EC 422: OPTICAL COMMUNICATION

Digital World-2021
• 5.5 billion mobile users in the world
• 4.54 billion internet users
• 3.98 billion social media users
• In India: 560 million (0.56 billion or 56 Crore) internet users
• In India: 450 million (0.45 billion or 45 crore) mobile users

( 1 billion = 100 Crore)

Indian Population Approximately = 1.35 billion)
During year-2021, the world's internet users have spent a
cumulative time of approximately
1.30 billion years online.

DDCIOT-GITS Udaipur: 21st March 2021

Era of Digital Transformation

• Emerging New Digital Technologies

• Pressure of Adopting new Technologies
• Data Security Issues
• Social & Economical Impact
Digital Transformation: Data Age
Yearly IP traffic year 2020: 2.2 Zetta byte
Yearly IP traffic by year 2022: Five Zetta bytes

(1 Zettabyte= 1e+21 byte)

• Informative data
• Redundant data
• Malicious data
 Digital Technologies

Artificial
Intelligence, Internet
Machine Learning,
Deep Learning of Things

Sensor Drone
Block Chain
Robotics
Technology Technology
Technology
IoT Technology Overview
The Internet of things (IoT) describes the network of
physical objects—“things”—that are embedded with
sensors, actuators, controllers, software, and other
technologies for the purpose of connecting and
exchanging data with other devices and systems over the
Internet. 
• The IoT smart devices and sensors over are connected
using the wired/wireless network technologies to
communicate and transfer data from one node to another.

• The things in IoT infrastructure network are sensors, smart

devices, sensor data, software agents and human beings.

• These networked independent devices make local network

and connected to the global network to share information
with others in real time to serve some specific task.
• The main objective of the IoT devices-network is to
generate data, which are converted into useful
information by the data analysis algorithms and
processes.
• To provide useful resources to the end-users for numerous
applications
Worldwide IoT connected Devices

( 1 billion = 100 Crore)

Indian Population Approximately = 1.35 billion)
IoT Technology Trend in India-2020
IoT market in India-2020
(9 billion Dollars)
(1.9 billion Units)

DDCIOT-GITS Udaipur: 21st March 2021

IoT economics of India
IOT Components
There are three main component of IOT
• Component 1: Data Generation
• Physical space or cyber space sensors produce an
unprecedented amount of data.
• Component 2: Communication /Network Technology

Low Power Low Power High Power

Low Range Long Range Long Range
(Ex. Smart Homes ) Ex.(Smart Metering) 5G /6G Technology
IOT Components Continued..
• Component 3: Big Data Analytics

Diagnostic
Analytics Ex. Covid 19 , Patient Data Availability,
(Why it where it originated from, why it
Descriptive Happened) happened, how many people affected,
Analytics
(What and next step will be what actions are
Happened?) required to mitigate it.
Elements of IoT environment
 Communication
Developments & Issues
2010s
1896
 Communication – exchange of
information
 Telecommunication – exchange of
information over
a long distance
Information – using some
Transmitter type of quipmentInformation
Transmission Receiver
channel

• Generally three basic types of information to be

exchanged
 Voice,Video and Data
 Information is often carried by an EM carrier - frequency
varying from few MHz to several hundred THz.
 General Communication Link

 Information Source: Electrical signal, derived from a massage signal

(sound, video, data)- Analog/digital

 Transmitter: Electronic module – convert signal into suitable form for

propagation over the transmission medium- Modulating the carrier.

 Transmission Medium: Pair of wires, coaxial cable or radio link through

free space down which signal is transmitted to the receiver - channel.

