S-108.

199 OPTICAL COMMUNICATIONS AND INSTRUMENTS Laboratory exercise : Simulation of fiber optic links

Simulation of fiber optic links

Laboratory exercise

S-108.199 OPTICAL COMMUNICATIONS AND INSTRUMENTS Laboratory exercise : Simulation of fiber optic links

Contents
SIMULATION OF FIBER OPTIC LINKS ..............................................................3 OPTICAL TRANSMITTER.......................................................................................3 DIRECTLY MODULATED SEMICONDUCTOR LASER ........................................................3 EXTERNAL MODULATION ............................................................................................4 OPTICAL FIBER ........................................................................................................5 TABLE 1 SINGLE MODE FIBER PARAMETERS ...............................................7 OPTICAL AMPLIFIER .............................................................................................7 RECEIVER AND BIT-ERROR RATE [AGRAWAL 4.5] .......................................8 EYE DIAGRAM ...........................................................................................................10 SIMULATION PROGRAM : GOLD.......................................................................10 LABVIEW ..................................................................................................................10 REFERENCES...........................................................................................................11 APPENDIX I : SIMULATION PROCEDURE.......................................................13 APPENDIX II : SIMULATION ANSWER SHEET ..............................................17 QUESTIONS ..............................................................................................................18

S-108.199 OPTICAL COMMUNICATIONS AND INSTRUMENTS Laboratory exercise : Simulation of fiber optic links Simulation of fiber optic links

Simulation is a valuable tool in modern engineering because it can be used to predict different physical phenomena in a cost effective way. In this exercise we will go through the physical modelling and simulation of a fiber optic link. Using a good simulation tool it is possible to test different link configurations and predict the effects of optical components along the link. In this labwork a simulation program called GOLD (Gigabit Optical Link Designer) is used. This program uses LabVIEW-as an interface. Before the results given by the simulation program can be understood, a brief look into the methods and models for the optical components used in the link is needed. Optical transmitter Transmitter of the fiber optic communication system is usually a semiconductor laser which is intensity modulated. Modulation can be realized by directly modulating the bias current of the laser or by using an external intensity modulator. The performance of the directly modulated laser is limited by frequency chirping, which indicates the change of the operating wavelength with intensity. When optical fiber is used as transmission line, chirping and chromatic dispersion will broaden the pulses and induce errors in the detection. External modulators are used because they have much less chirping. Typically used modulators are Mach-Zehnder interferometer and electro-absorption modulator. The modelling of both directly and externally modulated transmitters for simulation purposes requires some knowledge of the physics of these devices. Directly modulated semiconductor laser The most common semiconductor laser structure for telecommunication applications is a DFB-laser (Distributed Feedback laser). This laser has a periodic grating inside its active area, which helps the laser to maintain single-mode operation and a narrow linewidth. The operation of the laser is modelled with the help of rate equations which describe the relation between the carriers (electrical current) and the photons (output power) in the active region. Also the optical phase (frequency chirp) can be modelled. The rate-equations for the laser can only be solved analytically when a small-signal approximation is made. To get a good solution some numerical iteration is needed. An example of the laser output power modelled by the rate-equations is given in fig. 1.

S-108.199 OPTICAL COMMUNICATIONS AND INSTRUMENTS Laboratory exercise : Simulation of fiber optic links
140 120

10 8

M odulation current [m A]

6 4 2 0 -2
A m plitude
20 0 8 9 10

80 60 40

-4 -6 -8

O ffset
11 12 13 14 15 16

Tim e [ns]

Figure 1 Rate equation-solution for the laser operation for two offset currents. The laser is operated at two different bias currents by changing the offset-current as presented in the figure. The power given by the solid line in fig. 1 the 0 state current drops below the threshold current of the laser. This results in big relaxation oscillations in the beginning of the optical pulses and also to a long turn-on time of the laser. The other current in the 0 state is above the threshold of the laser. This reduces the oscillations and degreases the turn-on time but it also adds some power in the zero bit. This reduces the extinction ratio (Average power at 1/Average power at 0) which can be calculated approximately from dotted line in the Fig.1 to have a value of ca. 7 dB. External modulation External modulators are typically either integrated Mach-Zehnder interferometers or electroabsorption modulators. The operation of a Mach-Zehnder modulator is depicted in fig. 2.
V1(t)

Light in

Light out

Phase modulators V2(t)

