Digital Transmission System

Point-To-Point Links
The simplest transmission link is a point-to-point line that has a transmitter
on one end and a receiver on the other, as is shown in figure
This type of link places the least demand on optical fibre technology and
thus sets the basis for examining more complex system architecture.
The following key system requirements are needed in analysing a link:
The desired (or possible) transmission distance
The data rate or channel bandwidth
The bit error rate (BER)
Digital Transmission System
Point-To-Point Links
To fulfil these requirements the designer has a choice of the following
components and their associated characteristics:
Multimode or single-mode optical fibre
Core size
Core refractive-index profile
Bandwidth or dispersion
Attenuation
Numerical aperture or mode-field diameter
LED or laser diode optical source
Emission wavelength
Spectral line width
Output power
Effective radiating area
Emission pattern
Number of emitting modes
Digital Transmission System
Point-To-Point Links
pin or avalanche photodiode
Responsivity
Operating wavelength
Speed
Sensitivity
Two analyses are usually carried out to ensure that the desired system
performance can be met:
Link power budget
System risetime budget
Digital Transmission System
Point-To-Point Links
System considerations
In carrying out a link power budget, we first decide at which wavelength
to transmit and then choose components that operate in this region.
Having decided on a wavelength, we next interrelate the system
performances of the three major optical link building block: that is, the
receiver, transmitter, and optical fibre.
In choosing a particular photodetector, we mainly need to determine the
minimum optical power that must fall on the photodetector to satisfy the
bit-error-rate (BER) requirement at the specified data rate.
The system parameters involved in deciding between the use of an LED
and a laser diode are
Signal dispersion
Data rate
Transmission distance
Cost
Digital Transmission System
Point-To-Point Links
System considerations
For the optical fibre, we have a choice between single-mode and
multimode fibre, either of which could have a step- or graded-index
core. This choice depends on the type of light source used and on the
amount of dispersion that can be tolerated.
When choosing the attenuation characteristic of as cabled fibre, the
excess loss that results from the cabling process must be considered in
addition to the attenuation fibre itself. This must also include connector
and splice losses as well as environmental-induced losses that could
arise from temperature variations, radiation effects, and dust and
moisture on the connectors.
Digital Transmission System
Point-To-Point Links
Link Power Budget
An optical power loss model for a point-to-point link is shown in figure
The link loss budget is derived from the sequential loss contributions of
each element in the link. Each of these loss elements is expressed in
decibels (dB) as
where
P
in
is the power emanating into the loss element
P
out
is the power emanating out of the loss element
in
out
P
P
loss log 10 =
Digital Transmission System
Point-To-Point Links
Link Power Budget
The link loss budget simply considers the total optical power loss P
T
that
is allowed between the light source and the photodetector, and allocates
this loss to cable attenuation, connector loss, splice loss, and system
margin. Thus, if P
S
is the optical power emerging from the end of a fibre
flylead attached to the light source, and if P
R
is the receiver sensitivity,
then
P
T
= P
S
P
R
= 2l
c
+
f
L + system margin
where
l
c
is the connector loss

f
is the fibre attenuation (dB/Km)
L is the transmission distance
system margin is nominally taken as 6 dB
Digital Transmission System
Point-To-Point Links
Link Power Budget
Example 1
To illustrate how a link loss budget is set up, let us carry out a specific
design example. We shall begin by a specifying a data rate of 20 Mb/s
and a bit-error rate of 10
-9
. For the receiver, we shall choose a silicon
pin photodiode operating at 850 nm. Figure below shows that the
required receiver input signal is -42 dBm.
Digital Transmission System
Point-To-Point Links
Link Power Budget
Example 1
We next select a GaAlAs LED that can couple a 50 W average optical
power level into a fibre flylead with a 50 m core diameter. We thus
have a 29 dB allowable power loss. Assume further that a 1 dB
connector loss occurs when the fibre flylead is connected to the cable
and another 1 dB connector loss occurs at the cable-photodetector
interface. Including a 6 dB system margin, the possible transmission
distance for a cable with an attenuation of
f
dB/Km can be found from
P
T
= P
S
P
R
= 29 dB = 2(1 dB) +
f
L + 6 dB
If
f
= 3.5 dB/Km, then a 6.0 Km transmission path is possible.
