CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION
Twenty first century is the era of advanced Information technology. Particularly,
optical fiber communication plays a vital role in the development of high value and
high-speed telecommunication systems. Fiber optic communication is a way of
exchanging the information between two places by sending the light signal through
the optical fiber cable. Fiber optic communication brought the innovative change
in the telecommunication industry.Also there is no cross talk introduced in optical
fibers as these are present in case of electrical transmission lines. The demand for
optical fiber has grown enormously and optical-fiber applications are abundant.
Telecommunication applications are extensive, ranging from global networks to
desktop computers. These involve the transmission of voice, information or video
over distances of meters to hundreds of kilometers.

1.1Importance of Optical Communication

The role of optical transmitter is to convert an electrical input signal into the equivalent
optical signal. LEDs and laser diodes are temperature sensitive when considering
overall life span, for example, laser diode operating at 10 C temperature higher than
rated will half the life of the diode. Also a laser normally will stop its functioning at
100C temperature. The degradation modes that result in failures or slow degradation
of these devices can be modeled using Arrhenius relationships where each
degradation mode carries specific activation energy. With increase in temperature or
with time lasers starts degrading.

1.2 VERTICAL CAVITY SURFACE EMITTING LASER

A vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL) is a particular laser diode that
guarantees to transform fiber optic communications by remolding its efficiency and
increasing data speed.
The vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser, or VCSEL, is a type of semiconductor laser
diode with laser beam emission perpendicular from the top surface,opposing to
1

conventional edge-emitting semiconductor lasers (also in-plane lasers) which liberate

from surfaces shaped by cleaving the individual chip out of a wafer.
There are some advantages to produce VCSELs, in difference to the production process
of edge-emitting lasers. Edge-emitters cannot be tested till the production process ends.
VCSELs nevertheless, can be tested at various stages during the process to ensure
material quality and processing issues. Also, VCSELs release the beam perpendicular to
the active area of the laser as opposed to parallel as with an edge emitter, tens of
thousands of VCSELs can be processed concurrently on a three inch Gallium Arsenide
wafer. The advantages of VCSELs over in-plane lasers can be classified into two
categories: cost and performance.
1.) VCSELs are easier to test and package as device testing and burn-in can be done
directly on wafer, thus allowing for automation for such processes.
2.) Fiber coupling to VCSELs is more resourceful due to its circular shape, vertically
lasing action and small numerical aperture of the output beam.
3.) The VCSELs naturally consistsof smaller active region volumes and extremely high
reflective mirrors, compared to in-plane lasers, allow the laser to attain lower
threshold currents. These requirements are better met by VCSELs than in-plane lasers.
The first vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) was reported by Japanese
scientists in 1979. Due to technical difficulties the VCSEL did not bloom until the
early 1990s, where improvements in epitaxial growth technology made the growth of
wafers for VCSEL fabrication cheaper and more reliable. Since then the VCSEL has
evolved rapidly, and it has penetrated the short-range data-communication market.
Future possible applications include laser line-of-sight data-communication, in which
parallel data communication between e.g. two high buildings is performed using
VCSEL arrays, optical interconnects, in which VCSELs are used for internal data
transfer in computers, high-density optical storage, such as CD- and DVD burning, and
laser printing, all of which require high output powers and good output beam
characteristics. Such lasers may be used for pumping of Erbium-doped fiber amplifiers
(EDFAs) and may therefore be able to penetrate the telecommunication market. The
technology behind such VCSELs is very well established; they are implemented
2

using AlAs, GaAs, AlGaAs and InGaAs semiconductor materials, the technology of
which is very grown-up. In this section the oxide-confined VCSEL structure is
introduced. The optical properties are described along with the merits and demerits of
such VCSELs, and a brief summary is provided. Several different VCSEL schemes
exist, the most successful being the oxide confined VCSEL. This structure has
demonstrated record low threshold current and wall-plug efficiencies, i.e. electrical-tooptical power conversion efficiencies, better than 55%. In this VCSEL scheme both
electrical- and optical confinement is achieved by an oxide aperture near the active
layer. The oxide, shown as a thin, black line above the optical cavity in the figure, is
non-conductive and the current is therefore guided through the aperture in the
center of the VCSEL. This effective current confinement allows for high internal
quantum efficiency, i.e. a large fraction of the current injected into the laser generates
carriers in the active region. Also, the oxide has a much lower refractive index than
the material in the center of the aperture (n=1.6 vs. n=3.2), and the aperture therefore
confines the optical field to the center of the VCSEL.
The top- and bottom mirrors in the oxide-confined VCSEL are distributed Bragg
reflectors (DBRs), which provide very high reflectivitys. The DBRs and the substrate,
upon which the VCSEL is fabricated, are doped to allow for current transportation
through the laser. The thin aperture layer, shown in black directly above the optical
cavity, provides both electrical- and optical confinement, and thereby defines the
diameter of the optical output beam. To achieve such high reflectivity distributed
Bragg reflectors (DBRs) are used. DBRs consist of many layers of alternating
refractive index, so that at each interface there is a small reflection.