Figure 2 Mach-Zehnder intensity modulator. The light entering the modulator can be modelled by a complex function E = E 0 e j ( t ) . This light is then separated into two arms each of which has a phase modulator. These phase modulators are typically driven with opposite phase. The optical phase shift in each arm of the modulator is given by mod (t ) = V (t ) where is the phase shift coefficient [rad/V] and V(t) is the drive voltage. After the light beams from the two arms are combined there is an interference between the two light beams. By

Laser power [m W ]

100

S-108.199 OPTICAL COMMUNICATIONS AND INSTRUMENTS Laboratory exercise : Simulation of fiber optic links

properly controlling the voltages V1(t) and V2(t) the output intensity can be tuned. The advantage of this modulator is that it has practically no chirp and the extinction ratio can be made very high compared with directly modulated laser. Optical fiber The most commonly used optical fiber in the communication systems is a singlemode-fiber where only one electrical field mode is propagating. Important fiber parameters are its loss, dispersion, dispersion slope and nonlinearities. The mathematical model for the fiber transmission can be derived by considering an electrical field inside the fiber. This must obey the wave-equation of the form
2 2 E + ( ) k 0 E = 0 ,

(1)

where E is the electrical field, () is the permittivity of the fiber material and k0 is a wavenumber of free-space. Typically the electric field is divided into two parts which are the forward propagating part and the transverse part
i z E ( r , - 0 ) = F ( x , y ) A( z , - 0 ) e 0 .

(2)

In this equation F(x,y) is the transverse electric field, A(z) is the forward propagating part and 0 is the propagation constant of the optical fiber. The propagation constant can be solved exactly from the equation for the electric field but the solution is very complicated. To simplify the situation the propagation constant is usually expanded into Taylor series around some optical frequency 0. The propagation constant is given by

= 0 + 1 ( 0 ) + 2 ( 0 ) 2 + 3 ( 0 ) 3 ,

1 2

1 6

(3)

where constant 0 indicates propagation time, 1 is group velocity, 2 is the chromatic dispersion, and 3 is dispersion slope. These parameters can be easily measured. The more common expression for chromatic dispersion is given by dispersion parameter D by,

2 2c 2 = D or D = 2 2 , 2c

(4)

where is the wavelength of the light, c is the speed of light and D is the dispersion parameter expressed in units ps/nm/km. The nonlinearity of the refractive index of the fiber core is given by

= 0 + 2 E ,
2

(5)

where 0 is the linear effective refractive index and 2 is so called Kerr-coefficient. When equations 2,3 and 5 are inserted in eq. 1 we end up with the propagation

S-108.199 OPTICAL COMMUNICATIONS AND INSTRUMENTS Laboratory exercise : Simulation of fiber optic links

equation for optical signals in optical single mode fiber. It is also called nonlinear Schrdinger equation, and is given by

1 i 2 3 2 A + 1 A + 2 2 A 3 3 A + A = i A A , z t 2 t 6 t 2

(6)

where A is the propagating electrical field, 1, 2, and 3 are dispersion parameters, [B/km] is the power attenuation and [1/W/km] is the nonlinear parameter, which can also be written as 22 = . (7) Aeff 2 In this equation 2 is the Kerr-coefficient, is the wavelength and Aeff is the effective area of the core of the single-mode fiber. Eq. (6) can be reliably used to model the propagation of the pulse envelope in an optical fiber. However, it has some limitations : It can be used only for slowly changing signals. Typically for pulse widths over 1 ps. This is not a problem in a conventional optical communication system because the pulse width in e.g. in high-speed 10 Gbit/s system is 100 ps. It is a scalar equation, and hence models only one polarization state of the light. All polarization dependent effects such as polarization mode dispersion and polarization dependent loss are neglected. It can not model scattering induced nonlinearities such as stimulated Raman or stimulated Brillouin scattering Non-linearity effects induced by nonlinear refractive index include self-phase modulation, cross-phase modulation, four-wave mixing and modulation instability. There is an analytical solution for this equation which describes the soliton propagation in the fiber. For arbitrary waveforms the solution of this equation is very difficult and some numerical techniques e.g. split-step Fourier method must be applied. However, if only the dispersion properties of the fiber are examined and the power in the fiber is not very high, it is possible to omit the non-linear term from the right-hand side of the nonlinear Schrdinger equation. When this simplification is made, the equation can be solved analytically for the output optical field. The solution for optical field is given by an inverse Fourier transform

A( L, t ) = A(0, )e

i (1L +

2
2

2L+

3
6

3L ) L

e i t d ,

(8)

where A(0,) is the optical spectrum at the input of the fiber. Detailed derivation of nonlinear Schrdinger-equation can be found for example from refs. [1,2]. The most important fiber parameters are summarized in Table 1 for two telecommunication wavelengths.

