Optical Fiber Communication System Design

Basic system requirements as below:

1. transmission type: digital or analog
2. Performance: BER for digital system and SNR for analog.
3. transmission bandwidth
4. spacing between the terminal equipment or intermediate repeater
5. cost
6. reliability

Component choice
1. Optical fiber type and parameters.
Multimode or single mode; size, refractive index profile, attenuation,
dispersion, mode coupling, strength, cabling, jointing, etc
2. Source type and characteristic.
Laser or LED; optical power launched into fiber, rise and fall time,
stability etc
3. Transmitter configuration.
Digital or analog transmission
4. Detection type and characteristic.
p-n, p-i-n, , APD, responsonsivity, response time etc
5. Receiver configuration.
Preamplifier design, BER, SNR etc.
6. Modulation coding.

1
 Power Budget

Power budget is a detail description of how the available power is

used.
Transmitter output T dBm
Receiver sensitivity R dBm
Excess power T-R dB
Splicing attenuation A1 dB
Fiber loss A2 dB
Penalty for transmitter realization A3 dB
Penalty for receiver realization A4 dB
Temperate effect A5 dB
Jitter A6 dB
Safety margin A7 dB
Total loss TA dB
Excess power margin T-R-TA

Power margin is normally provided in the analysis to allow for component

aging, temperature fluctuations, and losses arising from components that
might be added at future dates.

2
Example:
The following parameters are established for a long haul single mode optical
system operating at a wavelength of 1.3um.
Mean power launched from the laser transmitter -3 dBm
Cabled fiber loss 0.4dB /km
Splice loss 0.1dB/km
Connector losses at the transmitter and receiver 1dB each
Mean power required at the APD receiver:
When operating at 35Mbit/s (BER 10-9) -55dBm
When operating at 44Mbit/s (BER 10-9) -44dBm
Required safety margin 7 dB
Estimate:
(a) The maximum possible link without repeaters when operating at
35Mbit/s. It may be assumed that there is no-dispersion-equalization
penalty at this rate.
(b) The maximum possible link without repeaters when operating at
44Mbit/s and assuming no-dispersion-equalization penalty at
(c) The reduction in the maximum possible link without repeaters of (b)
when there is a dispersion –equalization penalty of 1.5 dB. It may be
assumed for the purposes of this estimate that the reduced link length
has the 1.5dB penalty.

3
Solution:
(a) Pi - Po = ( a fc + a j ) L + acr + M a
-3dBm - ( -55dBm ) o = ( 0.4 + 0.1) L + 2 + 7

0.5L = 52 - 9
43
L= = 86km
0.5

(b) -3dBm - ( -44dBm ) o = ( 0.4 + 0.1) L + 2 + 7

0.5L = 41 - 9

32
L= = 64km
0.5

(c) -3dBm - ( -44dBm ) o = ( 0.4 + 0.1) L + 2 + 7 + 1.5

0.5L = 41 - 10.5

30.5
L= = 61km
0.5

4
Rise Time Budget
Total system rise time
Tsyst = 1.1(TS2 + Tn2 + Tc2 + TD2 )½
TS : Source 10-90% rise time
TD : Detector 10-90% rise time
Tn : intermodal dispersion
Tc : intramodal/chromatic dispersion
0.35 0.7
RZ: BT(max) = T NRZ: BT(max) =
syst Tsyst
For analog system, maximum 3 dB bandwidth is:
0.35
BW (max) = T
syst

Example:
An optical fiber system is to be designed to operate over an 8km length
without repeaters. The rise times of the chosen components are:
Source (LED) 8 ns
Fiber: intermodal 5 ns/km
Intramodal 1 ns/km
Detector(p-i-n) 6 ns

From system rise time considerations, estimate the maximum bit rate that
may be achieved on the link when using an NRZ format.
Solution:
Tsyst = 1.1(TS2 + Tn2 + Tc2 + TD2 )½
= 1.1(82 + (8 x 5)2 + (8 x 1)2 + 62 )½
= 46.2 ns
0.7 0.7
NRZ BT(max) = = = 15.2Mbit/s
Tsyst 46.2 �10-9

5
 connector loss
at transmitter

safety margin/system margin

connector loss
at receiver

Example:

Transmitter power (LED) : -13 dBm

Receiver sensitivity(p-i-n) : -42 dBm (at 20 Mb/s)
Connector loss at each end : 1 dB
fiber loss + splice loss : 3.5 dB/km
safety margin : 6 dB