Performance Analysis of Multiple Input Multiple Output Free Space Optical Communication Systems

The Free Space Optical (FSO) communication i.e. optical communication without fibers is slowly becoming quite popular as fiber and its installation cost as well as difficulties involved becomes zero. The FSO communication is already making its impact in deep space communication and is expected to replace the existing optical fiber communication systems in the near future. In order to further speed up the optical communication, the Multiple Input/Multiple Output (MIMO) technology from microwave MIMO systems is being investigated. The characteristics of the Multiple Input/Multiple Output Free Space Optical communication systems using APD receivers have been discussed. The APD-based receivers for MIMO FSO systems under normal working conditions are designed and the characteristics of the components, such as InGaAs APDs, GaAs MESFET transimpedance amplifiers, a matched filter and an equalizer, etc., are considered. The probabilistic analysis of a FSO channel, APDs and noise in the FSO systems has been carried out. The main contributions in this dissertation are: obtaining the detailed closed-form expressions for the upper bounds of the error probabilities, analyzing the impacts of different parameters in MIMO FSO systems, and thorough analysis of a more complex model of the MIMO FSO system involving Webb distribution for APD-based optical receiver, the probabilistic analysis of the detection for pulse position modulation signaling and the transmitted symbol matrix for MIMO FSO equal gain combining systems. Using this detailed analysis the average symbol error probability, average bit error probability and average pairwise probability are also obtained. The equations have been derived by using the Fourier series analysis method. The modified Gauss-Chebyshev method for error probability calculation is also proposed. Results for average SEP and average BEP under different parameters are obtained and the impact of these parameters on MIMO FSO systems is also discussed

Advanced DSP Techniques for High-Capacity and Energy-Efficient Optical Fiber Communications

The rapid proliferation of the Internet has been driving communication networks closer and closer to their limits, while available bandwidth is disappearing due to an ever-increasing network load. Over the past decade, optical fiber communication technology has increased per fiber data rate from 10 Tb/s to exceeding 10 Pb/s. The major explosion came after the maturity of coherent detection and advanced digital signal processing (DSP). DSP has played a critical role in accommodating channel impairments mitigation, enabling advanced modulation formats for spectral efficiency transmission and realizing flexible bandwidth. This book aims to explore novel, advanced DSP techniques to enable multi-Tb/s/channel optical transmission to address pressing bandwidth and power-efficiency demands. It provides state-of-the-art advances and future perspectives of DSP as well

Phase-Noise Compensation for Space-Division Multiplexed Multicore Fiber Transmission

The advancements of popular Internet-based services such as social media, virtual reality, and cloud computing constantly drive vendors and operators to increase the throughput of the Internet backbone formed by fiber-optic communication systems. Due to this, space-division multiplexing (SDM) has surfaced as an appealing technology that presents an opportunity to upscale optical networks in a cost-efficient manner. It entails the sharing of various system components, such as hardware, power, and processing resources, as well as the use of SDM fibers, e.g., multicore fibers (MCFs) or multimode fibers, which are able to carry multiple independent signals at the same wavelength in parallel.Higher-order modulation formats have also garnered attention in recent years as they allow for a higher spectral efficiency, an important parameter that relates to the throughput of communication systems. However, a drawback with increasing the order of modulation formats is the added sensitivity to phase noise, which calls for effective phase-noise compensation (PNC). This thesis studies the idea of sharing processing resources to increase the performance of PNC in SDM systems using a particular type of fiber, namely uncoupled, homogeneous, single-mode MCF.Phase noise can be highly correlated across channels in various multichannel transmission scenarios, e.g., SDM systems utilizing MCFs with all cores sharing the same light source and local oscillator, and wavelength-division multiplexed systems using frequency combs. However, the nature of the correlation in the phase noise depends on the system in question. Based on this, a phase-noise model is introduced to describe arbitrarily correlated phase noise in multichannel transmission. Using this model, two pilot-aided algorithms are developed using i) the sum–product algorithm operating in a factor graph and ii) variational Bayesian inference. The algorithms carry out joint-channel PNC and data detection for coded multichannel transmission in the presence of phase noise. Simulation results show that in the case of partially-correlated phase noise, they outperform the typical PNC approach by a wide margin. Moreover, it is shown that the placement of pilot symbols across the channels has a considerable effect on the resulting performance.Focusing on SDM transmission through an uncoupled, homogeneous, single-mode MCF with shared light source and local oscillator lasers, the performance benefits of joint-channel PNC are investigated. A significant gain in transmission reach is experimentally demonstrated, and the results are shown to agree strongly with simulations based on the introduced phase-noise model. In addition, the simulations show that dramatic improvements can be made for phase-noise limited systems in terms of power efficiency, spectral efficiency, and hardware requirements