 Receiver: Signal transformed into original electrical signal

(demodulation) before being passed onto the destination.
 Optical Fiber Communication System

TRANSMITTER

RECIEVER

 Transmitter : Electrical signal converted into Optical signal

(E/O) using an optical source (optical modulation).
 Transmission Medium: Modulated optical signal transmitted
through optical fibers to the receiver.
 Receiver : Optical signal reconverted to the electrical signal (O/E)
for further processing (demodulation) before passing onto
destination.
 Telecom Systems of 1970s
 Transmission Medium
• Twisted pair
• Coaxial cable
• Radio and Microwave
• Satellite

 Signal Type
• Analog—continuous
• Digital-- discrete

• High Attenuation 20 dB/km Attenuation and BW

• Limited Bandwidth  KHz to MHz limitations
 What is Fiber Optic Technology?
 Also called Lightwave Technology
 Fiber Optic Technology uses light
as the primary medium to carry
information.

 The light often is guided through

optical fibers.

 Most applications use invisible

(infrared) light.

“NEAR ZERO LOSS & NEAR INFINITE

BANDWIDTH”
 Why Fiber Optic Technology?
 During past three decades, remarkable and dramatic changes
in electronic communication industry.

• A phenomenal increase in voice, data

and video communication
 demands for larger capacity & more
economical communication
systems.

 Lightwave Technology: Technological route for achieving

thisgoal
Most cost-effective way to move huge amounts of
information (voice, video, data) quickly and
reliably.
Why Optical Transmission ?
Capacity ! Capacity ! and More Capacity !
 A technical revolution in Communication Industry to explore for
large capacity, high quality and economical systems for
communication at Global level.
Radio-waves and Trrestrial Microwave systems have
long since reached their capacity
 Satellite Communication Systems can provide, at best, only a
temporary relief to the ever-increasing demand. But
 extremely high initial cost of launching
 The geometry of suitable orbits,
 available microwave frequency allocations and
 if needed repair is nearly impossible

Next option: OPTICAL COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS !

Optical Region THz range

The Electromagnetic Spectrum

How Optical Transmission fulfill the need…?
 Information carrying capacity of a communications system
is directly proportional to its bandwidth;
C= BWlog2(1+SNR); Shanon-Hartley theorem
 Wider the bandwidth, greater its information carrying capacity.

 Theoretically; BW is 10% of the carrier frequency

Signal Carrier Bandwidth
 VHF Radio system; 100 MHz. 10 MHz
 Microwave system; 10 GHz 1.0 GHz
 Lightwave system; 1015 Hz or 106 105
GHz GHz
 Excessive bandwidth (100,000times thanachievedwith
microwave frequencies)
 Meets communication needs of present and that of foreseeable future.

 Communication Systems with light as the carrier

 A great deal of attention
 Communication Channel Capacity

Communication Carrier Bandwidth 2 way Voice

Medium Frequency Channels

Copper Cable 1 MHz 100 kHz < 2000

Coaxial Cable 100 MHz 10 MHz 13,000

Optical Fiber 100 –1000 THz 90 THz >3,00,000 or

Cables 90,000 Video
signals
 Major Difficulties
 Transmission of light wave for any useful distance through the earth’s
atmosphere is impractical  high attenuation and absorption of ultra high
light frequencies by water vapors, oxygen and air particulate.
 Consequently, the only practical type of optical communication system
that uses a fiber guide.

Optical fiber ?
A strand of glass or plastic material
with special optical properties, which
enable light to travel a large distance
down its length.

 An Intense Light Source

 Invention of LASER (1960) and Optical Fiber Waveguides
(1970) – An edge toward making the dream of carrying huge
amount of information, a reality.
 Fiber Optic Timeline
 1930: Scanning & transmitting television images through uncoated fiber cables.
 1951: Light transmission through bundles of fibers- flexible fibrescope used in
medical field.
 1957 : First fiber-optic endoscope tested on a patient.
 1960 : Invention of Laser (development, T Maiman)
 1966: Charles Kao; proposed cladded fiber optic cables with lower losses as a
communication medium.
 1970: (Corning Glass, NY) developed fibers with losses below 20 dB/km.
 1972: Semiconductor diode laser was developed
 1977: GT&E in Los Angeles and AT&T in Chicago sends live telephone signals
through fiber optics (850nm, 4dB/km, MMF, 9km)
World’s first FO link
 1980s: 2nd generation systems; 1300nm, SM, 0.5 dB/km, O-E-O
3rd generation systems; 1550nm, SM, 0.2 dB/km, EDFA, 5Gb/s
 1993 : Bell Labs sends 10 Billion bits/s through 20,000 km of fibers using
a WDM systems and Soliton pulses.
 1996 : NTT, Bell Labs and Fujitsu able to send one Trillion bits per
second
through single optical fiber.
 2000s : Towards achieving, Tb/s of data, All Optical Networks
 The Nobel Prize in Physics 2009

