Experimental and Analytical Investigations of an Optically Pre-Amplified FSO-MIMO System With Repetition Coding Over Non-Identically Distributed Correlated Channels

This paper presents theoretical and experimental bit error rate (BER) results for a freespace optical (FSO) multiple-input-multiple-output system over an arbitrarily correlated turbulence channel. We employ an erbium-doped fiber amplifier at the receiver (Rx), which results in an improved Rx’s sensitivity at the cost of an additional non-Gaussian amplified spontaneous emission noise. Repetition coding is used to combat turbulence and to improve the BER performance of the FSO links. A mathematical framework is provided for the considered FSO system over a correlated non-identically distributed Gamma-Gamma channel; and analytical BER results are derived with and without the pre-amplifier for a comparative study. Moreover, novel closed-form expressions for the asymptotic BER are derived; a comprehensive discussion about the diversity order and coding gain is presented by performing asymptotic analysis at high signal-tonoise ratio (SNR). To verify the analytical results, an experimental set-up of a 2 × 1 FSO-multiple-inputsingle-output (MISO) system with pre-amplifier at the Rx is developed. It is shown analytically that, both correlation and pre-amplification do not affect the diversity order of the system, however, both factors have contrasting behaviour with respect to coding gain. Further, to achieve the target forward error correction BER limit of 3.8 × 10−3 , a 2 × 1 FSO-MISO system with a pre-amplifier requires 6.5 dB lower SNR compared with the system with no pre-amplifier. Moreover, an SNR penalty of 2.5 dB is incurred at a higher correlation level for the developed 2×1 experimental FSO set-up, which is in agreement with the analytical findings

Optically amplified free-space optical communication systems

This thesis investigates terrestrial atmospheric FSO communication systems operating under the influence of turbulence-induced scintillation, beam spreading, optical interchannel crosstalk, amplified spontaneous emission noise and pointing errors. On-off keying-non–return-to-zero (OOK-NRZ) and digital pulse position (DPPM) are the modulation schemes used for the calculations. The possibility of using sophisticated performance evaluation techniques such as moment generating function (MGF)-based Chernoff bound (CB), modified Chernoff bound (MCB) and saddlepoint approximation (SPA) for terrestrial DPPM and OOK-NRZ–based FSO communication systems employing optical amplification are investigated and compared with the conventional Gaussian approximation (GA) method. Relative to the other techniques, the MCB can be considered a safe estimation method for practical systems since it provides an upper bound upon the BER. The turbulent optically preamplified DPPM FSO receiver employing integration over a time slot and comparing the results to choose the largest slot, is seen to give better advantage (about 7 - 9 dB) compared to an equivalent employing OOK-NRZ signalling. The atmospheric turbulence-induced spreading of the beam, ASE noise, and pointing error are seen to combine in a problematic way resulting in high BERs, depending on the size of the receiver and the beam’s jitter standard deviation. Using FSO communication for the distribution links of a passive optical network-like wavelength division multiplexing access network is investigated in the presence of atmospheric turbulence, ASE noise and interchannel crosstalk. The results show that, for clear atmosphere, FSO distribution link length up to 2000 m can be reliably used (depending on turbulence strength) to achieve human eye safety and high capacity access networks. Also, error floors occur due to turbulence accentuated crosstalk effect for the cases of (i) signal turbulent, but crosstalk not and (ii) crosstalk turbulent, but signal not

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

Optical Communication

Optical communication is very much useful in telecommunication systems, data processing and networking. It consists of a transmitter that encodes a message into an optical signal, a channel that carries the signal to its desired destination, and a receiver that reproduces the message from the received optical signal. It presents up to date results on communication systems, along with the explanations of their relevance, from leading researchers in this field. The chapters cover general concepts of optical communication, components, systems, networks, signal processing and MIMO systems. In recent years, optical components and other enhanced signal processing functions are also considered in depth for optical communications systems. The researcher has also concentrated on optical devices, networking, signal processing, and MIMO systems and other enhanced functions for optical communication. This book is targeted at research, development and design engineers from the teams in manufacturing industry, academia and telecommunication industries

Ground‐to‐GEO optical feeder links for very high throughput satellite networks: Accent on diversity techniques

This paper studies the use of optical feeder links in very high throughput satellites (VHTS) networks with emphasis on gateway diversity techniques to mitigate the inherent propagation losses in optical frequencies. Focusing on a GEO scenario, the paper considers a system‐wide approach investigating various challenges of optical feeder links. These include transmission schemes amenable for transparent on‐board processing, optical channel models taking into account blockage by clouds and fading caused by atmospheric turbulence in addition to complexity of on‐board and on‐ground processing. The channel models are then used to dimension the ground segment towards ensuring a given availability percentage (e.g., 99.9%). The channel model and payload complexity further influence the choice of link layer techniques used for counteracting fading due to atmospheric turbulence in the absence of blockage. An elaborate end‐to‐end simulator incorporating the proposed channel models capturing the nuances of various processing blocks like optical‐electrical conversion is developed. The system performance results provide interesting insights and a framework for assessing the feasibility and advantages of optical feeder links in VHTS systems

Advanced Technique and Future Perspective for Next Generation Optical Fiber Communications

Optical fiber communication industry has gained unprecedented opportunities and achieved rapid progress in recent years. However, with the increase of data transmission volume and the enhancement of transmission demand, the optical communication field still needs to be upgraded to better meet the challenges in the future development. Artificial intelligence technology in optical communication and optical network is still in its infancy, but the existing achievements show great application potential. In the future, with the further development of artificial intelligence technology, AI algorithms combining channel characteristics and physical properties will shine in optical communication. This reprint introduces some recent advances in optical fiber communication and optical network, and provides alternative directions for the development of the next generation optical fiber communication technology