UNIT 4
OPTICAL RECIEVER
Figure1.Block schematic of the front end of an optical receiver showing the various sources of
noise
shows a block schematic of the front end of an optical receiver and the variousnoise sources
associated with it. The majority of the noise sources shown apply to bothmain types of optical
detector (p–i–n and avalanche photodiode). The noise generatedfrom background radiation,
which is important in atmospheric propagation and somecopper-based systems, is negligible in
both types of optical fiber receiver, and thus is oftenignored. Also the beat noise generated from
the various spectral components of the incoherentoptical carrier can be shown to be insignificant
with multimode propagationand hence will not be considered. It is necessary, however, to take
into account theother sources of noise shown in Figure1.The avalanche photodiode receiver is
the most complex case as it includes noise resultingfrom the random nature of the internal gain
mechanism (dotted in Figure 1). It istherefore useful to consider noise in optical fiber receivers
employing photodiodes withoutinternal gain, before avalanche photodiode receivers are
discussed.
Prof.SAIMA KAHN
Figure 9.4 The equivalent circuit for the front end of an optical fiber receiver
EYE DIAGRAM
1. The eye diagram is a convenient way to represent what a receiver will see as well as
specifying characteristics of a transmitter.
2. The eye diagram maps all UI intervals on top of one and other. (UI = Unit Interval, i.e.,
signal duration time)
3. The opening in eye diagram is measure of signal quality.
4. Width of eye-opening : time interval over which the received signal can be sampled
without ISI error.
5. Best time to sample = when height of eye-opening is largest
6. Rise time = time interval between 10% point and 90% point, can be approximated by 10
90 20 80 − 1.25 − T = ×T
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Figure2:-The simplest type of eye diagram
COHERENT SYSTEM
A block schematic of a generalized coherent optical fiber communication system isillustrated in
below Figure. The dashed lines enclose the main elements which distinguishthe coherent system
from its IM/DD equivalent. At the transmitter a CW narrow-linewidthsemiconductor laser is
shown which acts as an optical frequency oscillator. An externaloptical modulator usually
provides amplitude, frequency or phase shift keying of the opticalcarrier by the information
signal. At present external modulators are generally waveguidedevices fabricated from lithium
niobate or the group III–V compound semiconductors. Internal modulation of the injection laser
drive current may, however,also be utilized to produce either ASK or FSK.
Prof.SAIMA KAHN
Figure3.showing generalized coherent optical system
Modulated carrier waveforms for the three standard modulation techniques with binary data are
illustrated in Figure3. It may be observed from Figure3(a) why binary ASK is often referred to as
on–off keying (OOK). Figure3(b) shows FSK in which the binary 1 is transmitted at a higher
optical frequency than the binary 0 bit. The 180° phase shift between the binary 1 and 0 bits
displayed in Figure3(c) depicts PSK
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Figure4:-Modulated carrier waveforms used for binary data transmission(a) amplitude shift
keying (ASK) or on-off keying (OOK); (b) frequency shift keying (FSK); (c) phase shift keying
(PSK).
COHERENT DETECTION
A simple coherent receiver model for ASK is displayed in Figure5. The low-levelincoming
signal field eSis combined with a second much larger signal field eL derivedfrom the local
oscillator laser. It is assumed that the electromagnetic fields obtained fromthe two lasers (i.e. the
incoming signal and local oscillator devices) can be represented bycosine functions and that the
angle φ = φS − φL represents the phase relationship betweenthe incoming signal phase φS and
the local oscillator signal phase φL defined at some arbitrarypoint in time. Hence, as depicted in
below Figure, the two fields may be written as
and
where ES is the peak incoming signal field and ωS is its angular frequency, and EL is the peak
local oscillator field and ωL is its angular frequency. The angle φ(t) representing the phase
relationship between the two fields contains the transmitted information in the case of FSK or
PSK.
