Modulation formats for digital

fiber transmission
Eric Tell 050329

Outline

Fiber performance limitations

WDM
Optical vs. radio communication
Optical modulators
Modulation formats
Amplitude shift keying
Duo-binary signalling
Optical single sideband signalling

Simulation/experimental results
Summary

Fiber performance limitations

Fiber Loss
Chromatic dispersion
different refractive index for different
wavelengths

Fiber non-linearities

Chromatic dispersion
Distance limit ~1/(bit rate)
Example: Single mode fiber @1550nm
chromatic dispersion: 17ps/km-nm
dispersion limited distance: ~100km @10Gbit/s
comparable to loss limit

EDFA => increased loss-limited distance

Chromatic dispersion becomes the limiting factor in
single mode long-haul fibers!

We want to decrease the bandwidth for a given

datarate!

Wave Division Multiplexing

Decreased channel spacing leads to

interchannel interference and makes it
difficult to compensate for fiber
nonlinearities
Narrower subchannels would be nice...

WDM (cont'd)
In a high capacity link the whole EDFA
spectrum is filled with subchannels
The bandwidth of each subchannel is
proportional to its bit rate
Total fiber capacity is given by the spectral
efficency: (bitrate per channel)/(channel
spacing)

WDM (cont'd)
In a practical case using NRZ a spectral
efficiency of 40% can be reached

Power spectral density of NRZ

WDM (cont'd
More GB/s per channel does not increase
total bandwith, however
It results in fewer channels to manage
Increased channel spacing decreases
some non-linear distortions
BUT to reach higher spectral efficiency a
format with narrower spectrum for a given
bandwidth is needed (while at the same
time not increasing other impairments)

How can this be achieved?

M-ary Amplitude Shift Keying (ASK)
Duo-binary signaling
Optical Single Sideband (OSSB)

Comparison to radio systems

Much of the same theory can be applied,
except
Carrier frequency is different
1550 nm => 194 Thz

The available components are different

no coherent detection (no PLLs)

The channel is different

Component imperfections
Modulators are nonlinear
difficult to achieve pure AM

PIN photo detectors responds to optical

power rather than electrical field amplitude
(square envelope)
Dispersion introduces a frequency
dependent phase shift
intensity-modulated approaches are
used

Optical Modulators
Direct modulation
directly modulate the drive current of a semiconductor
laser

Absorbtion modulation
Modulate the absorption spectrum of reverse-biased
diod placed in front of the laser
Faster and more linear than direct modulation (60 GHz)

The Mach-Zender (MZ) modulator

modulation my adding phase shifted signals

Optical modulators (cont'd)

Direct modulators and absorption modulators
directly modulates the optical power, but will
also generate phase modulation
The MZ modulator is more flexible and can
generate different kinds if modulation other
than NRZ/RZ/ASK

The MZ modulator
waveguide

contacts

V1(t)
LiNbO3

Ein/2
Ein

Eout
Ein/2
V2(t)

Eout

Ein j1 (t )
Ein jv1 ( t ) / V
j 2 ( t )

e
e

e
e jv2 ( t ) / V
2
2

MZ modulator transfer function

Eout (t ) 1 jv1 ( t ) / V
(v1 (t ), v2 (t ))
e
e jv2 ( t ) / V
Ein
2

With =1 this can be rewritten as:

(v1 (t ), v2 (t )) cos(

(v1 (t ) v2 (t )) e j ( v1 ( t ) v2 ( t )) / 2V
2V

Amplitude modulation

Phase modulation (chirp)

With v1(t)=-v2(t) we remove the phase modulation and get:

Eout Ein cos(

v1 (t ))
V

Pout Pin cos ( v1 (t ))

V
2

MZ modulator biasing
v2 (t ) Vdc v1 (t )

(v1 (t ),Vdc ) cos(

Normal bias:

(2v1( t ) Vdc ) e jVdc / 2V

2V

Vdc V / 2

v1 (t ) 1

(a (t ),V / 2) cos

1 v1 (t )
4
V
2

V
Bias at extinction:

