Photonic Transmission Systems

(Digital & Analog)

 Content

• Digital Photonic transmission System

• Digital Photonic Receiver (BER, Quantum Limit)
• Analog Photonic Transmission System
• Photonic Digital Link Analysis & Design
- Link Loss budget, Link Power budget, Rise Time budget
• System Rise Time and Information Rate
 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

  
N  
h 0
P (t ) dt 
h
E [7-1]

e N
Pr (n)  Nn [7-2]
n!
N 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 h is photon energy, where Pr (n) is the probability
that n electrons are emitted in an interval  .
 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:

P(t )  b h
n  
n p (t  nTb ) [7-3]

where Tb is bit period, bn is an amplitude parameter of the nth message digit

and h p (t )is the received pulse shape which is positive for all t.
• In writing down eq. [7-3], we assume the digital pulses with amplitude V
represents bit 1 and 0 represents bit 0. Thus bn can take two values
corresponding to each binary data. By normalizing the input pulse h p (t ) to
the photodiode to have unit area


h

p (t )dt  1

bn represents the energy in the nth pulse.

the mean output current from the photodiode at time t resulting from pulse
train given in eq. [7-3] is (neglecting the DC components arising from dark
current noise):

q 
i (t )  MP(t )   o M  bn h p (t  nTb ) [7-4]
h n  
 Bit Error Rate (BER)

BER  Probabilit y of Error 

Number of error over a certain ti me interval t
 [7-5]

total number of pulses transmitt ed during t

Ne Ne
 B  1 / Tb
Nt Bt

• 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.
 vth

Probability distributions for received logical 0 and 1 signal pulses.

the different widths of the two distributions are caused by various signal
distortion effects.
v
P1 (v)   p( y | 1)dy

probablity that the equalizer output voltage is less than v, if 1 transmitt ed
[7-6]

P0 (v)   p( y | 0)dy probablity that the equalizer output voltage exceeds v, if 0 transmitt ed
v
 Pe  q1 P1 (vth )  q0 P0 (vth )
vth  [7-7]

 q1  p( y | 1)dy  q  p( y | 1)dy

0
vth

• Where q1 and q 0 are the probabilities that the transmitter sends 0 and 1
respectively. q  1  q
0 1

• For an unbiased transmitter q 0  q1  0.5

 Gaussian Distribution
 (v  bon ) 2 
vth vth
1
P1 (vth )   p( y | 1)dy   exp  dv
 2  on   2 on 
2
[7-8]
 
1  (v  boff ) 2 
P0 (vth )   p( y | 0)dy   exp  dv
vth 2  off vth  2 off 
2

mean

mean
• If we assume that the probabilities of 0 and 1 pulses are equally likely, then
using eq [7-7] and [7-8] , BER becomes:


1 1 Q 
BER  Pe (Q)   exp( x )dx  1  erf (
2
)
 Q/ 2 2 2 
1 exp(-Q 2 /2)
 [7-9]

2 Q

vth  boff bon  vth

Q  [7-9]

 off  on
x
2
erf ( x)    2
exp( y )dy [7-10]

 0
 Approximation of error function

Variation of BER vs Q,
according to eq [7-9].
 Special Case
In special case when:

 off   on   & boff  0, bon  V

From eq [7-29], we have: vth  V / 2

Eq [7-8] becomes:

1 V 
Pe ( )  1  erf ( )
2 2 2 
V [7-11]
is peak signal - to - rms - noise ratio.

 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,

Pe  P1 (0)  exp( N ) [7-12]

• Where N is the average number of electron-hole pairs, when the incident

optical pulse energy is E and given by eq [7-1] with 100% quantum
efficiency (  1) .
• Eq [7-12] can be derived from eq [7-2] 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.
 Analog Transmission System

• In photonic analog transmission Analog LED modulation

system the performance of the system
is mainly determined by signal-to-
noise ratio at the output of the
receiver. I
• In case of amplitude modulation the
m
IB
transmitted optical power P(t) is in
the form of:
P(t )  Pt [1  ms(t )]
where m is modulation index, and s(t)
is analog modulation signal.
• The photocurrent at receiver can be
expressed as:

is (t )   0 MPr [1  ms(t )] [7-13]

 Receiver sensitivity
• Minimum optical power the receiver can detect for specified BER
• There is no optical power in zero pulse
Ip q
  
vth  boff bon  vth bon  boff I on  I off P h
Q   
 off  on  on   off  on   off P 
Ip

I on

 on   off
PSensitivity  P / 2  ( on   off )Q / 2 RM

• By substituting shotnoise and thermal noise

Q  qMF ( M ) BQ 
PSensitivity  (1 R)    T
M 2 

• For pin photon diode M=1 and F(M) =1 B is bit rate,electrical bandwidth is
half the bitrate B
 problem
• Calculate receiver sensitivity. Assume RL=200Ω, Fn= 3dB ,
responsivity=0.95A/W at1550nm,BER=10-12 with Q=7 and
data rate 100Mb/s

Q  qMF ( M ) BQ 
PSensitivity  (1 R) 

T 
M 2 

• Where
 T  (4k BTB / 2 Req ) Ft
• Note For BER=10-9 Q=6