EE 230: Optical Fiber Communication Lecture 17

System Considerations

From the movie

Warriors of the Net
Basic Network Topologies
Bitrate Distance Graph for various
point to point link technologies
System Design

• Determine wavelength, link distance,

and bit-error rate
• Work out power budget
• Work out risetime budget
• Work out cost budget
Power Budget Steps
• Start with BER and bit rate, determine B
based on coding method
• B = 1/2RC gives the maximum load
resistance R based on B and C
• Based on R and M, determine detector
sensitivity (NEP), multiply by B1/2
• Add system margin, typically 6 dB, to
determine necessary power at receiver
Power budget steps, continued

• Add power penalties, if necessary, for

extinction ratio, intensity noise (includes S/N
degradation by amplifiers), timing jitter
• Add loss of fiber based on link distance
• Include loss contributions from connections
and splices
• End up with required power of transmitter, or
maximum length of fiber for a given
transmitter power
Power budget example

Imagine we want to set up a link operating

at 1550 nm with a bit rate of 1 Gb/s
using the RZ format and a BER of 10-9.
We want to use a PIN photodiode,
which at this wavelength should be
InGaAs. The R0 for the diode is 0.9
A/W.
Bandwidth required for bit rate

• For NRZ format, B=0.5 times bit rate

• For RZ format, B=bit rate

For this example, the bandwidth B is

equal to the bit rate, 109 /s.
Bandwidth limit

C=2 pF for this photodiode.

B = 1/2RC, so the load resistance R

must be (2BC)-1 = 79.6 
Noise Equivalent Power (NEP)
Signal power where S/N=1
Units are W/Hz1/2

h 4kT
NEP  2eI D M  2
x

e M RL
In this case, M=1 and the dark current = 4 nA.
The factor outside the radical is 1/R0. We can
thus determine the NEP, which is 5.1x10-7
W, which equals -33.0 dBm.
Q Factor and BER

Vth  Voff Von  Vth

Q 
 off  on

1  Q 
BER  1  erf  
2  2 

For our BER of 10-9, Q=6 and S/N=12

Extinction ratio penalty

Extinction ratio rex=P0/P1

 1  rex  2 RP
Q   
 1  rex   on   off

 1  rex 
 ex  10 log  
 1  rex 
If our extinction ratio is 0.1, the penalty is 0.87 dB.
Intensity noise penalty

rI=inverse of SNR of transmitted light

 I  R PrI

 I  10 log 1  r Q
I
2 2

Since our S/N is 12, rI=0.83, which leads to a
power penalty of 1.25 dB
Timing jitter penalty
Parameter B=fraction of bit period over
which apparent clock time varies
 4 2 

b  8 B 
 2

 3 

 1 b / 2 
 J  10 log  

 1  b / 2 2
 b 2 2
Q / 2 
If our jitter represents 10% of the bit period,
the power penalty is 0.34 dB
Fiber attenuation

If the attenuation in the fiber is 0.2 dB/km

and the link is 80 km long, the total loss
in the fiber will be 16.0 dB
Example results
• Minimum power required for receiver:
-33.0 dBm
• Safety margin: 6.0 dB
• Extinction ratio power penalty: 0.87 dB
• S/N power penalty: 1.25 dB
• Timing jitter power penalty: 0.34 dB
• Fiber loss over 80 km: 16.0 dB
• Total= minimum transmitter power=
-8.54 dBm=0.14 mW=140 W
Further steps

Alternatively, previous data could be used

with a fixed transmitter power to
determine maximum length of a fiber
link
If power budget does not add up, one can
• replace PIN photodiode with APD
• add an EDFA to the link
Power Budget Example
Risetime Budget
Rise time budget components

• bit rate and coding format determine upper

limit of rise time
• rise time of transmitter (from manufacturer;
laser faster than LED)
• pulse spread due to dispersion
• rise time of receiver (from manufacturer; PIN
faster than APD)

Rise time components are combined by taking

the square root of sums of squares
Upper limit for rise time

• For NRZ format, Tr=0.70/B

• For RZ format, Tr=0.35/B

In this case, choose RZ format. Tr must

thus be less than or equal to 0.35/109 =
350 ps
Group Velocity Dispersion-based rise time

Calculate from laser optical bandwidth if

known, or from modulation rate:

c c 
  2  
 c  c  B 

In this case, D=17 ps/nm-km, L=80 km, and

=0.016 nm, so tf=21.8 ps.
Modal dispersion rise time

For multimode fiber, time spread due to modal

dispersion is based on core index and fiber
length L.
For step-index fiber: t 
L  NA 2

2cn1
For graded-index fiber:
L NA
4
t 
8cn13
Total rise time

tr  t  t
2
TR
2
MD t 2
GVD t 2
RC

For this example, tMD=0, tTR=100 ps, tRC=0.5

ns, and tGVD= 21.8 ps as before. tr is
therefore 510 ps, and the rise time budget
does not meet the limit.
• Can use NRZ format
• Use faster detector or transmitter
• Use graded-index fiber for less dispersion
Computer Based Link Simulation

Computer Simulation is often

used to model opticla links to
account for the complex
interaction between components
and nonlinear effects

Commercial simulation tools are

now available such as:

Linksim from RSoft

and the tools from VPI Systems

Fiber-Optic Communication Systems-G. Agrawal