UNIT-V

DESIGN OF DIGITAL SYSTEMS

1) Explain briefly the point-to-point links.
[Nov, 2012-5m]
Point-to-point links:
The simplest transmission link is a point-to-point line that has a transmitter on one end and a receiver on
the other.
The point-to-point-to link is shown in figure below:

The design of an optical link involves many interrelated variables among the fiber, source, and
photodetector operating characteristics.
The components must be carefully chosen to satisfy the desired performance level with an expected
system lifetime without over specifying the component characteristics.
The following key system requirements are needed in analyzing a link:
a) The desired transmission distance.
b) The data rate or channel bandwidth
c) The bit-error rate (BER)
The choice of the components and their characteristics are
a) Multimode or single mode optical fiber:
i)
Core size
ii)
Core refractive-index profile
iii)
Bandwidth or dispersion
iv)
Attenuation
v)
Numerical aperture or mode-field diameter
b) LED or laser diode optical source:
i)
Emission wavelength
ii)
Spectral line width
iii)
Output power
iv)
Effective radiating area
v)
Emission pattern
vi)
Number of emitting modes
c) Pin or avalanche photodiode:
i)
Responsivity
ii)
Operating wavelength
iii)
Speed
iv)
Sensitivity
The two analyses for analyzing the system performance are
i)
Link power budget
ii)
Rise-time budget
2) Give the details of system considerations for digital optical communication link.
[7m]
System considerations:
In carrying out a link power budget, the transmission wavelength and the components that operate at that
wavelength are to be chosen.
For short distance communications the range of operation is 770-to-910nm range.
For long distance communications to have the advantage of lower attenuation and dispersion, the range of
operation is in the O-band through U-band region.
The three major optical link building blocks are
a) Receiver
b) Transmitter
c) Optical fiber.

The design process is such that the characteristics of two of these elements are chosen and then those of
the third one are computed to see if the system performance requirements are met.
If the components are over- or under- specified, design iteration may be needed.
In choosing a photodetector, the minimum optical power that must fall on the photodetector to satisfy the
bit-error rate (BER) requirement at the specified data rate is to be determined.
Design cost and complexity constraints are to be kept in view.
A pin photodiode is simpler, more stable with changes in temperature, and less expensive than an
avalanche photodiode receiver with less bias voltage of less than 5V.
The avalanche photodiode has increased sensitivity than pin photodiode when low optical power levels
are to be detected.
The system parameters involved in deciding between the use of an LED and a laser diode are signal
dispersion, data rate, transmission distance, and cost.
The spectral width of the laser output is much narrower than that of an LED.
This is of importance in the 770-to-910nm region, where the spectral width of an LED and the dispersion
characteristics of multimode silica fibers limit the data-rate-distance product to around 150Mb/s.
For higher values a laser must be used at these wavelengths.
A single-mode fiber can provide significantly higher rates over longer distances.
Laser diodes couple from 10 to 15dB more optical power into a fiber than an LED, so that greater
repeaterless transmission distances are possible with a laser.
But the laser diode and the laser transmitter circuitry are much more complex and costly.
The choice of optical fiber depends on the type of light source used and the amount of dispersion that can
be tolerated.
LEDs tend to be used with multimode fibers.
The optical power that can be coupled into a fiber from an LED depends on the core-cladding index
difference , which in turn, is related to the numerical aperture of the fiber.
As increases, the fiber-coupled power increases, but dispersion also increases.
So there should be a tradeoff between the optical power that can be launched into the fiber and the
maximum tolerable dispersion.
The excess loss comprises the attenuation of the fiber, connector and splice losses, environmental-induced
losses.
3) Explain link power budget and its expressions.
[Dec, 2013-6m]
Link power budget:
An optical power loss mode for a point-to-point link is shown in figure below:

The optical power received at the photodetector depends on the amount of light coupled into the fiber and
the losses occurring in the fiber and at the connectors and splices.
The link loss budget is derived from the sequential loss contributions of each element in the link.
Each of these loss elements is expressed in decibels as
P out
Loss = 10 log P

where Pin and Pout are the optical powers entering and leaving the loss element, respectively.
A link 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.
It is generally in the range of 6-8Db.
The link loss budget simply considers the total optical power P T that is allowed between the light source
and the photodetector, and allocates this loss to cable attenuation, connector loss, splice loss, and system margin.
PT = PS - PR

= 2lc + L + system margin.

where PS and PR are the optical power emerging from the end of a fiber flylead attached to the light source and
the receiver sensitivity respectively.
lc is the connector loss, is the fiber attenuation (dB/km), L is the transmission distance, and the system margin is
normally 6dB.
For simplicity, the splice loss is incorporated into the cable loss.
4) What is rise time budget and give its expressions.
[May, 2015-7m]
Rise time budget:
The dispersion limitation of an optical fiber link can be determined by rise-time budget.
The total rise time tsys of the link is the root sum square of the rise times from each contributor t i to the
pulse rise-time degradation:
N