Figure5.showing basic coherent receiver model
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HOMODYNE AND HETERODYNE
Basic receiver configurations for optical heterodyne and homodyne detection are shown in below
Figure. In both cases it has been assumed that some form of polarization controlis required to
match the incoming signal SOP to that of the local oscillator signal. This factor therefore implies
the use of circularly symmetric standardsingle-mode fiber. For heterodyne detection (Figure
7(a)), a beat-note signal betweenthe incoming optical signal and the local oscillator signal
produces the IF signal which isobtained using the square-law optical detector The IF signal,
whichgenerally has a frequency of between three and four times the transmission rate, is
thendemodulated into the baseband using either a synchronous or asynchronous
detectiontechnique.* An optical receiver bandwidth several times greater than that of a
directdetection receiver is therefore required for a specific transmission rate. Moreover, as IF
frequency fluctuation degrades the heterodyne receiver performance, then frequencystabilization
may be achieved by feeding back from the demodulator through an automaticfrequency control
(AFC) circuit to the local oscillator drive circuit.
Prof.SAIMA KAHN
Figure7:-Basic coherent receiver configurations: (a) optical heterodyne receiver; (b) optical
homodyne receiver illustrating the phase locking between the local oscillator and incoming
signals
In the case of homodyne detection in which the phase of the local oscillator signal islocked to the
incoming signal, then, by definition, a synchronous detection scheme mustbe employed.
Moreover, the result of the mixing process in the optical detector producesan information signal
which is in the baseband and thus requires nofurther demodulation. An AFC loop is also shown
within the homodyne receiverconfiguration of Figure 7(b) to provide the necessary frequency
stabilization betweenthe two signals. Hence any variant detection schemes based on homodyne
detection, but inwhich the local oscillator laser is not phase locked to the incoming signal such as
phasediversity or multiport detection, could be considered as a form of heterodyne rather
than homodyne detection.In both optical heterodyne and homodyne detection, where the
incoming signal isdemodulated using a local oscillator laser, FM noise in this device together
with thatresulting from the source laser causes SNR degradation in the receivers through FM
toAM, or PM to AM, conversion which generally determines the lower limit of bit-error-
rateperformance. Frequency modulation noise which basically results from the
spontaneousemission coupled to the lasing mode is, in the semiconductor laser, enhanced byAM
noise caused by photon number fluctuation which is generated through the samemechanism.
Moreover, excess AM noise within the local oscillator laser due toits resonance characteristics
also deteriorates the SNR performance and hence degradesthe receiver sensitivity. To reduce the
effect of local oscillator FM noise a semiconductorlaser with a narrowed or suppressed spectral
linewidth must be used.
Burst-Mode Receivers
Burst-mode receivers can be divided into two types according to their structures: 1) feedback
type and2) feed forward
Examples of these two types are shown in
Type 1 : feedback type uses a differential input/output trans-impedance amplifier with a peak
detection circuit forming a feedback loop. The peak detector circuit determines the instantaneous
detection threshold for the incoming signal. The output of the preamplifier is dc-coupled to a
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differential postamplifier for further amplification. In this scheme, the signal’s amplitude
recovery is done in the pre-amplifier.
Type 2: feed forward receivers, a conventional dc-coupled pre-amplifier can be used. The
received signal is first amplified by this preamplifier and then split into two branches. The first
branch of the output from the pre-amplifier is dc-coupled to a differential amplifier. The second
branch is feed forward into a peak detection circuitry to extract the amplitude information of
received packets. From the output of the peak detector, the proper threshold level can be set
adaptively in front of the differential amplifier. At the output of the differential
ANALOG RECEIVER
An antenna to pick up the signal from the air. Then we need a tuned radio frequency (RF)
amplifier to boost the weak signal from the antenna. Its output is fed into one input of a mixer
while the second input comes from an internal variable-frequency local oscillator, known as the
LO. When we tune to a station, all we are doing is changing the center frequency of the RF
amplifier and the frequency of the LO, to translate the input signal down to a lower frequency,
the so-called intermediate, or IF frequency. This frequency translation is performed by the mixer,
which really acts as a signal multiplier. When we multiply two frequencies together, we create
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both the sum and difference frequencies, as well as some undesirable mixer products by filtering
at the mixer output, we can eliminate all but the lowest frequency, which is the difference
frequency of the fundamental components of the two input signals. In order to produce a given
IF frequency.
