Pulse position modulation coding schemes for optical inter-satellite links in free space

The rapid and significant development of communications links between satellites has made it possible to use various applications such as relay voice, video, multimedia, etc. As a result, a great deal of research has been done in this field during the last few years to reduce power consumption and increase transmission reliability. This thesis is concerned with an analysis of intersatellite links in free space, with optical links using laser sources being considered in particular. It includes a literature survey and a thorough theoretical investigation into designing the model of the link in free space. This thesis describes the novel technique of designing the optical receiver that consists of PIN photodiode as a photodetector, Semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) and a 3rd order Butterworth filter with central decision detection. In addition, it discusses the use of several different coding schemes for use in such links: multiple pulse position modulation (MPPM); digital pulse position modulation (DPPM); Dicode pulse position modulation (Dicode PPM). This novel technique of an optical receiver is investigated and new work is presented in order to examine the noise performance of this optical receiver and hence determine its sensitivity and the number of photons received for a specified error rate. Further new work is carried out to compare these coding schemes in terms of error weightings and coding efficiency through showing how the PCM error rate is affected by false alarm and erasure errors for MPPM, DPPM and Dicode PPM coding 3, 4, 5 and 6 bits of PCM. An original maximum likelihood sequence detector (MLSD) is presented in this thesis in order to perform these comparisons. In addition, computer simulations models (using MCAD) are performed to compare these three coding schemes operating with 3, 4, 5 and 6 bits of PCM in terms of sensitivity and bandwidth efficiency. These comparisons show that MPPM coding 3, 4, 5 and 6 bits of PCM is the appropriate coding scheme to be used in optical inter-satellite links in free space and PCM data rates of 1 Gbit/s.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Hybrid fibre and free-space optical solutions in optical access networks

This thesis evaluates the potentials of hybrid fibre and free space optical (FSO) communications access networks in providing a possible solution to an all optical access network. In such network architectures, the FSO link can extend the system to areas where an optical fibre link is not feasible, and/or provide limited mobility for indoor coverage. The performance of hybrid fibre and FSO (HFFSO) networks based on digital pulse position modulation (DPPM), for both the indoor and outdoor environments of the optical access network, are compared with the performance of such a network that is based on conventional on-off keying non-return-to-zero (OOK NRZ) modulation using results obtained through computational and analytical modelling. Wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) and/or code division multiple access (CDMA) are incorporated into the network for high speed transmission and/or network scalability. The impacts of optical scintillation, beam spreading and coupling losses, multiple access interference (MAI), linear optical crosstalk and amplified spontaneous emission noise (ASE) on the performance of hybrid fibre and FSO (HFFSO) access networks are analysed, using performance evaluation methods based on simple Gaussian approximation (GA) and more complex techniques based on moment generating function (MGF), including the Chernoff bound (CB), modified Chernoff bound (MCB) and saddlepoint approximation (SPA). Results in the form of bit error rate (BER), power penalty, required optical power and outage probability are presented, and both the CB and MCB, which are upper bounds, are suggested as safer methods of assessing the performance of practical systems. The possibility of using a CDMA-based HFFSO network to provide high speed optical transmission coverage in an indoor environment is investigated. The results show a reduction in transmit power of mobile devices of about 9 – 20 dB (depending on number of active users) when an optical amplifier is used in the system compared to a non-amplified system, and up to 2.8 dB improvement over OOK NRZ receiver sensitivity is provided by a DPPM system using integrate and compare circuitry for maximum likelihood detection, and at coding level of two, for minimum bandwidth utilization. Outdoor HFFSO networks using only WDM, and incorporating CDMA with WDM, are also investigated. In the presence of atmospheric scintillations, an OOK system is required (for optimum performance) to continuously adapt its decision threshold to the fluctuating instantaneous irradiance. This challenge is overcome by using the maximum likelihood detection DPPM system, and necessitated the derivation of an interchannel crosstalk model for WDM DPPM systems. It is found that optical scintillation worsens the effect of interchannel crosstalk in outdoor HFFSO WDM systems, and results in error floors particularly in the upstream transmission, which are raised when CDMA is incorporated into the system, because of MAI. In both outdoor HFFSO networks (with WDM only and with WDM incorporating CDMA), the optical amplifier is found necessary in achieving acceptable BER, and with a feeder fibre of 20 km and distributive FSO link length of 1500 m, high speed broadband services can be provided to users at safe transmit power at all turbulence levels in clear air atmosphere

