Intensity Modulation

The major modulation strategy currently being used is the Intensity Modulation
(IM) of the optical source.Intensity modulation (IM) is a form of
modulation in which the optical power output of a source is varied in
accordance with some characteristic of the modulating signal. The envelope
of the modulated optical signal is an analog of the modulating signal in the
sense that the instantaneous power of the envelope is an analog of the
characteristic of interest in the modulating signal.
Intensity Modulation is very easy to implement with the electroluminescent sources
available at present (LEDs and injection lasers). These devices can be directly
modulated simply by variation of their drive currents at rates up to several
gigahertz.Thus direct modulation of the optical source is satisfactory for the
currently required modulation bandwidths..
Intensity Modulation may be utilized with both digital and analog signals.Analog
intensity modulation is usually easier to apply.
But Requires comparatively large signal to noise ratios and therefore it tends
to be limited to relatively narrow bandwidth, short distance
applications.Digital intensity modulation gives improved noise immunity
with the available bandwidths.It is therefore ideally suited to optical fiber
transmission where the available bandwidth is large.Hence, at present most
fiber systems in the medium to long distance range use digital intensity
Intensity Modulation & Direct Detection
Optical Fiber System
 Direct Intensity Modulation
The block diagram shows the schematic for an analog optical fiber system which
uses direct modulation of the optical source intensity with the baseband
signal.No electrical modulation or demodulation is required with this
technique, making it both inexpensive and easy to implement.
The transmitted optical power waveform as a function of time, Popt(t) may be
written as
Popt(t) = Pi(1+m(t)) Where Pi is the average transmitted optical power (i.e. the
unmodulated carrier power) and m(t) is the intensity modulating signal which is
proportional to the source message a(t)
For a cosinusoidal modulating signal: m(t) = ma cos (ωmt)Where,
 ma is the modulation index or the ratio of the peak excursion from
the average to the average power.
 ωm is the angular frequency of the modulating signal.
Thus, the optical power becomes,Popt(t) = Pi(1+ ma cos (ωmt))Assuming
transmission has zero dispersion, the received optical power will be of
the same form with an average received optical power Po.
Hence the secondary photocurrent I(t) generated at an APD receiver with a
multiplication factor M is given by:I(t) = IpM(1+ ma cos (ωmt)) Where, Ip is the
primary photocurrent
Traditionally, digital intensity-modulated direct detection (IM-DD) systems use
amplitude-shift keying (ASK) or binary on-off-keyed (OOK) digital signal.Here, the
transmitted signal is a two-level binary data stream consisting of either a 0 or a 1 in
a time slot of duration Tb. This time slot is referred to as a bit-period.In OOK,
electrically, a voltage level is switched between two values which are usually on or
off.The resultant signal wave thus consists of a voltage pulse of amplitude V
relative to the zero voltage level when a binary 1 occurs and a zero-voltage-level
space when a binary 0 occurs.
 Digital Signal Transmission ..
• Depending on the coding scheme used, a binary 1 may or may not
fill the time slot Tb.

• Thus, in IM-DD scheme, the information stream produces a

varying optical power.

• In the optical signal emerging from the LED or LASER

transmitter, 1 is represented by a pulse of optical power (light)
of duration Tb. Whereas 0 is the absence of any light.

• The optical signal is coupled from the light source to the fiber
becomes attenuated and distorted as it propagates along the fiber
waveguide.

• Upon arriving at the end of a fiber, a receiver converts the

optical signal back to an electrical format.
 Optical Receiver

The first element is either a PIN or an APD, which produces an electric current
that is proportional to the received optical power level.Since this electric
current typically is very weak, a front-end amplifier boosts it to a level that
can be used by the following electronics
After the electrical signal produced by the photodiode is amplified, it passes through
a low-pass filter to reduce the noise that is outside of the signal bandwidth.This
filter thus defines the receiver bandwidth.In addition, to minimize the effects of
inter symbol interference (ISI) the filter can reshape the pulses that have
become distorted as they travelled through the fiber. This function is called
equalization since it equalizes or cancels pulse-spreading effects.In the final
optical receiver module, a decision circuit samples the signal level at the midpoint
of each time slot and compares it with a certain reference voltage known as the
threshold level.
 Optical Receiver…
• If the received signal level is greater than the threshold level, 1
is said to have been received.

• If the voltage is below the threshold level, 0 is assumed to have

been received.

• To accomplish this bit interpretation, the receiver must know

where the bit boundaries are.

 This is done with the assistance of a periodic waveform

called a clock, which has a periodicity equal to the bit interval.