Digital Transmission System
Point-To-Point Links
Link Power Budget
Example 1
The link power budget can be graphically represented as is shown in
figure.
The vertical axis represents the optical power loss allowed between the
transmitter and the receiver. The horizontal axis give the transmission
distance.
Digital Transmission System
Point-To-Point Links
Link Power Budget
Example 2
Consider a 1550 nm laser diode that launched a +3 dBmoptical power
level into a fibre flylead, an InGaAs APD with -32 dBmsensitivity at 2.5
Gb/s, and a 60 Km long optical cable with a 0.3 dB/Km attenuation.
Assume that here a short optical jumper cable is needed at each end
between the end of the transmission cable and the SONET equipment
rack. Assume that each jumper cable introduces a loss of 3 dB. In
addition, assume a 1 dB connector loss occurs at each fibre joint.
Digital Transmission System
Point-To-Point Links
Link Power Budget
Example 2
Table below lists the components in column 1 and the associated
optical output, sensitivity, or loss in column 2. Column 3 gives the power
margin available after subtracting the component loss from the total
optical power loss that is allowed between the light source and the
photodetector, which, in this case, is 35 dB. Adding all the losses results
in a final power margin of 7 dB.
Digital Transmission System
Point-To-Point Links
Rise Time Budget
A rise-time budget analysis is a convenient method for determining the
dispersion limitation of an optical fibre link. This is particularly useful for
digital systems. In this approach, the total rise time tsys of the link is the
root sum square of the rise times from each contributor ti to the pulse
rise-time degradation:
The four basic elements that may significantly limit system speed are
The transmitter rise time t
tx
The group velocity dispersion (GVD) rise time t
GVD
of the fibre
The modal dispersion rise time t
mod
of the fibre
The receiver rise time t
rx

=
=
N
i
i sys
t t
1
2
Digital Transmission System
Line Coding
In designing an optical fibre link, an important consideration is the format
of the transmitted optical signal. This is of importance because, in any
practical digital optical fibre data link, the decision circuitry in the receiver
must be able to extract precise timing information from the incoming
optical signal.
In addition, since errors resulting from channel noise and distorsion
mechanisms can occur in the signal-detection process, it may be
desirable for the optical signal to have an inherent error detecting
capability.
These features can be incorporated into the data stream by restructuring
(or encoding) the signal. This is generally done by introducing extra bits
into the raw data stream.
Digital Transmission System
Line Coding
Signal encoding uses a set of rules arranging the signal symbols in a
particular pattern. This process is called channel or line coding.
One of the principal functions of a line code is to introduce redundancy
into the data stream for the purpose of minimising errors that result from
channel interference effects. Depending on the amount of redundancy
introduced, any degree of error-free transmission of digital data can be
achieved, provided that the data rate that includes this redundancy is less
than the channel capacity.
The three basic types of two-level binary line codes that can be used for
optical fibres transmission links are
The non-return-to-zero (NRZ) format
The return-to-zero (RZ) format
The phase-encoded (PE) format
Digital Transmission System
Line Coding
NRZ Codes
A number of NRZ codes are widely used, and their bandwidths serve as
references for all other code groups. The simplest NRZ code is NRZ-
level (or NRZ-L), shown in figure.
For a serial data stream, an on-off (or unipolar) signal represents a 1 by
a pulse of current or light filling an entire bit period, whereas for a 0 no
pulse is transmitted. These codes are simple to generate and decode,
but they posses no inherent error-monitoring or correcting capabilities
and they have no self-clocking (timing) features.
Digital Transmission System
Line Coding
NRZ Codes
The minimum bandwidth is needed with NRZ coding, but the average
power input to the receiver is dependent on the data pattern. For
example, the high level of received power occurring in a long string of
consecutive 1 bits can result in a baseline wander effect, as shown in
figure.