Figure 1.1The oxide-confined VCSEL emitting through the top DBR.

Figure 1.2 Three periods of a distributed Bragg reflector, with layers of alternating
refractive index, providing small reflections at each layer interface.
VCSEL's have many advantages due to its small size and single longitudinal mode,
Due to which it is easy to test on wafer. Due to increasing demand of data rates
there are greater advancements in the characteristics of the laser which include output
optical power. For reliable operation of the laser at high temperatures it is necessary to
compensate the effects of the increase in temperature.With increase in temperature gain
peak is shifted with respect to temperature, which results indecrease in the output
power of the laser. Fig 1.3 shows the temperature effects with rise in temperature on
the gain peak and output wavelength of the laser.

Figure 1.3 Optical gain as function of the emission wavelength with the
MQW temperature as a parameter[10]

Figure 1.4 Showing characteristics with temperature as parameter [11]

Figure 1.4 shows that output power is varied with respect to driving current. It is
observed that by keeping current constant temperature is varying that results in
significant reduction in the output power. This loss in output power can be overcome by
increasing driving current. Meanwhile, rise in the current decreases the life period of
the laser.

1.3FREE SPACE OPTICAL COMMUNICATION

Free Space Optical Communication is the technology in the optical communication
system in which the light travelling in free space is used to transmit data wirelessly for
computer networking or telecommunication. Free space can be air, outer space,
vacuum .The free space optical (FSO) communication is very helpful in the area where
physical links cannot be installed either due to high costs or some other reasons.
Free Space optical communication or simply Optical Wireless communication is an
emerging technology for the next generation broadband wireless applications for both
indoor and outdoor applications. The applications can be divided into two types that are
short range applications and long range applications. Wireless communication links that
provides network access to portable computers comes under short range applications.
5

The main advantage of FSO technology lies in the fact that it does not require any
licensed optical wavelengths for the communication. FSO technology offers optical
wireless communication using unlicensed optical wavelengths. However there is one
natural factor that weakens the performance of FSO communication link and that is the
atmosphere, since the variations in the atmospheres temperature and pressure causes
the variation of the refractive index along the path of the transmission. This variation in
the refractive index results in fading of the transmitted signal. In FSO communication,
the faded links cause the degradation in the performance which can be clearly noticed
as increased Bit error Rate (BER), decreased SNR . FSOtechnology is also emerging as
a key technology for the communication and surveillance systems which can be
deployed rapidly and provide secure communication. These systems can cooperate with
other technologies that can provide advanced, robust sensor communication network.

1.4 BACKGROUND OF FSO

The optical communication had been used for thousands of years. The polished shields
were used by the ancient Greeks to send signals at the time of battle by reflecting the
sunlight. The worlds first wireless telephone transmission was conducted by Bell on 3 rd
June, 1880 among two buildings which were 213 meters afar. But the first practical use
of wireless telephone came in existence as optical telegraphy in military communication
systems after many decades of Bells experiment.
In the World War 1, when the wire communication was cut, the German signals used
optical Morse transmitters called blinkgerat which can communicate upto 4 Km to 8 km
in daylight and at night time respectively. The special types of blinkgerats were used to
communicate with airplanes, tanks and balloons. The optical telephone communication
was tested after the end of the war.
During the World War 2, Carl Zeiss Jena industrialized optical speaking device that
German army used in anti-aircraft resistance units or in bunkers at the Atlantic Wall.
The contraption of Lasers in 1960s helped to bring revolution in free space optics which
helped to boost the development of military organizations particularly.

The fiber optic cable networks of today that are found everywhere which are attempting
to use lasers for wireless communication is a major step to get rid of fixed and costlier
cable installation.

1.5 COMPARISON OF FSO AND RF TECHNOLOGIES

Generally wireless technology is always combined with radio frequency (RF)
transmission. For certain applications, the transmission of signals other than RF carriers
like optical waves can provide better results. The high bandwidth availability of FSO
technology can hand over wireless extensions to internet backbones which will provide
services to users.
In addition to this, secure channels having low probability of interception can be
achieved by using narrow divergence and directional laser beams with FSO technology.
The narrow FSO beams have the capability of obstruction penetrating. For example,
data rates in Gbpshaving beam divergence of 0.1 rad can easily penetrate dense fog up
to a Kilometer of distance. Although FSO has so many advantages but it has some
limitations also. As FSO link uses line of vision path to communicate among transmitter
and receiver, so it will be subjected to the atmospheric disturbances or turbulences and
the disturbances caused by the clouds, rain, haze, fog and snow which causes
degradation in performance and also sometimes connection loss. FSO links have
relatively short range as noise from the surrounding light is high. The Table 1.1 depicts
the main variation between FSO and RF technology.
Table 1.1 Comparison in RF & FSO links
Parameters
Network
Architecture
Data Rate

RF Link

FSO link

Non Scalable

Scalable

Less than 100 Mbps

100
Gbps

Component
Dimensions
Channel Security

Large

Small

Low

High
7

Mbps

to

Source of Signal
Multipath
fading,
Atmospheric
Degradation
rain and user interference
Disturbances, rain, fog,
haze, snow
It is clear from the Table 1.1 that FSO communication cannot replace RF
communication but FSO communication and RF communication can exist
simultaneously. Hybrid RF/FSO network will couple the advantages of both the
networks and the disadvantages of FSO and RF network can be avoided. Even if FSO
networks cannot provide communication everlasting time but the accumulate data rates
in these networks is greater than RF networks because the RF network alone does not
have so much bandwidth. Thus, if both FSO and RF networks are combined, then the
hybrid wireless networks can provide high capacity and maximum availability.