"For ground breaking achievements "For the invention of an imaging

concerning the transmission of light in semiconductor circuit – the
fibers for optical communication" CCD sensor"

Charles K. Kao
(b. 1933 Shanghai, China)

1/2 of the prize

Willard S. Boyle George E. Smith
Standard Telecommunication Laboratories,
Harlow, UK; b. 1924 b. 1930
Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1/4 of the prize 1/4 of the prize
Hong Kong, China Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, NJ, USA
 Basic Fiber Optic Link
RECIEVER
TRANSMITTER

LIGHT
DRIVER DETECTOR
SOURCE OPTICAL FIBER

MEDIUM FOR CARRYING LIGHT

• Converts Electrical signal to light

• Detector accepts light, convert
• Driver modifies the information it back to electrical signal.
into a suitable form for
• Detector is PIN diode or APD
conversion into light
• Elect. Signal is demodulated
• Source is LED or Laser diode
to separate out the
whose output is modulated.
information
 Fiber-Optic System Devices
• Transmitter (Laser diode or LED)
• Fiber-Optic Cable (MMF or SMF)

• Receiver (PIN or Avalanche photodiode)

 Foundation of an OFC System: OPTICAL FIBER

 acts as transmission channel for carrying
light beam loaded with information
 Two Major Communication Issues

z=0 Attenuation- signal loss over distance z=L

 Attenuation puts distance limitations on long- haul

networks.

z=0 z=L
Dispersion- broadening of pulses

 Dispersion puts BW / Data rate limitation on

networks
 Fiber Attenuation

 2.0 dB/km at 850nm

 0.5 dB/km at 1310nm

 0.2 dB/km at 1550nm

Attenuation in Silica Optical Fibers

 Wavelengths of Operation

Attenuation in Silica Fibers

2.5
2 3 “ Optical
Attenuation (dB/

2.0 Windows
1 ”
1.5

1.0 Both 1310 and

km )

0.5 1550 nm are

900 1100 1300 1500 1700
active windows
Wavelength (nm )
850 nm 1310 nm 1550 nm
 OPTICAL SOURCES
 LEDS (GaAlAs)
• 850 nm, 1310 nm
• Low cost easy to use
• Used for multimode fibers
• Special “edge-emitting “ LEDs for SMFs

 Laser Diodes (InGaAsP, InGaAsSb)

• 850nm, 1310nm, 1550nm
• Very high power output
• Very high speed operation
• Very expensive
• Need specialized power supply and
circuitry
 OPTICAL DETECTORS

 PIN Diodes (Si, Ge, InGaAs)

• 850nm, 1310nm, 1550 nm
• Low cost

 APDs (Avalanche Photodiodes, GaAlAs)

• 850nm, 1310nm, 1550 nm
• High sensitivity- can operate at very low power
levels
• Need high bias supply (40-50 V)
• Expensive
 Advantages of Optical Fiber
 Wide Bandwidth: Extremely high information carrying
capacity (~GHz)
 3,00,000 voice channels on a pair of fiber
 Voice/Data/Video Integrated Service
 2.5 Gb/s systems from NTT ,Japan; 5 Gb/s System Siemens

 Low loss : Information can be sent over a large

distance.
 Losses ~ 0.2 dB/km
 Repeater spacing >100 km with bit rates in Gb/s

 Interference Free
 Immune to Electromagnetic interference: No cross talk between
fibers
 Can be used in harsh or noisy environments