S-108.199 OPTICAL COMMUNICATIONS AND INSTRUMENTS Laboratory exercise : Simulation of fiber optic links Table 1 Single mode fiber parameters Wavelength Attenuation Dispersion D Dispersion slope D2 Nonlinear coefficient Refractive index Effective area Aeff 1550 nm 0.25 dB/km 17 ps/nm/km 0.08 ps2/nm/km ~ 2 /W/km 1.45 80 m2 1300 nm 0.45 dB/km 0 ps/nm/km 0.08 ps2/nm/km ~2 /W/km 1.45 80 m2

Optical amplifier One of the most important components which has made the revolution in optical communications possible is an optical fiber amplifier. It makes possible to amplify the signal optically without regeneration (detection, amplification and re-transmission). Optical amplifier is typically about 10-20 m long piece of a fiber, which is doped with some material providing gain. Most commonly used dopants are erbium, which provides gain around 1550 nm, and prasedodium which has gain around 1300 nm. The scheme of the EDFA (erbium doped fiber amplifier) is shown in fig. (3).
PUMPLASER 1480 nm or 980 nm

SIGNAL IN

WDM
ERBIUM DOPED FIBER ISOLATOR

WDM

SIGNAL OUT

Figure 3 Scheme of the EDFA. Optical amplifier is in fact a fiber laser without optical feedback. The pump laser creates an population inversion in erbium and the signal is amplified by stimulated emission process. WDM components separate the pump and signal wavelengths and isolator prevents reflections of the signal back into the amplifier. The bandwidth of the gain provided by a conventional EDFA is ca. 35 nm. One of the most important properties of the amplifier is its noise. The noise of the optical amplifier consists mostly of spontaneous emission. This noise is also amplified as it propagates in the amplifier, hence the output noise is called ASE noise (Amplified Spontaneous Emission). The signal to noise ratio is limited by ASE which is given by
PASE = nsp h s B0 (G 1) ,

(9)

where G is the gain of the amplifier, B0 is the optical bandwidth, s is the optical frequency, h is the Planck-constant and nsp is the spontaneous emission factor. The

S-108.199 OPTICAL COMMUNICATIONS AND INSTRUMENTS Laboratory exercise : Simulation of fiber optic links

magnitude of the spontaneous emission factor is around 1 for 980 nm pump lasers but its bigger for the pump wavelength of 1480 nm. Typical output spectrum from the EDFA is given in fig. 4. The input power is -20 dBm and the pump power 40 mW (16 dBm). The ASE noise is clearly visible and follows the gain profile of erbium. Peak of ASE is located near 1530 nm. This peak can be reduced with optical notch filters. In this case the optical signal to noise ratio is about 30 dB.
10 5 0 Output signal (dBm) -5 -10 -15 -20 -25 -30 -35 1520

1525

1530

1535

1540

1545

1550

1555

1560

1565

1570

Wavelength (nm )

Figure 4 The noise and signal spectrum of EDFA (VTT). Optical amplifiers are used after the transmitter as post-amlifiers to boost up the power launched into the fiber, in-line amplifiers to increase the signal in long spans and pre-amplifiers to increase the signal before the detection. Receiver and bit-error rate [Agrawal 4.5] The receiver of the optical fiber link is either a PIN- or avalanche photodiode (APD). 2 Photodiode generates a current proportional to the optical power I = E (t ) . If the bits are ideal they are always correctly detected. However, there are always fluctuations in the received bit levels. These fluctuations result from noise, relaxation oscillation of I the laser diode and dispersion induced distortion. The value of the bit at the zero or one state is not precisely defined, but is divided into a larger region given by a 1 I1 Gaussian distribution. This is illustrated in fig. 5. The average received photocurrents for zero and one ID states are given by I1 and I0. The decision level 0 I0 between 1 and 0 levels is denoted by ID. The variances of the Gaussian distributions are given by 1 and 0. The noise from different sources can be analytically determined. The sources of the noise include the receiver thermal noise, shot noise of the detector, Probability signal-ASE beat noise and ASE-ASE beat noise. The variances of these noises are given in the following Figure 5 Probabilities of zero and one state. form
Photocurrent