This effect results from the accumulation of pulse tails that arise from the
low-frequency characteristics of the ac-coupling filter in the receiver. If
the receiver recovery to the original threshold is slow after the long string
of 1 bits has ended, an error may ocuur if the next 1 bit has a low
amplitude.
Digital Transmission System
Line Coding
NRZ Codes
In addition, a long string of NRZ ones or zeros contains no timing
information, since there are no level transitions. Thus, unless the timing
clocks in the system are extremely stable, a long string of N identical bits
could be misinterpreted as either N-1 or N+1 bits.
Two common techniques for restricting the longest time interval in which
no level transitions occur are the use of block codes and scrambling.
Scrambling produces a random data pattern by the modulo-2 addition of
a known bit sequence with the data stream. At the receiver, the same
known bit sequence is again modulo-2 added to the received data, and
the original bit sequence is recovered. Although the randomness of
scrambled NRZ data ensures an adequate amount of timing information,
the penalty for its use is an increase in the complexity of the NRZ
encoding and decoding circuitry.
Digital Transmission System
Line Coding
RZ Codes
If an adequate bandwidth margin exists, each data bit can be encoded as two
optical line code bits. This is the basis of RZ codes. In these codes, a signal level
transition occurs during either some or all of the bit periods to provide timing
information. A variety of RZ code type exist. In the unipolar RZ data, a 1 bit is
represented by a half-period optical pulse that can occur in either the first or
second half of the bit period. A 0 is represented by no signal during the bit period.
The baseband (NRZ-L) with the RZ data is shown in figure.
A disadvantage of the unipolar RZ format is that long strings of 0 bits can cause
loss of timing synchronisation.
Digital Transmission System
Line Coding
RZ Codes
A common data format not having this limitation is the biphase or optical
Manchester code shown in figure.
Note that this is a unipolar code, which is in contrast to the conventional bipolar
Manchester code used in wire lines. The optical Manchester signal is obtained by
direct modul-2 addition of the baseband (NRZ-L) signal and clock signal. In this
code, there is a transition at the centre of each bit interval. A negative-going
transition indicates 1-bit, whereas a positive-going transition means a 0 bit was
sent. Since it is an RZ-type code, it requires twice the bandwidth of a NRZ code.
Digital Transmission System
Line Coding
Block Codes
An efficient category of redundant binary codes is the mBnB block code
class. In this class of codes, blocks of m binary bits are converted to
longer blocks of n > m binary bits. These new blocks are then
transmitted in NRZ or RZ format. As a result of the additional redundant
bits, the increase in bandwidth using this scheme is given by the ratio
n/m. The mBnB block codes provide adequate timing and error-
monitoring information, and they do not have baseline wander problems,
since long strings of ones and zeros are limited.
A convenient concept used for block codes is the accumulated or
running disparity, which is the cumulative difference between the
numbers of 1 and 0 bits. The key factors in selecting a particular block
code are low disparity and a limit in the disparity variation. A low
disparity allows the dc component of the signal to be cancelled. A bound
on the accumulated disparity avoids the low-frequency spectral content
of the signal and facilitates error monitoring by detecting the disparity
overflow. Generally, one chooses codes codes that have an even n
value, since for odd values of n there are no coded words with zero
disparity.
Digital Transmission System
Line Coding
Block Codes
A comparison of several mBnB codes is given in table above. The
following parameterare shown in this table:
The ratio n/m, which gives the bandwidth increase.
The longest number N
max
of consecutive identical symbols
The bounds on the accumulated disparity D.
The percentage Wof n-bit words that are not used.
Suitable codes for high data rates are the 3B4B, 4B5B, 5B6B, and
8B10B codes
Digital Transmission System
Error Correction
For high-speed broadband networks, the data-transmission reliability
provided by the network may be lower than the reliability requested by
an application. In this case, the transport protocol of the network must
compensate for the difference in the bit-loss rate. The two basic
schemes for improving reliability are
Automatic repeat request (ARQ).
