Contents

• System specification
• Point-to- links
• link power budget
• Rise Time Budget
• Bandwidth Budget
• Power Budget and Receiver Sensitivity
• Link Budget calculations
• Optical Multiplexing & Demultiplexing techniques
• Optical Amplifiers and its Applications.
System Specifications:
Photodetector, Optical Source, Fiber
• Photodetectors: Compared to APD, PINs are less expensive
and more stable with temperature. However PINs have
lower sensitivity.
• Optical Sources:
1- LEDs: 150 (Mb/s).km @ 800-900 nm and larger than 1.5
(Gb/s).km @ 1330 nm
2- InGaAsP lasers: 25 (Gb/s).km @ 1330 nm and ideally
around 500 (Gb/s).km @ 1550 nm. 10-15 dB more power.
However more costly and more complex circuitry.
• Fiber:
1- Single-mode fibers are often used with lasers or edge-
emitting LEDs.
2- Multi-mode fibers are normally used with LEDs. NA and 
should be optimized for any particular application.
Point-to-Point Link
• The components must be carefully chosen to ensure the
desired performance level and can be maintained for the
expected system life time.

Figure represents the block diagram of a simplex point-to-point

link. The three major optical links building blocks are,
Transmitter, Receiver and Optical fiber.
The key system requirements are needed in analyzing a
link.
• Signal dispersion
• Data rate
• Transmission distance and cost.
Optical sources (such as LED or LASER) are used based on
the following characteristics.
• Emission wavelength
• Spectral line width
• Output power
• Effective radiating area
• Emission pattern
• Number of emitting modes
.
The characteristics of photo detector such as,
• Responsivity
• Operating wavelength
• Speed and
• Sensitivity
The choice of optical fiber
• Single mode and multimode (step or graded index)
• Core size
• Core refractive index profile
• Band width or dispersion
• Attenuation
• Numerical aperture or modefield diameter
Link Budget Considerations
(1) Power Budget: determines the power margin between
the optical transmitter output and the minimum
receiver sensitivity needed to establish a specific Bit
Error Rate (BER).
(2) Bandwidth Budget: Determines dispersion limitation
of optical fiber link
Link Power/Loss Analysis
 Rise-Time Budget
t sys  [ttx  t mod  tGVD  t rx ]
2 2 2 2 1/ 2

2 1/ 2
 2  440 Lq   350 
2

 ttx     D   L    
2 2 2

  B0   Brx  

t tx [ ns ] : transmitter rise time t rx [ ns ] : receiver rise time t mod [ n ] : modal dispersion

Brx [ MHz ]:3dB Electrical BW L[ km ]:Length of the fiber B0 [ MHz ]:BW of the 1 km of the fiber;

q  0.7 tGVD [ns]: rise- time due to group velocitydispersion

D[ ns /( km .nm )]:Dispersion   [nm]: Spectral width of the source

 Total Rise time, Tsys:
Tsys=1.1(TTX2+TRX2+Tfiber2)1/2
 What is a good Rise time?
For a good reception of signal
Tsys < 0.7 x Pulse Width (PW)

PW = 1/BitRate for NRZ

1/2BitRate for RZ
 Example:
Rise Time Budget Measurement for
Long Haul Application

Tx rise time, TTX = 0.1 ns

Rx rise time, TRX= 0.5 ns
Linewidth() = 0.15 nm

Dispersion Coefficient, D = 18 ps/nm-km

Fiber length = 150km
Bit Rate = 622Mbps
Format = RZ
 Simple Calculation….

Fiber rise time, TF =Length x D x Linewidth()

= 150 km x 18 x 0.15 nm
= 0.4 ns
Total Rise time, TSYS = 1.1 TLS2 + TPD2 + TF2
= 1.1 0.01 + 0.25 + 0.16

TSYS = 0.77 ns
Let say,
Bit Rate = STM 4 = 622 Mbps
Format = RZ
Tsys < 0.7 x Pulse Width (PW)

Pulse Width (PW) = 1/(622x106)

= 1.6 ns
0.77 ns < 0.7 x 1.6 ns
0.77 ns < 1.1 ns !!
Good Rise Time Budget!!
Let say,
Bit Rate = STM 16 = 2.5 Gbps
Format = RZ
Tsys < 0.7 x Pulse Width (PW)

Pulse Width (PW) = 1/(2.5x109)

= 0.4 ns
0.77 ns < 0.7 x 0.4 ns
0.77 ns ≥ 0.28 ns !!
Bad Rise Time Budget!!
Power Budget
PRX > PMIN
PRX = Received Power
PMIN = Minimum Power at a certain BER
PRX = PTX – Total Losses - PMARGIN
PTX = Transmitted Power
PMARGIN ≈ 6 dB
•Total optical loss = Connector loss + (Splicing loss + Fiber
attenuation) + System margin (Pm)
PT = 2Lc + αfL + Lsp+System margin (Pm)
Requirements Cont’d:
• Loss,L = LIL + Lfiber + Lconn. + Lnon-linear
LIL = Insertion Loss
Lfiber = Fiber Loss
Lconn.= Connector Loss
Lnon-linear= Non-linear Loss