Vdc V

v1 (t ) 1

(a (t ),V ) cos
sin
v1 (t ) v1 (t )
2
V
V

MZ modulators - observations
These modulators are only linear in a small
region
A problem for other than RZ/NRZ signaling

There must normally be an unmodulated

carrier in order to use non-coherent
detection

M-ASK
Less bandwidth
level bandwidt More power needed for a given BER
s
h
non-linearities become limiting in
long-haul DWDM systems
2
B
More complicated (analog and
4
B/2
digital) electrical circuits
8
B/3
Possibly useful in multi-mode
16
B/4
dispersion limited systems e.g. 10
Gbit/s Ethernet
32
B/5

64

B/6

Duo-binary signaling
Introduce correlation between consecutive
symbols
A special case of partial response signaling:

Duo-binary signaling
Add consecutive
symbols => three
signal levels
-1,1,1,-1

-2,0,2,0

MZ modulator

AM-PSK Duo-binary
Problem: Normally impractical to handle
three levels
Solution: Use 0,E,-E
The detector will detect two levels 0 and E
By precoding these two levels will correspond to
0 and 1
a.k.a Amplitude Modulated Phase Shift Keying
(AM-PSK) duo-binary signaling

0,0,1,0,1

AM-PSK duo-binary system

1
1,1,0,1,0

xor

Precoder

map

1,-1,-1,1,1

0,1,1,0,0
0,0,-2,0,2

0,0,-E,0,E

MZ modulator
biased at extinction

0,0,E2,0,E2
|x|2
Photo detector
(fiber)

Optical Single Sideband (OSSB)

Observation: The frequency spectrum is
symmetrical
Implication: Half of it can be filtered out to
save bandwidth => Single Sideband
Transmission!
Used e.g. in TV

Subcarrier OSSB
In conventional subcarrier modulation the
subcarrier appears on both sides of the
optical carrier
Dispersion causes a phase shift between the
two signals, which depends on the distance
At certain points the entire signal is canceled
out!

Subcarrier OSSB (cont'd)

(decided to skip the equations: Optical fiber communications IVB, eq.16.30-16.36)

Creating an SSB signal

Two ways
Use a filter (half the energy is lost)
Use the Hilbert transform
known as a Hartley modulator

Hartley modulator
SSB signal:

sSSB (t ) as (t ) cos(2f c t ) a (t ) sin( 2f c t )

Baseband signal:

sSSB (t ) as (t ) ja (t )

Optical SSB modulator

Approximation of SSB signal:

Hilbert
transform

a(t)
Optical carrier

g (t ) a (t )e ja ( t )

MZ
Amplitude
modulator

(t)
Phase
modulator

OSSB signal

Simulation results: ASK/duo-binary

Dispersion induced receiver sensitivity degradation for Gbit/s signalling

More practical issues

ASK
Nees more power =>
non-linearities limiting

Duo-binary
Needs extra filtering
Optical dispersion
compensation could be
an alternative
225 km @10Gbit/s
1550 nm has been
reached

Experimental results: OSSB

Experimental receiver sensitivity degradation vs. fiber length @ 10Gbit/s, BER=10 -9

DWDM
Normal NRZ
40% spectral efficiency over 150 km

Duo-binary AM-PSK
100% over 100 km

OSSB
66% over 300 km

Summary
Distance between repeaters is limited by
either of
Fiber loss
Chromatic dispersion
Fiber non-linearities

With the advent of EDFA chromatic

dispersion has become the limiting factor in
long-haul systems

Summary (contd)
We want to limit the bandwidth in order too
Reduce the effects of chromatic dispersion
Reach higher spectral efficiency in DWDM systems

Two potential methods:

Duo-binary signaling
Optical single sideband

Both methods could potentially halve the bandwidth

None of the methods are currently used in commercial
systems, but there are some promising experimental results