 Thus, this function is called clock recovery or timing

recovery.
Various stages of a digital fiber optic
communication system
 Digital Signaling Quantum Noise
• For digital optical fiber systems it is possible to calculate
fundamental limit to the energy that a pulse of light must contain
in order to be detected with a given probability of error.

• An Ideal receiver has a sufficiently low amplifier noise to detect

the displacement current of a single electron-hole pair generated
within the detector (i.e. an individual photon may be detected).

 Thus in the absence of light, and neglecting the dark current,

no current will flow.

 Therefore the only way an error can occur is if a light pulse is

present and no electron-hole pairs are generated.
 Quantum Limit
• The probability of no pairs being generated when a light pulse is present may
be given by:

P(0/1) = exp(-zm)

• Thus in the receiver, P(0/1) represents the system error probability and
therefore:

P(e) = exp(-zm)

• The above analysis assumes that the photo detector emits no electron-hole pairs
in the absence of illumination.

• Therefore, the above equation represents an absolute receiver sensitivity and

allows the determination of a fundamental limit in digital optical
communications.

• This is the minimum pulse energy, Emin = P0τ, required to maintain a given
bit error rate (BER) which any practical receiver must satisfy and is
known as the Quantum Limit.
 Bit Error Rate (BER)
• A parameter for error rate measurement

• Calculated by dividing the number of errors Ne occurring over a time

interval t by the number Nt of pulse (ones or zeros) transmitted during this
interval.

• BER = Ne / Nt = Ne / Bt ,Where, B = 1/Tb is the bit rate (i.e. the pulse

transmission rate).

• The error rate is expressed by a number, such as 10 -9, for example, which
states that, on average, one error occurs for every billion pulses sent.

• Typical error rates for optical fiber telecommunication systems range from
10-9 to 10-12.

• This error rate depends on the signal to noise ratio at the receiver (the ratio
of signal power to noise power).

• Because the decision is made as to whether a 0 or a 1 is sent.

 Error Probability
• It is the probability of detecting a 1 when a 0 is transmitted (or detecting a zero
when a 1 is transmitted)

• To calculate the error probability, the knowledge of the mean-square value of

noise is required which is superimposed on the signal level at the decision time.
 Receiver Sensitivity
Optical communication systems use the BER value to specify the performance
requirements for a particular transmission link applicationIt was predicted
that approximately twenty-one incident photons were necessary at an ideal
photo detector in order to register a binary one with a BER of 10 -9Networks
specify that the BER must be within a particular range to keep its
performance optimum.To achieve a desired BER at a given data rate, a
specific minimum average optical power level must arrive at the photo
detector.The value of this minimum power level is called the Receiver
Sensitivity.A common method of defining the receiver sensitivity is as an
average optical power in dB incident on the photo detector.

Alternatively it may be defined as an optical modulation amplitude (OMA) given in

terms of a peak to peak current at the photo detector output.The receiver sensitivity
gives a measure of the minimum average power or OMA needed to maintain a
maximum (worst-case) BER at a specific data rate.
 Quantum or Shot Noise
This noise arises from the statistical nature of the production and collection of
photo-electrons, when an optical signal is incident on a photo detector..
• The quantum noise current has a mean square value in a bandwidth B which is
proportional to the average value of the photocurrent Ip..

I²q= σ²q= 2qIpBM² F(M)

Where, Ip Primary photo-current
B Bandwidth of photo detector
M Avalanche multiplication factor (M=1)
F(M)  noise figure associated with the random
nature of the avalanche process (F(M)=1)
F(M) = M^x where , x(0≤x≥10 ) depends on the material
 Thermal Noise
• Spontaneous fluctuations due to thermal interaction between
the free electrons and the vibrating ions in a conducting
medium.

• It is especially prevalent in resistors at room temperature.

• The thermal noise current it in a resistor R may be expressed by its

mean square value and is given by:

• Where,
• K is the Boltzman’s constant
• T is the absolute temperature
• B is the post-detection (electrical) bandwidth of the system
(assuming the resistor is in the optical receiver)
 Dark Current Noise
• When there is no optical power incident on the photo detector
a small reverse leakage current still flows from the device
terminals.

• This dark current contributes to the total system noise and gives
random fluctuations about the average particle flow of the
photocurrent.

• It therefore manifests itself as shot noise on the photocurrent.