 Higher security : No radiations, Difficult to tap

 Compact & light weight
 Smaller size : Fiber thinner than human hair
 Can easily replace 1000 pair copper cable of 10 cm dia.
 Fiber weighs 28gm/km; considerably lighter than copper
 Light weight cable
 Environmental Immunity/Greater safety
 Dielectric- No current, No short circuits –Extremely safe for
hazardous environments; attractive for oil & petrochemicals
 Not prone to lightning
 Wide temperature range
 Long life > 30 years

 Abundant Raw Material : Optical fibers made from Silica (Sand)

 Not a scarce resource in comparison to copper.
 Some Practical Disadvantages
 Optical fibers are relatively expensive.
 Connectors very expensive: Due to high degree
of precision involved
 Connector installation is time consuming
and highly skilled operation
 Jointing (Splicing) of fibers requires
expensive equipment and skilled operators
 Connector and joints are relatively lossy.
 Difficult to tap in and out (for bus
architectures)
- need expensive couplers
 Relatively careful handling required
 Typical Long-haul Telecom System

Two pairs of single-mode fiber

Terminal Amplifier Amplifier

Equipment Unit Unit

Regenerator Amplifier Terminal

Unit Unit Equipment

• Amplifier spans: 30 to 120 km

• Regenerator spans: 50 to 600 km
• Terminal spans: 600 km (without regenerators)
9000 km (with regenerators)
 OFC- Systems
 Existing Systems: operating at 1310 nm wavelength
• Low loss; Minimum pulse broadening
• Transmission rate 2-10 Gb/s
• Regeneration of Signal after every 30-60 km
 Conversion of O-E-O signal

 Presently installed Systems: 1550 nm wavelength band

• Silica has lowest loss, Increased dispersion
 Dispersion Shifted Fibers
 Lowest loss and Negligible dispersion

• Signal amplification after 80-100 km

• Direct amplification of signal in optical domain
 Erbium Doped Fiber Amplifier
System Block diagram
 OPTICAL FIBER
 An optical fiber is a long solid cylindrical dielectric
waveguide, usually of circular cross-section, transparent to
light over the operating wavelength.

Fiber Structure

 Inner layer - Core of radius ‘a’ and refractive index : n1

 Outer layer – Cladding refractive index : n2

Core refractive index is kept slightly higher than that of the cladding to ensure
total internal reflection of light
 Total Internal Reflection
 Light entering from glass-air interface (n1>n2) - Refraction

Snell’s Law:
n1sin 1 = n2 sin 2

sin  n
or 1
 2
sin 2 n1
 2 > 1

• At 2 = 90o, refracted ray moves parallel to interface between dielectrics and

1<90o - Limiting case of refraction
Angle of incidence, 1  C ; critical angle
 Light Propagation through Optical Fiber

 For light propagation through the fiber, the conditions

for total internal reflection (TIR) should be met at
the core-cladding interface
 n2 < n1  condition necessary for TIR
 Structure of Optical Fiber
 A dielectric Core (Doped Silica) of high refractive
index
surrounded by a Cladding of lower refractive index.

Basic Structure of a Step-Index Optical

Fiber
• Single mode: 5-10 m
• Multimode: 50/62.5 m

NECESSARY CONDITION FOR TIR: n1 > n2

 Acceptance Cone
 For rays to be transmitted by TIR within the fiber core, they
must be incident on the fiber core within an acceptance cone
defined by the conical half angle “a” .

 ‘a’ is the maximum angle to the axis at which light may enter
the fiber in order to be propagated
 Acceptance angle for the fiber
 ACCEPTANCE ANGLE
 Not all rays entering the fiber core will continue to be
propagated down its length

 Only rays with sufficiently shallow grazing angle ( i.e. angle to

the
normal > C ) at the core-cladding interface are transmitted by
TIR.