Hybrid fibre and free-space optical solutions in optical access networks

This thesis evaluates the potentials of hybrid fibre and free space optical (FSO) communications access networks in providing a possible solution to an all optical access network. In such network architectures, the FSO link can extend the system to areas where an optical fibre link is not feasible, and/or provide limited mobility for indoor coverage. The performance of hybrid fibre and FSO (HFFSO) networks based on digital pulse position modulation (DPPM), for both the indoor and outdoor environments of the optical access network, are compared with the performance of such a network that is based on conventional on-off keying non-return-to-zero (OOK NRZ) modulation using results obtained through computational and analytical modelling. Wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) and/or code division multiple access (CDMA) are incorporated into the network for high speed transmission and/or network scalability. The impacts of optical scintillation, beam spreading and coupling losses, multiple access interference (MAI), linear optical crosstalk and amplified spontaneous emission noise (ASE) on the performance of hybrid fibre and FSO (HFFSO) access networks are analysed, using performance evaluation methods based on simple Gaussian approximation (GA) and more complex techniques based on moment generating function (MGF), including the Chernoff bound (CB), modified Chernoff bound (MCB) and saddlepoint approximation (SPA). Results in the form of bit error rate (BER), power penalty, required optical power and outage probability are presented, and both the CB and MCB, which are upper bounds, are suggested as safer methods of assessing the performance of practical systems. The possibility of using a CDMA-based HFFSO network to provide high speed optical transmission coverage in an indoor environment is investigated. The results show a reduction in transmit power of mobile devices of about 9 – 20 dB (depending on number of active users) when an optical amplifier is used in the system compared to a non-amplified system, and up to 2.8 dB improvement over OOK NRZ receiver sensitivity is provided by a DPPM system using integrate and compare circuitry for maximum likelihood detection, and at coding level of two, for minimum bandwidth utilization. Outdoor HFFSO networks using only WDM, and incorporating CDMA with WDM, are also investigated. In the presence of atmospheric scintillations, an OOK system is required (for optimum performance) to continuously adapt its decision threshold to the fluctuating instantaneous irradiance. This challenge is overcome by using the maximum likelihood detection DPPM system, and necessitated the derivation of an interchannel crosstalk model for WDM DPPM systems. It is found that optical scintillation worsens the effect of interchannel crosstalk in outdoor HFFSO WDM systems, and results in error floors particularly in the upstream transmission, which are raised when CDMA is incorporated into the system, because of MAI. In both outdoor HFFSO networks (with WDM only and with WDM incorporating CDMA), the optical amplifier is found necessary in achieving acceptable BER, and with a feeder fibre of 20 km and distributive FSO link length of 1500 m, high speed broadband services can be provided to users at safe transmit power at all turbulence levels in clear air atmosphere

Implementation ;performance investigation of dicode PPM over dispersive optical channels

This work is concerned with the development and investigation of a Dicode PPM (DiPPM) system. A DiPPM coder was developed to code any input PCM signal into DiPPM format. A further investigation took place on the DiPPM spectrum and associated output. Software simulation and mathematical analysis of this PPM code was considered and comparison with previous theoretical results presented. Results show that DiPPM is an advantageous PPM code for optic communication; DiPPM spectrum is not concentrated near to DC and it is possible to extract the DiPPM framerate component directly from the pulse stream. A timing extraction circuit that recovers the clock from a DiPPM sequence and synchronises the slots within the frames, was constructed successfully. This enabled transmission through fibre optics and Free Space Optics (FSO). The technique used for the timing extraction circuit of the DiPPM scheme gives an advantage over many of the PPM formats. An optical transmitter/receiver system was developed and the DiPPM scheme was investigated through optical channels. Results show that the DiPPM sequence transferred through the optic system was not changed and the clock had been recovered. A DiPPM decoder was constructed and the received DiPPM signal returned to its original PCM form without errors. Both DiPPM coder and decoder were developed in VHDL and measurements were taken. The timing extraction was programmed in VHDLAMS with the use of digital, analogue and mathematical equations. DiPPM MLSD was also constructed in VHDL. Simulation results proved the theoretical expectations.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Analysis of Offset Pulse Position Modulation