DIGITAL LINK
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POINT TO POINT LINK:-Figure 9.8 shows four large families of fiber-optic links,
corresponding to wavelength windows used. Their spans are limited: on one hand by the
attenuation (limit slowly decreasing when throughput DB increases), on the other hand by
(intermodal or chromatic) dispersion, giving an approximately 1/DB limit.operating at the
dispersion limit is generally avoided. The first category is plastic fiber transmissions at 0.67 μm
for very short distance local industrial applications (cabling of workshops, computers links,
internal to one machine, etc.) and up to 100 to 200 Mbit/s bitrate mainly for electric security
reasons. This is now strongly developing in home automation, multimedia and automotive
equipment fields. The second category operates at 0.85 μm with LEDs and PIN photodiodes over
multimode fibers. These relatively inexpensive systems are widely used in computer and
industrial fields for distances in the km range: short distance transmission, local area networks
(LAN), local distribution and mainly includes digital transmissions, as well as video or analog
remote measurements. The decisive advantages are again electric security and insensitivity to
parasites, but also savings in weight and size with optical fiber cabling. With LEDs however,
bandwidth is limited by chromatic dispersion. A large market now addresses local area networks
and short distance – high bitrate interconnections (1 Gbit/s and more), using VCSEL laser diodes
at 0.85 μm over multimode fibers.
LINK POWER BUDGET
The optical power budget in a fiber-optic communication link is the allocation of available
optical power (launched into a given fiber by a given source) among various loss-producing
mechanisms such as launch coupling loss, fiber attenuation, splice losses, and connector losses,
in order to ensure that adequate signal strength (optical power) is available at the receiver. In
optical power budget attenuation is specified in decibels (dB) and optical power in dBms.The
amount of optical power launched into a given fiber by a given transmitter depends on the nature
of its active optical source (LED orlaser diode) and the type of fiber, including such parameters
as core diameter and numerical aperture. Manufacturers sometimes specify an optical power
budget only for a fiber that is optimum for their equipment—or specify only that their equipment
will operate over a given distance, without mentioning the fiber characteristics. The user must
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first ascertain, from the manufacturer or by testing, the transmission losses for the type of fiber to
be used, and the required signal strength for a given level of performance.
In addition to transmission loss, including those of any splices and connectors, allowance should
be made for at least several dB ofoptical power margin losses, to compensate
for component aging and to allow for future splices in the event of a severed cable.
LT = αL + Lc + Ls
Definitions:
LT - Total loss
α - Fiber attenuation
L - Length of fiber
Lc - Connector loss
Ls - Splice loss
ANALOG LINKS
Although digital links constitute the major part of fiber-optic transmission systems, analog links
in the field of measure or image transmissions also exist. They can be economically interesting
for local use.
ANALOG BASEBAND TRANSMISSION
PRINCIPLE
It is very simple: the analog signal directly modulates light intensity from thetransmitter (see
Figure 6.8). It uses linearity of the power-current characteristic of a LED (Figure 9.14). If the
signal is alternative, an im bias current must be superimposed. In this case, as in radio amplitude
modulation, the modulation index is defined as: m = Δi/im, where Δi is the signal amplitude.
Because of the linearity of the transmission chain (fiber–receiver), this relation is the same at
transmission andat reception.
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The modulation index is in the range of 90% as it is recommended to avoidcharacteristic
extremities which are less linear. Linearity of the modulated signal isnot perfect however
(distortion of a few %). The use of a laser diode can causelinearity and noise problems, since the
signal-to-noise ratio at laser output is notalways sufficient for high quality analog applications.
The main application for thistechnique is video monitoring in industrial sites or communication
ways.
Prof.SAIMA KAHN