 Any ray incident into fiber core at angle > a will be transmitted to
core-cladding interface at an angle < C and will not follow
TIR.
 Lost (case B)
Numerical aperture
Elements of OFC link
OFC deployment
66
OFC Link Design
OFC SYSTEM: Design Considerations
OFC point-to-point Link

Electrical
Transmitter to Optical Coupler
Conversion

Optical Fiber

Optical to
Coupler Receiver
Conversion
Electrical
Operational Wavelength
 Systems Communication Requirements
 Mainly Two Parameters of concern

 Link Length
 Repeater less distance (50km, 100km, 150km)

 Maximum data transmission rate (Mbps, Gbps)

 These requirements will decide the type of input data,

transmitter (launch power, modulation), optical fiber
cable, receiver(sensitivity) etc.
Optical Transmitter
 Transmitter component serves two functions.

 Must be a source of the light coupled

into the fiber optic cable.
 Must modulate this light so as to
represent the binary data that it
is receiving from the Source.

Input Coder or Light Source-to-Fiber

Signal Converter Source Interface

Fiber-optic Cable
 ILDs or LEDs?
ILDs : LDs have advantages over LED's in
the following ways.
• Can be modulated at very high
speeds.
• They produce greater optical power.
• They have higher coupling efficiency to
the fiber

LEDs : LED's have advantages over LD's because they

have
• Higher reliability
• Better linearity
• Lower cost
Semiconductor lasers for SM operation

 Febry - Perot Lasers

 Coupled Cavity Lasers
 Distributed Feedback Lasers
 DFB & DBR
 Quantum Well Lasers
 Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Laser
(VCSEL)

 All these configurations require a rigid control of the

cavity parameters to achieve and maintain single mode
operation.
 Fiber Optic Cable
Consideration Parameters
 How much light can be coupled into the core through the
external acceptance angle?
 How much attenuation will a light ray experience
in propagating down the core?
 How much time dispersion will light rays representing
the same input pulse experience in propagating down the
core?
 Fiber optic cable can be one of two types
Multi-mode or Single-mode.
 These provide different performance with respect
to both attenuation and time dispersion.

 Glass fiber optic cable has the lowest attenuation and comes at
the highest cost.
 Plastic fiber optic cable has the highest attenuation, but comes at
the lowest cost.
 Optical Receiver
Receiver component serves two functions.
 Detect the light coupled out of the
fiber optic cable then convert the light into
an electrical signal.
 Demodulate the light to determine the identity
of the binary data.

Optical Fiber

Optical to
Coupler Electrical Receiver
Conversion
 Detectors
There are two types of photodiode structures:
• Positive Intrinsic Negative (PIN) and
• Avalanche Photo Diode (APD).

 In most premises applications the PIN is the preferred element in

the Receiver. This is mainly due to fact that it can be operated from
a standard power supply, typically between 5 and 15 V.

 APD devices have much better sensitivity. In fact it has 5 to 10 dB more

sensitivity. They also have twice the bandwidth. However, they cannot
be used on a 5V printed circuit board. They also require a stable power
supply. This makes cost higher.
 APD devices are usually found in long haul communications links.
 Fiber Connectors
The connector must direct light and collect light. It must also
be easily attached and detached from equipment. This is a
key point. The connector is disconnectable.

FC, FC/PC, SC, SMA, ST, Biconic, D4,

Commonly Used Connectors

 Designing A Fiber Optic System
 When designing a fiber optic system, there are many factors that
must be considered – all of which contribute to the final goal of
ensuring that enough light reaches the Receiver.
 Without the right amount of light, the entire system will not
operate properly.
Step-by-step procedure to be followed while designing any
system
• Determine the correct optical transmitter and receiver
combination based upon the signal to be transmitted (Analog,
Digital, Audio, Video, RS-232, RS-422, RS-485 etc.)
• Determine the operating power available (AC, DC etc.)
• Determine the special modifications (if any) necessary
(Impedances, Bandwidths, Special Connectors, Special Fiber
Size, etc.)
• Calculate the total optical loss (in dB) in the system by adding
the cable loss, splice loss and connector loss. These parameters
should be available from the manufacturer of the electronics
and fiber.
• Compare the loss figure obtained with the allowable optical
loss budget of the receiver. Be certain to add a safely margin
factor of at least few dB to the entire system.
• Check that the fiber bandwidth is adequate to pass the signal
as desired.