tsys =

1 /2

( )
t 2i
i=1

The four basic elements that may significantly limit system speed are transmitter rise time t rx, the groupvelocity dispersion (GVD) rise time tGVD of the fiber, the modal dispersion rise time t mod of the fiber, and the
receiver rise time trx.
Single mode fibers do not experience modal dispersion.
The total transition-time degradation of a digital link should not exceed 70% of an NRZ bit period or 35%
of a bit period for RZ data.
The transmitter rise time is attributable to the light source and its drive circuitry.
The receiver rise time results from the photodetector response and the 3-dB electrical bandwidth of the
receiver front end.
The response of the receiver front end can be modeled by a first-order lowpass filter having a step
response
g(t) = [1-exp(-2Brxt)]u(t)
where Brx is the 3-dB electrical bandwidth of the receiver and u(t) is the unit step function.
The rise time trx of the receiver is defined as the time interval between g(t) = 0.1 and g(t) =0.9.
This is known as the 10- to 90- percent rise time
The receiver front end rise time is given by
350
trx = B rx
The fiber rise time tGVD resulting from GVD over a length L can be given as
tGVD |D| L
where is the half-power spectral width of the source.
To achieve an improved total link bandwidth the adjoining multimode fibers are selected with alternating
over- and undercompensated refractive-index profiles to provide modal delay equalization.
The bandwidth BM in a link of length L can be expressed by the empirical relation
B0
BM(L) = Lq
where the parameter q ranges between 0.5 and 1.
Another expression for BM based on the curve fitting of experimental data is
q
N
1
1 1/ q
BM =
n=1 B n

( )

where Bn is the bandwidth of the nth fiber section.

Alternatively the above equation can be written as

[ ]
N

tM(N) =

n=1

1 /q

(t n)

where tM(N) is the pulse broadening occurring over N cable sections in which the individual pulse broadenings
are given by tn.
The relation between the full-width half-maximum rise time tFWHM and the 3-dB optical bandwidth is
0.44
f3dB = B3dB = t FWHM
The rise time resulting from modal dispersion is given by
0.44
0.44 Lq
tmod = B M =
B0
If tmod is expressed in nanoseconds and BM is given in MHz, then
440
440 Lq
tmod = B M =
B0
Thus the expression for a total system rise time is
2
2
2
2 1/ 2
tsys = [ t rx +t mod +t GVD + t rx ]

[ ( )

2
0.44 Lq
350 2
t +
+(|D| L ) +(
)
B0
B rx
2
rx

1/ 2

where all the times are in nanoseconds, is the half-power spectral width of the source, and D is the dispersion.
5) Explain briefly receiver sensitivity.
[7m]
Receiver sensitivity:
To achieve a desired BER at a given data rate, a specific minimum average optical power level must
arrive at the photodectector.
The value of this minimum power level is called the receiver sensitivity.
The receiver sensitivity is defined as average optical power incident on the photodetector or as an optical
modulation amplitude given in terms of a peak-to-peak current at the photodetector output.
The expression for the parameter Q is given as
I 1I 0
Q = 1+ 0
where 1 and 0 are the noise current variations for 1 and 0 pulses.
The receiver sensitivity Psensitivity is obtained from the average power contained in a bit period for the
specified data rate as
Psensitivity = P1/2 = I1/(2RM) = Q(1 + 0)/(2RM)
where R is the unity-gain responsivity and M is the gain of the photodiode.
If there is no optical amplifier in a fiber transmission link, then thermal noise and shot noise are the
dominant noise effects in the receiver.
The thermal noise is independent of the incoming optical signal power, but the shot noise depends on the
received power.
Therefore, assuming there is no optical power in a received zero pulse, the noise variances for 0 and 1
2
2
2
2
2
pulses, respectively are 0 = T and 1 = T + shot
The shot noise variance for a 1 pulse is
2shot = 2qRP1M2F(M) Be =4qRPsensitivityM2F(M)B/2
where F(M) is the photodiode noise figure and the electrical bandwidth Be of the receiver is assumed to be half
the bit rate B.
The thermal noise current variance is
4kBT
B
2T =
F
n
2
RL
where Fn is the amplifier noise figure.

The receiver sensitivity is given by

Q qMF ( M ) BQ
+ T
Psensitivity = (1/R) M
2

The figure below shows the sensitivities as a function of bit rate for generic pin and avalanche InGaAs
photodiodes at 1550nm for a 10-12 BER.

6) Explain the system considerations for analog optical systems.

The figure below shows the basic elements of an analog link.

[6m]

The transmitter contains either an LED or a laser diode optical source.

In analog applications, a bias point on the source is set on the source approximately at the midpoint of the
linear output region.
The analog signal is modulated simply by varying around the bias point in proportion to the message
signal level.
Thus, the information signal is transmitted directly in the baseband.
Amplitude modulation, frequency modulation or phase modulation techniques can be used to translate the
baseband signal onto an electrical subcarrier prior to intensity modulation of the source.
Harmonic distortions, intermodulation products, relative intensity noise (RIN) in the laser and laser
clipping are the signal impairments for which care has to be taken.
Including these the frequency dependence of the amplitude, phase, and group delay in the fiber are to be
considered.
Modal-distortion-limited bandwidth is difficult to equalize, so single-mode fiber is chosen.
The fiber attenuation is also important, since the carrier-to-noise performance of the system will change as
a function of the received optical power.
The use of an optical amplifier in the link leads to the additional noise, known as amplified spontaneous
emission.
In the optical receiver, the principal impairments are quantum or shot noise, APD gain noise, and thermal
noise.
Note: for analog systems the link power budget and the rise time budget are same as in digital systems.
For analog systems the system bandwidth is given as
Bsys = 0.35/tsys