S-108.199 OPTICAL COMMUNICATIONS AND INSTRUMENTS Laboratory exercise : Simulation of fiber optic links
2 thermal = 4kTBe 2 shot = 2qPs Be 2 S ASE = Ps n sp Be 2 2 ASE ASE = n sp Be (2 B0 Be )

(10)

where k is the Bolzman constant, T is temperature, Be electrical bandwidth of the reciever, q is the charge of the electron, [mA/mW] is the responsivity of the photodetector, Ps the power of the signal, nsp is the spontaneous emission factor of the EDFA ( 1), and BO is the optical bandwidth. The total noise variation is given by
2 2 2 2 2 ttotal = thermal + shot + S ASE + ASE ASE .

(11)

The error probability that the receiving bit is decided to be 0 when 1 is actually received is P(0/1) and, vice versa, 1 when 0 is received is P(1/0). The expressions for these probabilities can be given by an integration of the Gaussian-probability

1 P(0 / 1) = 1 2

I I1 exp( 2 )dI 1
ID 2

I I0 1 P(1 / 0) = exp( )dI 0 2 I D 0 2 The bit-error-rate (BER) is now given by

1 BER = ( P (0 / 1) + P (1 / 0)) . 2

(12,13)

(14)

Now we will define a Q-factor, which is used for determination of the BER. The factor for the optimal decision point is defined by
Q= I1 I 0 . 1 + 0

(15)

Finally the expression for BER is given approximately as an Gaussian function

1 BER = e 2 . Q 2 Q2

(16)

This expression is reasonably accurate for Q > 3. The receiver sensitivity is defined as an average received power that is required to achieve a BER of 10-9. In the simulation program user gives few important parameters : ASE noise [mW/GHz], Optical- and electrical bandwidths B0 and Be, and the receiver sensitivity [dBm]. The desired link configuration is then simulated and the Q-parameter is calculated from the received eye-diagram and from the given noise parameters.

S-108.199 OPTICAL COMMUNICATIONS AND INSTRUMENTS Laboratory exercise : Simulation of fiber optic links

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Eye diagram One very often used display of the transmitted or received signal quality is the eye diagram. Typically in test measurements the bit-patterns are pseudorandom-bitsequences (PRBS). They consist of large string of bits, typically from 27-1 to 232-1 bits. These bits are generated such that their probability should match the probability of the telecommunication signal, which is totally random. The eye diagram is generated with an oscilloscope by triggering the scope to the clock or an frame signal syncronized to the PSBS-sequence. Now all the bit-sequences will be imposed on top of each other and an eye like diagram is displayed (Fig. 7). The eye opening is a useful parameter in determining the degradations of an optical link.
Simulation program GOLD

GOLD (Gigabit Optical Link Designer) is a piece of computer software which has been designed to simulate a wide variety of optical transmission systems. It can be used to investigate the impact on the transmission from various effects such as fiber dispersion, fiber nonlinearities and amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) accumulated from optical amplifiers. As an user interface GOLD uses LabVIEW. The GOLD libraries contain several optical components: Optical sources (such as a monochromatic tunable source, a semiconductor laser, an optical impulse source) Optical amplifiers (EDFA) Optical components (delays, switches, couplers, modulators) Optical filters (a Fabry-Perot filter, fiber Bragg grating) Optical fibers (linear, nonlinear, nonlinear including Raman scattering) Optical instrumentation (spectrum analyzers, power meters, photodetectors) Electrical components and instrumentation Utilities (file storage and retrieval) GOLD operates in the frequency domain (for high speed) and therefore requires the signal to be periodic. It provides estimations of the bit-error-rate (BER) and allows investigation of polarization effects for linear fibers. Finally, the software only includes forward traveling waves; reflections from one component back into another one are not taken into account.
Labview

The interface for the simulation program GOLD is LabVIEW which is a graphical programming language for controlling instruments and handling data. The purpose of this simulation work is not to learn the use LabVIEW, but still a brief introduction is given. There are two separate LabVIEW windows associated with each simulation: a block diagram window where the desired system is constructed by selecting components and wiring them together, and a front panel window which displays the simulation results e.g. in the form of a graph. The example of these windows is given in fig. 6 and fig. 7 where a simple optical link is given.