Design of indoor communication infrastructure for ultra-high capacity next generation wireless services

The proliferation of data hungry wireless devices, such as smart phones and intelligent sensing networks, is pushing modern wireless networks to their limits. A significant shortfall in the ability of networks to meet demand for data is imminent. This thesis addresses this problem through examining the design of distributed antenna systems (DAS) to support next generation high speed wireless services that require high densities of access points and must support multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) protocols. First, it is shown that fibre links in DAS can be replaced with low-cost, broadband free-space optical links, termed radio over free-space optics (RoFSO) links. RoFSO links enable the implementation of very high density DAS without the need for prohibitively expensive cabling infrastructure. A 16m RoFSO link requiring only manual alignment is experimentally demonstrated to provide a spurious-free dynamic range (SFDR) of > 100dB/Hz^2/3 over a frequency range from 300MHz- 3.1GHz. The link is measured to have an 802.11g EVM dynamic range of 36dB. This is the first such demonstration of a low-cost broadband RoFSO system. Following this, the linearity performance of RoFSO links is examined. Because of the high loss nature of RoFSO links, the directly-modulated semiconductor lasers they use are susceptible to high-order nonlinear behaviour, which abruptly limits performance at high powers. Existing measures of dynamic range, such as SFDR, assume only third-order nonlinearity and so become inaccurate in the presence of dominant high-order effects. An alternative measure of dynamic range called dynamic-distortion-free dynamic range (DDFDR) is then proposed. For two different wireless services it is observed experimentally that on average the DDFDR upper limit predicts the EVM knee point to within 1dB, while the third-order SFDR predicts it to within 6dB. This is the first detailed analysis of high-order distortion effects in lossy analogue optical links and DDFDR is the first metric able to usefully quantify such behaviour. Next, the combination of emerging MIMO wireless protocols with existing DAS is examined. It is demonstrated for the first time that for small numbers of MIMO streams (up to ~4), the capacity benefits of MIMO can be attained in existing DAS installations simply by sending the different MIMO spatial streams to spatially separated remote antenna units (RAU). This is in contrast to the prevailing paradigm of replicating each MIMO spatial stream at each RAU. Experimental results for two representative DAS layouts show that replicating spatial streams provides an increase of only ~1% in the median channel capacity over merely distributing them. This compares to a 3-4% increase of both strategies over traditional non-DAS MIMO. This result is shown to hold in the multiple user case with 20 users accessing 3 base stations. It is concluded that existing DAS installations offer negligible capacity penalty for MIMO services for small numbers of spatial streams, including in multi-user MIMO scenarios. Finally, the design of DAS to support emerging wireless protocols, such as 802.11ac, that have large numbers of MIMO streams (4-8) is considered. In such cases, capacity is best enhanced by sending multiple MIMO streams to single remote locations. This is achieved using a novel holographic mode division multiplexing (MDM) system, which sends each separate MIMO stream via a different propagation mode in a multimode fibre. Combined channel measurements over 2km of mode-multiplexed MMF and a typical indoor radio environment show in principle a 2x2 MIMO link providing capacities of 10bit/s/Hz over a bandwidth of 6GHz. Using a second experimental set-up it is shown that the system could feasibly support at least up to a 4x4 MIMO system over 2km of MMF with a condition number >15dB over a bandwidth of 3GHz, indicating a high degree of separability of the channels. Finally, it is shown experimentally that when a fibre contains sharp bends (radius between 20mm and 7.2mm) the first 6 mode-groups used for multiplexing exhibit no additional power loss or cross-coupling compared with unbent fibre, although mode-groups 7, 8 and 9 are more severely affected. This indicates that at least 6x6 multiplexing is possible in standard installations with tight fibre bends.For their financial support, I would like to thank the Rutherford Foundation of the Royal Society of New Zealand, the Cambridge Commonwealth Trust and the EPSRC