This work presents the performance analysis of the offset pulse position modulation (PPM) scheme using graded-index plastic optical fibre with a Gaussian impulse response. The aim of this analysis is to predict how sensitivity, error, number of required photons, threshold voltage, and the effect of inter-symbol interference will change with the change in the number of data bits encoded at a rate of 1 Gbit/s. An information theory analysis is presented in detail and also the band-utilization efficiency is determined. Results are compared to equivalent digital PPM and multiple PPM schemes and it is also shown that offset PPM gives an advantage over on-off keying (OOK). Bit error rate (BER) analysis has been presented numerically. The errors due to different coding techniques are compared. It has also been shown that offset pulse position modulation is more power efficient than multiple pulse position modulation. The spectral analysis of offset pulse position modulation coding scheme has been carried out. For an offset PPM sequence the spectral characteristics is presented both theoretically and numerically. The results show strong frequency components at the frame rate and, if return-to-zero pulses are used, the slot rate. Slot synchronisation has been taken into consideration for the first time as offset PPM spectrum exhibits discrete slot rate component. The effect of pulse shaping and modulating index on the spectrum has been shown. The dependency of slot component on the pulse shape is examined. The results show that the frame synchronisation is possible for offset PPM as this coding exhibits a strong frame rate component. A comparison of spectral characteristics has been presented considering digital, multiple and shortened PPM. For ease of implementation an offset PPM coder has been designed. In this work an efficient clock recovery topology is presented for offset PPM data sequence at the receiver end. For clock recovery, a phase locked loop is designed. Data recovery has also been presented. It is shown that a frame clock can be extracted from the data sequence that yields the possibility of frame synchronization. A detailed noise analysis has been performed for random offset PPM input. It has been shown that the proposed clock recovery system is also effective for extracting other data sequence. To elucidate, a multiple Pulse Position Modulation (MPPM) data sequence is considered. The MPPM data sequence has also been synchronised with the recovered clock. A noise analysis is carried out for multiple PPM

THE USE OF TUNED FRONT END OPTICAL RECEIVER AND PULSE POSITION MODULATION

The aim of this work is to investigate the use of tuned front-ends with OOK and PPM schemes, in addition to establish a theory for baseband tuned front end receivers. In this thesis, a background of baseband receivers, tuned receivers, and modulation schemes used in baseband optical communication is presented. Also, the noise theory of baseband receivers is reviewed which establishes a grounding for developing the theory relating to optical baseband tuned receivers. This work presents novel analytical expressions for tuned transimpedance, tuned components, noise integrals and equivalent input and output noise densities of two tuned front-end receivers employing bi-polar junction transistors and field effect transistors as the input. It also presents novel expressions for optimising the collector current for tuned receivers. The noise modelling developed in this work overcomes some limitations of the conventional noise modelling and allows tuned receivers to be optimised and analysed. This work also provides an in-depth investigation of optical baseband tuned receivers for on-off keying (OOK), Pulse position modulation (PPM), and Di-code pulse position modulation (Di-code PPM). This investigation aims to give quantitative predictions of the receiver performance for various types of receivers with different photodetectors (PIN photodetector and avalanche photodetector), different input transistors (bi-polar junction transistor BJT and field effect transistor FET), different pre-detection filters (1st order low pass filter and 3rd order Butterworth filter), different detection methods, and different tuned configurations (inductive shunt feedback front end tuned A and serial tuned front end tuned B). This investigation considers various optical links such as line of sight (LOS) optical link, non-line of sight (NLOS) link and optical fibre link. All simulations, modelling, and calculations (including: channel modelling, receiver modelling, noise modelling, pulse shape and inter-symbol interference simulations, and error probability and receiver calculations) are performed by using a computer program (PTC Mathcad prime 4, version: M010/2017) which is used to evaluate and analyse the performance of these optical links. As an outcome of this investigation, noise power in tuned receivers is significantly reduced for all examined configurations and under different conditions compared to non-tuned receivers. The overall receiver performance is improved by over 3dB in some cases. This investigation provides an overview and demonstration of cases where tuned receiver can be optimised for baseband transmission, offering a much better performance compared to non-tuned receivers. The performance improvement that tuned receivers offers can benefit a wide range of optical applications. This investigation also addresses some recommendations and suggestions for further work in some emerging applications such as underwater optical wireless communication (UOWC), visible light communication (VLC), and implantable medical devices (IMD). Keyword: Optical communications, Baseband receivers, Noise modelling, tuned front end, pulse position modulation (PPM)