• Gain,G = Gainamp + Gnon-linear

Gainamp = Amplifier Gain

Gnon-linear = Non-linear Gain
 Example:
Power Budget Measurement for Long Haul
Transmission
185 km

Splice Connector

PTx = 0 dBm PSEN = -28 dBm

Attenuation Coefficient,  = 0.25 dB/km
Dispersion Coefficient, D = 18 ps/nm-km
Number of Splice = 46
Splice Loss = 0.1 dB
Connector Loss = 0.2 dB
PMargin = 6 dB
 Simple Calculation….
Fiber Loss = 0.25 dB/km X 185 km
= 46.3 dB
Splice Loss = 0.1 dB X 46

CONCLUSION: = 4.6 dB
Connector Loss = 0.2 dB X 2
= 0.4 dB

BAD SYSTEM!!
Total Losses = 46.3 + 4.6 + 0.4
= 51.3 dB
PMargin = 6 dB
PRX = PTX – Total Losses – PMargin
= 0 – 51.3 – 6
PRX = -57.3 dB
Power Budget, PRX < PSEN !!
 First we calculate the amplifier’s gain..

Gain  PSEN - PRX

Gain  -28 – (-57.3)
Gain  29.3 dB
To make it easy, Gain  30 dB
Now…Where to put the
amplifier?
 Receiver sensitivity
•Performance can be measured as a low bit error rate
(BER).
•A measure of a good receiver is to have the same
performance with the lowest level of incident
optical power.
•BER ÷ probability of an incorrect identification of
a bit by the decision circuit of a receiver.
•Receiver Sensitivity ÷ Receiver sensitivity is the
minimum power level at which the receiving node
is able to clearly receive the bits being transmitted.
 Optical
Multiplexing & Demultiplexing techniques
• Normally, there are three main different techniques
in multiplexing light signals onto a single optical
fiber link: optical time division multiplexing (OTDM),
code division multiplexing (CDM), and wavelength
division multiplexing (WDM).
• WDM is one of the most common way using
wavelengths to increase bandwidth by multiplexing
various optical carrier signals onto a single optical
fiber.
• What Is multiplexing?
• Multiplexing (Muxing) is a term used in the field of
communications and computer networking. It generally
refers to the process and technique of transmitting multiple
analog or digital input signals or data streams over a single
channel. Since multiplexing can integrate multiple low-speed
channels into one high-speed channel for transmission, the
high-speed channel is effectively utilized.
• What Is demultiplexing?
• Demultiplexing (Demuxing) is a term relative to multiplexing.
It is the reverse of the multiplexing process. Demultiplex is a
process reconverting a signal containing multiple analog or
digital signal streams back into the original separate and
unrelated signals.
 Optical Amplifiers and its Applications
•However, when the length of the optical fiber
is a distance as long as 10 km or 100 km, that
transmission loss cannot be ignored. When the
light (signal) propagating a long-distance
optical fiber becomes extremely weak, it is
necessary to amplify the light using an optical
amplifier.
•An optical amplifier amplifies light as it is
without converting the optical signal to an
electrical signal, and is an extremely important
device that supports the long-distance optical
communication networks of today.
 Applications of Optical Amplifiers

• Applications of Optical Amplifiers

• Typical applications of optical amplifiers are:
• An amplifier can boost the (average) power of a laser output to
higher levels (→ master oscillator power amplifier = MOPA).
• It can generate extremely high peak powers, particularly
in ultrashort pulses, if the stored energy is extracted within a short
time.
• It can amplify weak signals before photodetection, and thus reduce
the detection noise, unless the added amplifier noise is large.
 Design of Digital systems:
System specifications:
•Photodetectors: Compared to APD, PINs are less
expensive and more stable with temperature.
However PINs have lower sensitivity.
•Optical Sources:
1- LEDs: 150 (Mb/s).km @ 800-900 nm and larger
than 1.5 (Gb/s).km @ 1330 nm
2- InGaAsP lasers: 25 (Gb/s).km @ 1330 nm and
ideally around 500 (Gb/s).km @ 1550 nm. 10-15 dB
more power. However more costly and more
complex circuitry.
•Fiber:
System Rise Time
• Calculate the total rise times
Tx, Fiber, Rx

• Calculate Fiber rise time, TFiber

Tfiber = D x  x L
D = Dispersion Coefficient
 = Linewidth
L = Fiber Length

Tx Rise Time, TTX = normally given by manufacturer

Rx Rise Time, TRX = normally given by manufacturer