S-108.199 OPTICAL COMMUNICATIONS AND INSTRUMENTS Laboratory exercise : Simulation of fiber optic links

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Figure 6 Block diagram window of the simple fiber optic link

Figure 7 Front panel window of the simple fiber link showing laser spectrum and eye diagram after detection and filtering. The simulation parameters (laser current offset and amplitude, ASE PSD etc.) can be changed by selecting Show Tools Palette from Windows menu. Tools pallette has many symbols (Finger, Arrow, Letters, Wire), from these Finger allows the control of parameters and to change the scaling of figure axes, Arrow can be used to move objects and Wire to wire elements (only in Block Diagram Window).
References

1. G. P. Agrawal, Fiber-optic communication systems, Wiley, New York, 1992. 2. G. P. Agrawal, Nonlinear fiber optics 2.ed, Academic Press, 1995.

S-108.199 OPTICAL COMMUNICATIONS AND INSTRUMENTS Laboratory exercise : Simulation of fiber optic links

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S-108.199 OPTICAL COMMUNICATIONS AND INSTRUMENTS Laboratory exercise : Simulation of fiber optic links Appendix I Simulation procedure

13

All the files needed in this simulation are located in D:\Optical_Instruments\ The problems simulated are directly modulated laser and its dispersion penalty and comparison with externally modulated laser. These works have been designed to follow the procedures which are performed in testing the fiber optic links. The simplified configuration of the link under test is given in fig. 8.

PRBG

Tx Att

Rx

Figure 8 Test configuration of point-to-point link. PRBG stands for pseudo-randombit-generator, Tx is the optical transmitter, Att is an attenuator and Rx is an optical receiver.
1 Back-to-back sensitivity of a directly modulated laser.

In this simulation BER as a function of the received power is investigated. The configuration is called back-to-back because there are no optical components between the transmitter and the detector (exept for the attenuator). The launched power from the transmitter is set to 0 dBm, and the attenuation is tuned in the range 40-20 dB. The BER is detected with an automatic BER calculator using a method described previously. 1. First launch LabVIEW if it is not already open. 2. Open the file D:\Optical_Instruments\Dir_Mod_BER_Back_to_Back.vi. 3. Save the file as D:\Optical_Instruments\GroupNoXX.vi. You will see a Front panel window of this simulation. It contains a title 2.5 Gb/s USING A DIRECTLY MODULATED SEMICONDUCTOR LASER, four graphs which show the optical spectrum of the laser, received eye diagram, BER as a function of the received power and the waveform of the directly modulated laser, respectively. There are also controls for changing the parameters of the simulation e.g. ASE power, laser current offset and amplitude etc. Offset and amplitude are defined as in fig.1. Set the following parameters into controls : Receiver sensitivity Electrical receiver bandwidth Optical bandwidth ASE PSD Laser offset Laser amplitude Chirp parameter -35 dBm 1.7 GHz 200 GHz Value from the pre-exercise values from 15 mA to 35 mA with 5 mA steps 30 mA -5

S-108.199 OPTICAL COMMUNICATIONS AND INSTRUMENTS Laboratory exercise : Simulation of fiber optic links

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After the values are given the simulation can be launched by pressing an arrow in the left hand corner of the panel. From the display for BER write down the value of the received power giving BER of 10-12. You may scale the axes to get a more accurate reading. Do this for given laser offset values (15-35 mA). For each current value approximate the extinction ratio (in dB) from the received eye diagram. 4. Close this file (File: close).
2 Dispersion penalty of the directly modulated laser.

In this simulation the effects of the fiber dispersion are studied. The attenuation of the fiber is omitted. 1. Open the file Dir_Mod_BER_Fiber_length.vi. 2. Save the file as D:\Optical_Instruments\GroupNoXX_2.vi Set the same parameters to controls as in the first simulation. The attenuation control allows the user to adjust the received power level. By inserting some value in dB:s, there will be exactly the same received optical power (in -dBm). 3. Set the attenuator value to match the power that gave BER 10-12 in the previous simulation. 4. Launch the simulation You can follow the evolution of the pulse as it propagates in fibers of length 0-400 km. Also the BER curve as a function of the fiber length will be displayed. The changes in the eye diagram are clearly visible. Dispersion penalty is defined as an increase in power that is required to reach the same BER as in back-to-back configuration. Decrease the attenuation to find the power that gives the same BER as in back-to-back measurement. Estimate the dispersion penalty for 100 km of fiber for each offset current. You can reduce the length of the simulation by reducing the number of simulated loops (for example you can simulate only 100 km of fiber). Ask the assistant for help.
3 Back-to-back sensitivity of an externally modulated laser.