After performing the above calculations, if it is discovered

htat the fiber bandwidth is inadequate for transmitting the
required signal the necessary distance, it will be necessary
either select a different transmitter/ receiver (wavelength)
combination, or consider the use of a lower loss premium
fiber.
 BUDGET CALCULATIONS
 Two analyses are usually carried out to ensure that the
desired system performance can be met:
 Link Power Budget
 Rise-time budget

 Link Power Budget : Determines the power margin between the

optical transmitter output and the minimum receiver sensitivity
needed to establish a specified BER.
 This margin can then be allocated to connector, splice and fiber losses,
plus any additional margin required for possible component degradation,
transmission-line impairments, or temperature effects.
 If the choice of components did not allow the desired transmission distance
to be achieved, the components might have to be changed or amplifiers
might have to be incorporated into the link.
Typical OFC link & Performance Parameters

Performance-measurement parameters of users interest

 If PS is the optical power emerging from the end of the fiber
attached to the light source, and PR is the receiver sensitivity, then
PT = PS - PR
= 2 lc + f L + system margin
where lc is the connector loss, f is the fiber attenuation in (dB/km) and L is
the transmission length.
• System margin is normally taken 6dB for LED and 8 dB for
ILD.
 Rise-time budget : Once the link power budget has been
established, the designer can perform a system rise time
analysis (dispersion limitations) to ensure that the desired
overall system performance has been met.
 Total rise time ‘tsys’ of the link is the root mean square of the rise
times
from each contributor (ti ) to the pulse rise-time
1 degradation
 N
2
2

t sy s    t i 
 i1 

 Four basic elements that may significantly limit system speed are
• Transmitter rise time,
• Group velocity dispersion (GVD) rise time of the fiber,
• Modal dispersion rise time of fiber and
• Receiver rise time.
 Generally, the total transition-time degradation of a digital link should
not exceed 70% of an NRZ bit period or 35% of a bit period for RZ data.
Link length v/s Power loss
 Link Performance Analysis
A power budget example
• Link length of 5 km (premises distances).
• Data Rate of 50 Mbps at BER of 10-9.
• Transmitter LED: 850 nm, 3dBm, coupling loss 5 dB.
• MM, SI, glass fiber optic cable 62.5/125m
• Transmitter -fiber, fiber- receiver coupling loss; 1 dB each.
• Fiber optic cable has 1 splice.
• Receiver- PIN sensitivity of -40 dBm at 50 Mbps.
 Power Budget for a fiber optic data link
LINK ELEMENT VALUE COMMENTS

Transmitter LED output power 3 dBm Specified value by vendor

Source coupling loss -5 dB Accounts for reflections, area mismatch etc.

Transmitter to fiber optic Transmitter to fiber optic cable with ST
-1 dB
cable connector loss connector. Loss accounts for misalignment
Splice loss -0.25 dB Mechanical splice

Fiber Optic Cable Attenuation -20 dB Line 2 of Table 2-1 applied to 5 km

Fiber optic cable to Fiber optic cable to Receiver with ST connector.
-1 dB
receiver connector loss Loss Accounts for misalignment

Optical Power Delivered

-24.25 dB
at Receiver

Receiver Sensitivity -40 dBm Specified in link design.

LOSS MARGIN 15.75 dB Surplus power available

 Link Analysis
 Optical power at the Receiver is greater than that required
by the sensitivity of the PIN to give the required BER.

 What is important to note is the entry termed Loss

Margin?
 specifies the amount by which the received optical power
exceeds the required sensitivity.
• In this example  15.75 dB.
 Good design practice requires it to be at least 10 dB. Why?
 Because no matter how careful the power budget is put
together, entries are always forgotten, are too
optimistic or vendor specifications may not be
accurate.
Topic: ‘OFC Link Design’
Concluded!