• Thus the dark current noise, id, is given by:

Where,
• e is the charge on an electron
• Id is the dark current. It may be reduced by careful design and
fabrication of the detector.
 Coherent Systems
Optical communication systems which use homodyne or heterodyne detection are
called coherent optical communication systems, since their implementation
depends on phase coherence of the optical carrier.The key principle of the
coherent detection technique is to provide gain to the incoming optical signal
by combining or mixing it with a locally generated continuous-wave (CW)
optical field.
The term mixing means waves which have frequencies ω1 and ω2 are combined, the
result will be other waves with frequencies equal to 2ω1, 2ω2, and ω ± ω2.For
coherent light wave systems, all frequency components except ω1 - ω2 are
filtered out at the receiver.The device used for creating the CW signal is a
narrow-line width laser called a local oscillator (LO).
Coherent Receiver
 Coherent Systems …
At the receiving end of the coherent light wave system, the receiver first adds a locally
generated optical wave to the incoming information-bearing signal and then detects
the combination.There are four basic demodulation formats, depending on how the
optical signal is mixed with the local oscillator (homodyne or heterodyne
detection) and how the electrical signal is detected (either synchronously or
asynchronously).For a given modulation format homodyne receivers are more
sensitive than heterodyne receivers, and synchronous detection is more sensitive
than asynchronous detection.
The mixing of the information-bearing and local oscillator signals is done on the
surface of the photo detector (before photo detection takes place)If the source the
local oscillator field has the forms

Where,
• As and ALO are the amplitudes of the source & local oscillator fields
respectively
• ωs & ϕs is the source frequency & phase, respectively.
• ωLO & ϕLO is the local oscillator frequency & phase, respectively.
 Coherent Systems …
• Then, the detected current is proportional to the square of the total electric field of
the signal falling on the photodetector.

• That is, the intensity Icoh(t) is

Where,
• Φ(t) = Φs(t) - ΦLO(t) is the relative phase difference between the incoming
information-bearing signal and the local-oscillator signal

• And,

Represents the polarization misalignment between the signal wave and the
local-oscillator wave.

• Where, Es is the electric field of the transmitted optical signal

 Coherent Systems …
• Since the optical power P(t) proportional to the intensity, at the
photodetector,

Where,
• Ps and PLO are the signal and local-oscillator optical powers,
respectively, with PLO >> Ps

• Thus, the angular frequency difference ωIF = ωs - ωLO is an

intermediate frequency, and the phase angle ϕ(t) gives the time-
varying phase difference between the signal and local-oscillator
levels.

• The frequency ωIF is normally in the radio-frequency range of a

few tens or hundreds of megahertz.
Homodyne Receiver
 Homodyne Detection
When the signal carrier and local-oscillator frequencies are equal, that is, when ωIF
= 0, the detection is called homodyne detection.
Then,

Thus, either OOK (varying the signal level Ps while keeping ϕ(t) constant) or PSK
(varying the phase ϕs(t) of the signal and keeping Ps constant) modulation
schemes can be used to transmit information.
Since, PLO >> Ps and PLO is constant, the last term on the right hand side of the
equation contains the transmitted information.Since this term increases with
increasing laser power, the local oscillator effectively acts as a signal amplifier,
thereby greater receiver sensitivity than direct detection.
Homodyne detection brings the signal directly to the baseband frequency, so that no
further electrical demodulation is required.
Homodyne receivers yield the most sensitive coherent systems.
However, they are also the most difficult to build, since the local oscillator must be
controller by an optical phase-locked loop.In addition, the need for the signal and
local oscillator lasers have the same frequency puts very stringent requirements on
these two optical sources.This criteria include an extremely narrow spectral width
(linewidth) and a high degree of wavelength tunability.
 Heterodyne Detection
In heterodyne detection the intermediate frequency ωIF is nonzero and
an optical phase-locked loop is not needed.
Either OOK, FSK, or PSK modulation techniques can be used.
Since, Ps << PLO, The first term on the right hand side of the equation for
P(t) can be ignored. The receiver output current then contains a dc
term given by And a time-varying IF, term given by

The dc current is normally filtered out in the receiver, and the IF current gets
amplified.The information is then can be recovered from the amplified
current using conventional RF demodulation techniques.
 Heterodyne Detection Schemes
Synchronous Detection
In synchronous PSK detection a carrier recovery circuit is used, which is usually a
microwave PLL, to generate a local phase reference.The IF carrier is recovered by
mixing the output of the PLL with the IF signal.Then a LPF is used to recover the
baseband signal.
Synchronous Detection using
carrier-recovery circuit
 Heterodyne Detection Schemes
Asynchronous Detection
Asynchronous detection does not use a PLL.The technique used is called differential
PSK or DPSKThe carrier recovery circuit is replaced by a simple one-bit delay
line.Since, with a PSK method, information is encoded by means of changes in the
optical phase, the mixer will produce a positive or negative output depending on
whether the phase of the received signal has changed from the previous bit.The
transmitted information is then recovered from this output.This DPSK technique
has a sensitivity close to that of synchronous heterodyne detection of PSK.
Asynchronous Detection using 1-
bit delay line