This simulation is the same as the simulation 1 with the exception that an external modulator is used. 1. Open file Ext_mod_Back_to_back.vi 2. Save the file as D:\Optical_Instruments\GroupNoXX_3 In this simulation only the parameters for calculating the BER can be modified. The only modulator parameter that can be changed is the chirp parameter. The extinction ratio of this modulator is infinite. Set the same parameters as in the simulations of the directly modulated laser. Simulate the BER as a function of the received power.

S-108.199 OPTICAL COMMUNICATIONS AND INSTRUMENTS Laboratory exercise : Simulation of fiber optic links 4 Dispersion penalty of the externally modulated laser.

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In this simulation the dispersion penalty of an external modulator is investigated. 1. Open file Ext_mod_Fiber_length.vi 2. Save the file as D:\Optical_Instruments\GroupNoXX_4.vi Check that the simulation parameters are the same as in the previous simulation. Decrease the attenuation and find the dispersion penalty for 150 km of fiber for five different chirp values (-2 to 2). 3. Close the files and answer the questions.

S-108.199 OPTICAL COMMUNICATIONS AND INSTRUMENTS Laboratory exercise : Simulation of fiber optic links

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Exercises
Exercises must be calculated before coming to the laboratory. If you have problems do not hesitate to ask assistance from xxx xxxx Email:xxx.xxxx@hut.fi Phone: 451 xxxx

1. What is the relation between dBm and mW? 2. Estimate the typical power spectral density (PSD) of ASE noise in the signal wavelength from fig. 4. Express it in units [mW/GHz]. The resolution bandwidth of the optical spectrum analyzer is 0.25 nm. 3. Compare this PSD with the value given by eq. 9. All the needed parameters are given in the figure or in the text. 4. Explain which are the noise terms in eq. 10 that contribute to the noise of the received bits 1 and 0, respectively. 5. Calculate the Q parameter that gives BER of 10-9. 6. Estimate the extinction ratio from the eye-diagram in fig.7. 7. Use eq. 2.3.6 from [1] to calculate the dispersion limited maximum fiber length for 2.5 Gbit/s pulses at =1550 nm. The transform limited bandwidth of the pulses is ca. 4 GHz. (eq. 2.3.6 is written as BLD<1, where B=bit-rate, L=fiber length, D=dispersion, =bandwidth [nm])

S-108.199 OPTICAL COMMUNICATIONS AND INSTRUMENTS Laboratory exercise : Simulation of fiber optic links Appendix II : Simulation answer sheet

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Date and time Names

: :

Simulation 1
1 Back-to-back sensitivity of a directly modulated laser.
-3 0 .0 -3 0 .5 -3 1 .0 -3 1 .5
Sensitivity [dBm]

-3 2 .0 -3 2 .5 -3 3 .0 -3 3 .5 -3 4 .0 -3 4 .5 -3 5 .0 15 20 25 O ffs e t c u rre n t [m A ] 30 35

Calculate and write the extinction ratios and sensitivities for each current value in section 2 below the offset current values

2 Dispersion penalty of a directly modulated laser. Offset current 15 mA Extiction ratio [dB] Sensitivity [dBm] (BER 10-12) Sensitivity [dBm] after 150 km (BER 10-12) Dispersion penalty [dB] 20 mA 25 mA 30 mA 35 mA

Check the question 1 and 2 from page 2

Simulation 2

S-108.199 OPTICAL COMMUNICATIONS AND INSTRUMENTS Laboratory exercise : Simulation of fiber optic links 3 Back-to-back sensitivity of an externally modulated laser.

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For this modulator the optical transfer function is given by Pout(t)=Pinsin2(V(t)/2) and the phase shift by ejCV(t), where C is the chirp parameter and V(t) the drive voltage. Power for BER 10-12 : ________________dBm

Does the chirp parameter affect the power ? ___________________ Does the chirp parameter affect the optical spectrum ? ___________________

4 Dispersion penalty of an externally modulated laser. Chirp parameter Power [dBm] After 150 km (BER 10-12) Dispersion penalty [dB] -2 -1 0 1 2

Questions

1. How does the laser spectrum change when offset is changed? 2. What is an optimum laser offset (or extinction ratio) for 100 km propagation in SM-fiber? 3. Is there differences in the optical spectrum for chirp parameters 2 and 2? How does the chirp parameter affect in fiber propagation?

1.

2.

3.