Any Question-----?
 Optical Test Equipments
 Basic pieces of test equipment for carrying measurements on
optical fiber components and system include
Optical power meters, Continuity testers, Visual fault
locators,
Talk sets, Spectrum analysers, OTDRs and BER-Testers.

• These comes with variety of capabilities, with sizes ranging

from portable, handheld units for field use to sophisticated
briefcase sized instruments for laboratory applications.

• Most of these units has reached a high degree of

sophistication with automated microprocessor-controlled test
features and computer-interface capabilities
Power Meters & Talk Sets
Continuity Testers & Visual Fault Locators
OTDR
Models
Optical Spectrum Analyzers (OSA)
BER
TESTERS
 Testing System
Performance
z=0 Attenuation
z=L

z=0 Dispersion
z=L

Attenuation & Dispersion degradation as a function of

distance
 Bit-Error-Rate (BER)
Measurements
 Performance of any communication system can be
evaluated by one of the following methods:

 Eye Diagrams / Patterns.

 Histogram Generation
 Bit Error Rate Measurements.
 Bit Error Rate
 Most
(BER)
significant performance parameter in any
communications system.
digital
 Indeed, it is often accepted as the primary performance figure of merit
for a communication system.

• Defined as the ratio of the number of errors in a given

time interval (Ne) to the number of bits in that time interval (Nt).
Ne
BER   It is simply the probability that an error
Nt will occur in a given bit period.

 For many applications the maximum specified BER is 10-9 implying that
onyl one error in 109 received bits is tolerated.
 For telecommunication applications the specified maximum BER falls in
the range 10-12 to 10-9.
 BER Estimates
 Bit error rate (BER) : Predict the statistical likelihood
of encountering an error during communications.
 Can be measured empirically by counting the number of errors over
an
adequately long span of transmission
 BER depends primarily on the S/N ratio of the received signal, which
in turn determined by transmitted signal power, attenuation of the link
and receiver noise.

 Many other factors besides SNR degrade the BER and in

hteri presence the received SNR must be increased to yield the
desired BER.
 The increase necessary to completely offset the degradation caused by a
given mechanism is referred to as the power penalty for that
mechanism.
 Main factors leading to significant penalties are
 Intersymbol interference (ISI)
 Non zero extinction ratio and
 Pulse position jitter

 BER estimation  one of the valuable ways of viewing

parametric performance of digital communication systems at high
speeds.
• Requires sophisticated and expensive equipment to
achieve accuracy, particularly at high bit rates – BER
Tester.
• Can be investigated qualitatively and perhaps in a
pseudo quantitative manner  by generating ‘Eye
Diagram’
 An intuitive way of viewing parametric performance
 Threshold detection and BER
 To allow the system designers to determine SNR and threshold
level required to achieve the specified bit error rate.
 Useful to calculate the probability of error (BER)

• Need to establish the noise statistics

and compute the probability that the
noise level at any given sampling
point pushes the signal to the wrong
side of
the threshold for a 1 or 0 transmitted.
 Signal Probability
distribution functions for 0 &
 v
1Plevels.
th

0   p 0 dv & P1   p 1 dv
v th
 Fig.1: PDFs for levels of 0 and 1 in the presence
of random (Gaussian) noise.
Shaded region - For a 0
BER = Pe = a P0 + b P1 signal Hatched region - For a 1
signal
 Threshold Detection ….
V1

VTH

V0
Sampling Instants

Bit period
1 2 3
Tx Bit 1 0 1
Rx Bit 1 0 0
 Total Probability of Error (Pe) : BER = a P1 + b P0

1 Q 
BER P   erf 
In term of Error Functions : e
 2
 
( v t h  v 0 )  (v1  vt h )  (v1 
where Q  0  1 v N
vt h )
 Q-factor can be estimated from the “Waterfall Curves”
measured noise voltages and
hence BER can be determined

 F o r BER in the range of 10-9 to 10-12;