Optical angular momentum in air core fibers

As data consumption continues to grow, the backbone of the internet, comprising single mode fiber (SMF)-based infrastructure, is fundamentally limited by nonlinear optical effects. One strategy to address this bottleneck, space division multiplexing (SDM), utilizes multiple modes in a single fiber as independent data channels. Orbital Angular Momentum (OAM) carrying modes, which have twisting phase fronts tracing out helices as the beams propagate, have recently received tremendous attention as a means of achieving low-crosstalk, digital signal processing (DSP)-free transmission with enhanced capacity. Terabit-scale transmission using 4 OAM modes over 1.1km has been demonstrated, but questions remain – how many OAM modes can fibers support, and how stable is propagation over longer lengths? In this thesis, we investigate angular momentum carrying modes in a novel class of fibers featuring an air core. We find that high-order OAM states, although arising in degenerate pairs, counterintuitively resist mode coupling due to OAM conservation, pointing to a unique stability inherent to OAM modes in fibers. We achieve OAM propagation up to 13.4km lengths, and achieve mode purities greater than 15dB at data-center length-scales. We use these fibers to transmit wavelength-division multiplexed data with 25 GHz channel spacing, 10 GBaud rates and quadrature-phase-shift keyed modulation formats in 12 modes simultaneously, over 1.2km, and over a large number of wavelengths across the C-band (1530-1565nm). However, transmission over every mode in every channel of the C-band was prevented by the accidental degeneracy of OAM states with undesired modes. To achieve a larger ensemble of stable modes over a larger wavelength range, we study new fiber designs that avoid this accidental degeneracy problem. We find that the most scalable modal eigenbasis is a set of states that carry non-integer amounts of average OAM, also called spin-orbit coupled modes in analogy with similar effects observed in atomic physics. We demonstrate excitation and transmission of 24 such modes over device lengths (10m). The achievement of a record number of uncoupled modes in fibers confirms the viability of angular momentum states as data carriers, and potential applications include links in data centers, high capacity optical amplifiers, and quantum communications links.2017-09-09T00:00:00

A neuromorphic silicon photonics nonlinear equalizer for optical communications with intensity modulation and direct detection

We present the design and numerical study of a nonlinear equalizer for optical communications based on silicon photonics and reservoir computing. The proposed equalizer leverages the optical information processing capabilities of integrated photonic reservoirs to combat distortions both in metro links of a few hundred kilometers and in high-speed short-reach intensity-modulation-direct-detection links. We show nonlinear compensation in unrepeated metro links of up to 200 km that outperform electrical feedforward equalizers based equalizers, and ultimately any linear compensation device. For a high-speed short-reach 40Gb/s link based on a distributed feedback laser and an electroabsorptive modulator, and considering a hard decision forward error correction limit of 0.2 x 10(-2), we can increase the reach by almost 10 km. Our equalizer is compact (only 16 nodes) and operates in the optical domain without the need for complex electronic DSP, meaning its performance is not bandwidth constrained. The approach is, therefore, a viable candidate even for equalization techniques far beyond 100G optical communication links