Forward error correction (FEC).
Digital Transmission System
Error Correction
Automatic Repeat Request (ARQ)
The ARQ scheme have been used for many years and are widely
implemented. As shown in figure below, the technique uses a feedback
channel between the receiver and the transmitter to request message
retransmission in case errors are detected at the receiver.
Since each such retransmission adds at least one roundtrip time of
latency, ARQ may not be feasible for applications that require low
latency.
Digital Transmission System
Error Correction
Forward Error Correction (FEC)
In FEC techniques, redundant information is transmitted along with the
original information. If some of the data is lost or received in error, the
redundant information is used to reconstruct it. Typically, the amount of
redundant information is small, so the FEC scheme does not use up
much additional bandwidth and thus remains efficient.
The most popular error-correction codes are cyclic codes. These are
designated by the notation (n,m), where n equals the number of original
bits m plus the number of redundant bits. Some examples that have
been used include
(224,216) shortened Hamming code.
(192,190) Reed-Solomon code.
(255,239) Reed-Solomon code
(18880,18865) and (2370,2358) shortened Hamming codes.
Digital Transmission System
Error Correction
Forward Error Correction (FEC)
The results of the (224,216) code are shown in figures.
Figure (a) is a plot of a FEC-decoded BER versus the primary BER. The data is
from an experiment using a565 Mb/s multimode laser system operating @ 1300
nm. The relative performance improvement using FEC increases as the error
probability decreases.
Figure (b) shows the measured BER performance as a function of the received
power level with and without FEC. Analogous to figure (a), the performance
improvement with FEC is significant.
(a)
(b)
Digital Transmission System
Noise effects on system performance
Since now, we have assumed that the optical power falling on the
photodetector is a clearly defined function of time within the statistical
nature of the quantum detection process. In reality, various interactions
between spectral imperfections in the propagating optical power and the
dispersive waveguide give rise to variations in the optical power level
falling on the photodetector. These variations create receiver output
noises and hence give rise to optical power penalties. The main
penalties are due to
Modal noise.
Wavelength chirp.
Spectral broadening induced by optical reflections back into the
laser.
Mode partition noise.
Modal noise is not present in songle-mode links; however, mode-
partition noise, chirping, and reflection noise are critical in these
systems.
Digital Transmission System
Noise effects on system performance
Modal Noise
Modal noise arises when the light from a coherent laser is coupled into a
multimode fibre. The following factor can produce modal noise in an optical fibre
link:
Mechanical disturbances along the link.
Fluctuations in the frequency of an optical source.
figure below illustrates the error rates with the addition of modal noise to an
avalanche-photodiode receiver system.
Digital Transmission System
Noise effects on system performance
Mode-Partition Noise
Mode partition noise is associated with intensity fluctuations in the
longitudinal modes of a laser diode; that is, the side modes are not
sufficiently suppressed. This is the dominant noise in single-fibres.
Intensity fluctuations can occur among the various modes in a
multimode laser even when the total optical input is constant, as
exhibited in figure below. This power distribution can vary significantly
both within a pulse and from pulse to pulse.
Digital Transmission System
Noise effects on system performance
Chirping
A laser which oscillates in a single longitudinal mode under CW
operation may experience dynamic line broadening when the injection
current is directly modulated. This line broadening is a frequency chirp
associated with modulation-induced changes in the carrier density.
Laser chirping can lead to significant dispersion effects for intensity-
modulated pulses. Figure below illustrates the effect of chirping at a 5
Gb/s transmission rate in different single-mode fibre links.
Digital Transmission System
Noise effects on system performance
Reflection Noise
When light travels through a fibre link, some optical power gets reflected
at refractive-index discontinuities such as in splices, couplers, and filters,
or at air-glass interfaces connectors. As shown in figure (a), multiple
reflection points set up an interferometric cavity that feeds power back
into the laser cavity. A second effect is the appearance of spurious
signals arriving at the receiver with variable delays, thereby causing
intersymbol interference. Figure (b) illustrates this.