Q should falls between 6 and 7.
Fig.2: Error probability Pe versus error
probability factor Q

 Small variations in the Q-factor lead to fairly dramatic changes in the BER.
 Cannot afford to let the received SNRR drop below specification.
 Eye-diagram Test Setup
 Eye-pattern technique is a simple but powerful measurement method
for assessing the data-handling ability of a digital transmission
system.
 Method used extensively for evaluating performance of
wired systems and can also be applied to OFC data links.
 Eye-pattern measurements are made in the time-domain and allow
the effects of waveform distortion to be shown immediately on a DSO.

Basic Equipment for Eye-diagram Measurements

Experimental Set Up & Measurements
 Eye
Patterns
 A visual method to assess the quality of the output of a
transmitter or the input / output of a receiver.
 Although the technique is largely qualitative it can provide
some useful quantitative information in terms of trends and
whether or not a system is performing to specification.

Distance 2km from transmitter Distance 6 km from transmitter

Eye Pattern Interpretation

• MN is a measure of
noise margin.

• ST is measure of sensitivity-to-
timing error.

Full width noise

V1

20-80%
Jitte rise time
r
V0
 RMS Noise and Jitter
‘DA’ provides the following information:
 RMS noise can be estimated by a rule of the thumb that
total noise on oscilloscope is 5 times the rms noise
 The mean 1 and 0 levels can also be calculated and
hence
Q can be estimated
 Q can be used now to find the BER.

Jitter
 ‘JT’ the range of amplitude differences of the zero crossing, is
a measure of the timing jitter.
 Jitter introduces an uncertainty on the sampling position
relative to the centre of the bit period and leads to an increase
in error rate.
 Power
Penalty
 Significant levels of dispersion and ISI result in
reduced received signal levels for 1s and increased
level for 0s.
 This occurs due to the spread of power from 1 bit period
into adjacent 0 bit period.

 This power penalty can be measured from eye

diagram and is given as:
 Power Penalty = 10 log10 [(V1D – V0D)/ (V1 - V0)]dB
Noise Vs
Distortion
 Eye Diagram Analysis
 Often used for assessing the quality of received signal and
indeed the quality and integrity of system transmitting it.

 Although qualitative; provides

useful data in terms of trends
and system operation as per
specifications.
 Semi-quantitative information
about the transmission
quality
 Determination of “Q”-value
and hence BER.

Eye diagram showing sample measurements of 20-80%

rise time, jitter, full width noise and the mean 0 & 1 levels.
 Q-factor Analysis
Software
 Softwares enable a DSO to sample the received signals in
the centre of the bit period, transfer the sample to a PC and
then to analyse them.
 The analyses algorithms enable the construction of signal
level histogram (i.e. plot of the number of samples occurring
in a narrow voltage range Vs voltage) which is essentially
the probability distribution of the signal levels around 0 and
1 levels.
 Theoretical Gaussian distributions are curve fitted within the
software to the measure distribution, signal level (noise)
variance are extracted and Q-factor & BER are determined.
 Histogram
 A histogram is a function which corresponds to
the number of samples having a particular value

(a) : Good (b) :

Poor
Sampling for Q-factor & BER Estimation
 Factors affecting
BER
 The main factors affecting BER are:
• Input Power.
• Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR).

Pe

SNR
Signal maintenance using Optical
Devices
 Path Degradation/Engineering
Fiber Fiber

Degraded Amplified Unusable

Original
& Dispersed & Corrected Signal from
Signals
Signals Signals/Noise & Noise
Nonlinear gain

 Generally amplifiers (Repeaters) are used to achieve the

required SNR or depending on signal health, regenerators are
used for amplification as well as shaping the signal to desired
level.
 To compensate the dispersion (pulse broadening)- DCFs are used
either in pre- or post-compensation scheme.
Dispersion and Power maps
 High Capacity OFC
System

Experimental setup for 55 wavelengths WDM transmission using

1300nm optimized fibers and DCFs in the link