER= 1e-12) is defined as the reference value. The following relationship applies for intrinsic noise compensation: k = (ER+1)/(ER-1) ,
1 1 k2 = 2- 2 2 Qsig Q Qi1 , 1 1

A reference test setup is prescribed in ITU-T O.201 to ensure that the measurement results are in agreement. The setup simulates the interference effects of Gaussian noise and crosstalk on the digital communications signal. The error tolerances of ITU-T O.201 must not be exceeded in either case. The relationship between OSNR and bit errors or OSNR and Q For the first time, Acterna development engineers have been able to describe mathematically the comprehensive relationship between OSNR and Q (BER). This long sought-after formula provides an exact transformation from optical noise to electrical noise (the electrical SNR being defined as Q).
OSNR = ( ER + 1) ( ER - 1) 2

The following parameters play a significant part in this transformation: OSNR: Optical signal to noise ratio measured with bandwidth Bo ER: Extinction ratio of the optical signal Q: Q-factor of the electrical signal (electrical SNR) Be: Electrical bandwidth of the receiver Bo: Optical bandwidth for the characterization of OSNR Bch: Optical bandwidth of the dropped optical signal before O/E conversion

k2 1 1 = 2- 2 2 Qsig 0 Q0 Qi 0

Be Be (8 ER Q 2 Be + ( ER - 1) 2 (2 Bch - Be )) Q 2 B ( ER + 1) + Q 2 B02 o

ER = signal extinction ratio The noise components for zeros and ones are compensated separately, after which the overall Q-factor of the signal is calculated.
1 1 1 = + Qsig Qsig 0 Qsig1

DFB laser l1

Signal source

Sampling scope

Modulator

Variable attenuator

EDFA

Variable attenuator

Channel filter (Bch)

QFM (Be)

50% Pattern generator PRBS 23 or 11001100 pattern Modulation source 10 MHz DFB laser l2 Variable attenuator

10%

OSA (B0)

Crosstalk source (for crosstalk test only)

figure 6 Reference test setup

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QFACTOR/WP/OPT/11-03/AE

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