Microelectronic Implementation of Dicode PPM System Employing RS Codes

Optical fibre systems have played a key role in making possible the extraordinary growth in world-wide communications that has occurred in the last 25 years, and are vital in enabling the proliferating use of the Internet. Its high bandwidth capabilities, low attenuation characteristics, low cost, and immunity from the many disturbances that can afflict electrical wires and wireless communication links make it ideal for gigabit transmission and a major building block in the telecommunication infrastructure. A number of different techniques are used for the transmission of digital information between the transmitter and receiver sides in optical fibre system. One type of coding scheme is Pulse Position Modulation (PPM) in which the location of one pulse during 2M time slots is used to convey digital information from M bits. Although all the studies refer to advantages of PPM, it comes at a cost of large bandwidth and a complicated implementation. Therefore, variant PPM schemes have been proposed to transmit the data such as: Multiple Pulse Position Modulation (MPPM), Differential Pulse Position Modulation (DPPM), Pulse Interval Modulation (PIM), Digital Pulse Interval Modulation (DPIM), Dual Header Pulse Interval Modulation (DH-PIM), Dicode Pulse Position Modulation (DiPPM). The DiPPM scheme has been considered as a solution for the bandwidth consumption issue that other existing PPM formats suffer from. This is because it has a line rate that is twice that of the original data rate. DiPPM can be efficiently implemented as it employs two slots to transmit one bit of pulse code modulation (PCM). A PCM conversion from logic zero to logic one provides a pulse in slot RESET (R) and from one to zero provides a pulse in slot SET (S). No pulse is transmitted if the PCM data is unvarying. Like other PPM schemes, DiPPM suffers from three types of pulse detection errors wrong slot, false alarm, and erasure. The aim of this work was to build an error correction system, Reed Solomon (RS) code, which would overcome or reduce the error sources in the DiPPM system. An original mathematical program was developed using the Mathcad software to find the optimum RS parameters which can improve the DiPPM system error performance, number of photons and transmission efficiency. The results showed that the DiPPM system employing RS code offered an improvement over uncoded DiPPM of 5.12 dB, when RS operating at the optimum code rate of approximately ¾ and a codeword length of 25 symbols. Moreover, the error performance of the uncoded DiPPM is compared with the DiPPM system employing maximum likelihood sequence detector (MLSD), and RS code in terms of number of photons per pulse, transmission efficiency, and bandwidth expansion. The DiPPM with RS code offers superior performance compared to the uncoded DiPPM and DiPPM using MLSD, requiring only 4.5x103 photons per pulse when operating at a bandwidth equal to or above 0.9 times the original data rate. Further investigation took place on the DiPPM system employing RS code. A Matlab program and very high speed circuit Hardware Description language (VHDL) were developed to simulate the designed communication system. Simulation results were considered and agreed with the previous DiPPM theory. For the first time, this thesis presents the practical implementation for the DiPPM system employing RS code using Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA)