ICTON 2007

ICTON 2007
261
261 We.D3.2
We.D3 .2

Effects of Semiconductor Optical Amplifier Phase Distortion in

Radio Over Fiber Signals
S. Di Bartolo 1,2, A. Teixeira3, G.M. Tosi Belefft2, F. Curti2
1University of Tor Vergata, Viale del Politecnico, Roma, Italia
2ISCOMItalian Communication Ministry, Viale America 201, Roma, Italia
3 Instituto de Telecomunicaq5es, Aveiro, Portugal

ABSTRACT
In this paper the effects boosting a phase modulated radio over fiber signal with a semiconductor optical
amplifier are analyzed. The resulting distortion is characterized in the case of a single radio over fiber signal or
in presence of an amplitude modulated signal.
Keywords: semiconductor optical amplifier, chirp, wavelength division multiplexing, self-phase modulation,
cross-phase modulation, cross gain modulation, 3G, radio over fiber.
1. INTRODUCTION
Wireless technology development requires increasing broadband in terms of new offered services and larger
users number. A good solution for achieving this could be Radio over Fiber (RoF) technology. RoF joins
the high capacity of optical fiber with the possibility to centralize radio complexity. The radio signals are kept
with the same format when injected into the fiber, giving to the optical transmitted signals an analogical
characteristic. The conversion can be achieved with a very simple optical modulation scheme, e.g. direct
modulation of a laser, or a externally modulated laser with cut off above the RF carrier signal. The detection is
even simpler and the electrical recovered signal is already modulated therefore ready to be applied to
an amplified antenna, simplifying the head end. As what regards the cost of the fiber, both multiplexing it with
other signals or a cascade RoF connection from the base station to the control station was proposed [1]. This
architecture is compatible with passive optical network topologies, simplifying radio signals distribution [2].
In this paper, the effects of the non linear behaviour of simple semiconductor Optical Amplifiers (SOA) on 3G
similar signals are investigated as a function of the different properties of SOA, specifically evidencing
the impact of Self-phase modulation (SPM), Cross phase modulation (XGM) and Cross phase modulation
(XPM).
2. SOA NONLINEARITY
Carrier density change in the active region of a SOA, due to a travelling modulated signal, generates two
important correlated physical phenomena: refractive index and material gain modulation.
As a consequence a phase shift occurs on the modulated signal (SPM) that changes its shape and its spectrum.
This phase shift is different in leading and trailing edge of the signal as different gain and refractive index
experienced. Phase and gain of a travelling signal in a SOA are correlated by the gain saturation of the amplifier,
through the linewidth enhancement factor /3c. The phase shift (Equation 1) and the related frequency chirp
(Equation 2) can be expressed as:
O(r) = -i2C fg(z,r)dz (1)
0

and
Av_ dId
1 (2)
2Trdt
where g is the gain of the amplifier.
If two signals are simultaneously travelling through the SOA, both signals will suffer phase changes due to cross
phase modulation [3].
3. SET UP DESCRIPTION
In order to observe the effects of the SOA as a booster of radio signals, a simulation setup was developed in
the VPI simulation tool: an electrical section (in which radio frequency signal is QPSK modulated) and the RoF
section (Fig. 1). In the electrical section a pseudo random bit generator produces a sequence of bit at
7.8125 Mb/s that is sent to a Distributor Module where bits are split alternately in two different outputs. New
sequences are used by two phase modulators in which a RF signal phase have a phase shift of 00 or 1800 during
a 'O' or '1' bit occurrence. Two RF waves are produced by a sinusoidal generator with same frequency (2GHz)
and a phase difference of 900. A QPSK signal is obtained by the sum of the these two phase modulated
sinusoidal signals. Due to the objectives of this work, this simulation will not consider spreading or scrambling.

1-4244-1249-8/07/$25.00 (C2007 IEEE

We.D3.2 262 ICTON 2007

|RF SIGNAL l DLTIME DOMAINl

GENERATOR I ANALYSISl

RoF Section

Figure 1. Simulation set up.

The phase modulated RF signal is then delivered to the RoF section, where a Mach-Zehnder (MZ) modulator is
driven with minimal Chirp of 1.7 GHz. A CW laser with linewidth 10 MHz and central wavelength 1553.6 nm is
used to carry the radio information through a SOA, which is to be used as an optical power booster for the RoF
Section. A photodiode converts the signal again to the electrical domain in order to be analysed in terms of phase
and amplitude induced distortions.
QPSK signal when passing a SOA suffers SPM effects which can be distinctly observed:
* One resulting from the 2 GHz RF carrier;
* One created by the instantaneous phase change of the QPSK modulation at 3.90625 Mbit/s.
As expected the phase jumps (Fig. 2a).
Power [mrV\ output 5OA a.u
1,6 15.....=
RF pMZ input
1401

120 0,6
100 mpitude distortion o

60
RE A7iPD output
39 -1.6I
266,27 266 266,6 267,07 20962 209,8 210 210,2 210,37
Time [ns] a) Time [ns] b)

Figure 2. SOA effects on the QPSK phase jumps (a) and carrier (b)
RF phase jumps, due to QPSK modulation generated in the SOA transient situations which result in both SPM
and self gain modulation (SGM). The fast changing of the sinusoidal RF will cause an extra amplitude distortion
due to the SOA time response and at the same time extra chirp due to SPM, resulting the shape of Fig. 2a. The
RF component will suffer not visible effects from the SPM, suffering clearly from the gain compression, this is
evidenced in Fig. 2b). The sinusoidal shape of the RF signal is compressed on the upper lobe.
In Fig. 3 are presented I and Q components. The sequence was specially chosen to have the transitions
occurring in different combinations of I and Q, in order to evidence the SOA effects. It is clearly observed in
Fig. 3a, that, when a phase change occurs, e.g. at 256 ns, due to the change in either the I or the Q component,
an instantaneous Q or I amplitude change is noticed. This results from an instantaneous SPM induced chirp that
will induce an RF accumulated phase. Moreover the value of these changes is dependent on the input power,
SOA properties and injection current.
A characterization of this level shifting in bit of phase (I) and quadrature (Q) component has been performed
by calculating the percentage of change felt in each component, as described in Figure 4. In the considered case
transitions bandwidth is only limited by the sampling bandwidth (128 GHz)
ICTON 2007 263 We.D3.2

au. I au. Q

-0,5 >o-0, / I Referenc

Reference
1 L
2 ~~~Output -05L/ Otu

0 0,2 04 0,6 O8 1O2 0 0,2 04 0,6 O6 1O2

Time [us] Time [us]
a) b)
Figure 3. a) I and b) Q components before and after the SOA.
In order to test the robustness of this boosting scheme to multiple format WDM signals, cross induced effects
were also investigated. It is expected that other phase modulated signals will impose very small effects on each
other since the average power is kept mainly constant, and only small discontinuities, like the ones in Fig. 3a,
will be felt. Also, XPM is an effect which will be felt mainly by the optical carrier, and will result in a base band
effect in the detected signal, therefore small. So, the most worrying effects will be induced by neighbouring
amplitude modulated (AM) signals. In order to test this effect, a 7.8125 Mbit/s AM signal at 1554 nm was input
in conjunction with our optically modulated Radio signal into the SOA. In these conditions, the input powers of
the optical RF QPSK and the AM signals were varied independently. The results are presented in Fig.4.
14-
12-
10
9
u 6 -B 7

-1 14 8-9 4 1 6 11 16 21
a.LL Pinsoa [lElm]

-p Lsoa[um] ss Isoa[mA] * s Lsoa[um] %-' Isoa[mA] ) b)

|I ccom ponent -UC componeri

Figure 4. Percentage ofI and Q component detected amplitude changes versus. a) inputpower SOA (Pin,soa),
b)length of SOA (Lsoa) and b) injection current in SOA (Isoa).
Fig. 4a shows the effects of the current and length of the SOA on I and Q components. It can be seen that there is
an increase tendency on the distortion with increased length of the SOAs. This would be expected since the chirp
will also increase with the SOA length. The current will have an inverse effect since the available number of
carriers will increase with increasing currents and therefore smaller changes in the internal SOA refraction index
will be felt, therefore less chirp. When considering input power, there are two effects to be felt: the increasing
chirp with the increased amplitude step caused by increased overall signal power; and the decreasing overall
effect due to gain saturation of the SOA. These two effects are evidenced in Fig. 4b, where a maximum
distortion is felt for an average power in the range of 1 to 4 dBm.
An AM signal induces XGM and XPM on the optical 3G signal. If the AM signal has limited extinction ratio
both the '0' and '1' will cause amplitude fluctuations, which will be enhanced, at the output of the SOA, due to
its gain saturation. In order to observe these effects Fig. 5 presents constellation diagrams for the following
conditions: Fig. 5a presents the reference constellation, absence of AM signal in the SOA; Fig. 5b shows
the constellation for low power input optical 3G signal, normally unsaturated SOA; Fig. 5c presents
the constellation for relatively high optical 3G signal, normally saturated SOA. In both cases, the behaviour will
be different when the AM signal is a "1" or a "0". In case the SOA is unsaturated, low optical 3G power,
the saturation will be mainly achieved in the "l"s, and negligible in the "0". If the SOA is saturated, both the "1"
and the "0" will cause compression of the diagram.
We.D3.2 264 ICTON 2007

1 06 ::

A Pi(Am), SOA =-6dBm

Reference Diagram
16- D Pi(Am), SOA = 4dBm
0 Pi1(Am), SOA = 14dBm

-0,le- a)

-1 .06 T T~~~~
-1 . D7 -X.6 c 0 6 1,'

A
1 ,05 A : : T:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ s~ ~ ~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I

Plin(QPSK),SOA::::: -13.24dBm -- ' PinQPK), SOA-:::::6.75dBm I.

-c~ I"_ -,

b)
h>6_
I
-I .0 E
1
-1 ,O 17 0,5 1,07 -11
-0,!5 0 1,04

Figure 5. Constellation diagrams for different conditions of SOA input powers ofthe optical RF QPSK signal
and the AM signal.

4. CONCLUSION
The effects of boosting an optical 3G signal with a simple SOA were investigated. In single channel operation,
SPM modulation is the most degrading factor, inducing RF carrier shape distortions and amplitude fluctuations
in the detected I and Q components. In WDM situation, and an amplitude modulated signal is co propagating in
the SOA together with optical 3G signal XGM is the dominant phenomenon degrading the constellation and
decreasing the thresholds margins when deciding. It can be concluded that this modulation at the rates required
for 3G is robust and will tolerate high distortion and types of SOAs due to the minimal phase distortion.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors would like to thank the European NoE e-Photon ONe+ and the projects Raton from IT associated
Labs.

REFERENCES
[1] Y. Bhanuprakash Reddy, A. Alphones: Asyncronous W-CDMA Uplink Performance in Double Spread
Cascade RoF, in Proc. ICICS-PCM, Singapore, December 2003
[2] K. Imai, A. Agata, Y. Horiuchi, N. Edagawa: 3G Cellular Phone Signal Optical Transmission over Gigabit
E-PON System, Microwave Photonics, pp. 47-50, October 2005.
[3] G.P. Agrawal: Lightwave Technology Component and Devices, Wiley & Sons.