OPTICAL COMMUNICATION

The simulation is set to run 5 “iterations”, with fiber length varying from 50-150
km in 5 steps:

➢ TABULATION:

➢ GRAPH PLOTS:

FIG.1 Fiber Length vs Power

FIG.2 Fiber Length vs Q-Factor

FIG.3 Fiber Length vs BER

FIG.4 Comparison of Fiber Length, Power and Q-Factor

FIG.5 Eye Diagram for 5 Iterations

 FIG.6 Quality Factor for 5 Iterations

➢ Final Analysis and Observations:

• The objective of this activity is to study the bit-error-rate (BER) and Q-Factor. The BER is a
key performance parameter of the optical communication system. It is defined as the
probability of a bit being incorrectly identified by the decision circuit of the receiver. Q-
Factor is related to the BER: the smaller the BER, higher is the Q-Factor.

The light generated from the Laser is modulated by the modulator based on data generated
from the PRBS generator. The signal is transmitted through the optical fiber, received by the
photodiode and evaluated by BER tester. The optical attenuator is inserted to simulate
different length of the optical fiber. By changing the attenuation of the attenuator, the
minimum BER and maximum Q-Factor as a function of attenuation are determined. In
addition, the minimum BER versus the maximum Q-Factor is also obtained.

• EYE DIAGRAM parameters are the Eye Height, Max. Q-Factor, Jitter and Eye area.
The width of eye opening defines the time interval over which the received signal can be
sampled without error due to interference from adjacent pulses. The height of the eye
opening shows the noise margin (% ratio of peak signal voltage to max signal voltage
measured from threshold level). The possibility of timing errors increases as slope becomes
more horizontal. Timing Jitter arises from noise in receiver and pulse distortion in the optical
fiber.