1.6 TECHNOLOGIES AND ITS USAGE IN FSO

Since LEDs can be used for less data rate communications over small distances
although in free space point-to-point optical communication can be carried out by using
infrared laser light. To communicate between the spacecrafts free space optics is very
helpful. The maximum range for earthy links in free space optical communication is 2
Km to 3 Km but environment factors like rain, fog, haze and heat affects the stability
and quality of the communication link.By using lasers radiation source, one can achieve
very high data rates as that of fiber communication. In 2013, MOSTCOM Company
produced a wireless communication system called Arto-link M1-10G which has data
rate of 10 Gbps and can communicate up to a distance of 2.5 Km.

1.7ADVANTAGES OF FSO
When a new technology of communication comes into existence, all its advantages and
disadvantages must be taken into the account. Among many advantages of the free
space optical communication, the first one is its less cost. In FSO, there is no need for
optic fiber cable installation and no security upgrades are required. The system can be
easily upgraded and there is no need of license.
The next advantage of FSO is high speed of transmission of FSO system. High speed
can be achieved as transmission of signals through air is faster as compared to the
8

optical fiber cables. The signals are transmitted in line of sight path from one wireless
station to another wireless station. Another advantage of FSO system is that it is
immune to RF interference. In FSO system, the interference of information by RF is
minimized. Hence, the signal is disturbed by a very small amount. The other advantages
of FSO system are as follows:

Easy to deploy

Bit error rate is less

Can operate in full duplex mode

Transparent protocol

Use of narrow beam increases security

1.8DISADVANTAGES OF FSO
When we count the number of advantages and disadvantages, a lot of disadvantages
appear. FSO system can be affected by atmospheric turbulences and different weather
conditions.
Haze, rain and snow are the main factors that cause interference in the wireless optical
communication. This is the main problem when transmission distance is large. The
main reason for interference is the moisture present in the air due to fog, rain and snow.
Presence of moisture in fog, rain and snow causes reflection, absorption and scatters
thesignals. The strength of the signal is decreased due to the absorption. Due to
scattering, the signal spreads in different directions with the same signal strength.
The physical obstructions are another disadvantage of FSO system. The physical
obstructions can be temporary like birds, crane and buildings sway caused by the
earthquakes. Scintillation occurs due to heat from the earth and manmade materials can
also be a problem for the transmission of the signal. The left out disadvantages of FSO
are enlisted below

Dispersion of the beam

Scintillation

Background light sources cause interference

9

The above are the disadvantages of free space optics, after discussing both the
advantages and disadvantages of FSO (free space optics), it is concluded that the
advantages of the free space optics overcomes the above disadvantages .So free space
optics can be a reliable and cheaper method for the wireless communication

1.9 APPLICATIONS AND SECURITY IN FSO

It is important that applications and security of FSO should be explored while the use of
wireless optics is considered. The applications of FSO system are as under.
The major use of FSO is in the Navy and Air force where the communication between
the different ships and planes can be accomplished by the use of FSO.
The important use of FSO these days is in public and private areas. Many universities
and companies are using FSO for the last mile communication as fiber cables cannot
provide the last mile communication. The use of FSO also offers other companies and
universities/institutions to connect and communicate with each other. Hence, this type
of communication is for short distances.
The other fields of applications of FSO include colleges, hospitals, government, cities,
corporations and building to building communication. FSO helps to maintain a safe and
secure environment. The main security issue in FSO is the interception of the signal.
FSO uses a narrow signal for transmission of the data as wide signal is easy to intercept
and the signal remains narrow throughout the transmission. The transmitted signal can
be interrupted due to many reasons before it is detected at the receiver. This is another
security risk when using FSO as it will terminate the transmission of the signal. This
can be removed by detecting the signal behind the receiver that receives the signal. The
side lobes are absent in FSO transmission which causes the wastage of energy at the
side lobes and back of the signals. The energy lost due to side lobes has same energy as
the signal has and this can be intercepted by the others. The other applications of FSO
are as under:

For installation of temporary network

For high speed Ethernet or gigabit Ethernet speeds LAN-to-LAN connections on

campuses

10

To eliminate the barriers such as private property and other similar barriers
which the sender and receiver do not own

To communicate between inter and intra chip

To reduce time for reconnecting high speed connection.

As a substitute to wireless technologies

Voice-Data connection

CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE REVIEW
Kaler [1] presents importance of temperature of vertical cavity surface emitting laser
(VCSEL)on its output power. It is noticed that with increase in the temperature of laser
its output power decreases. It is also noticed that with increase in laser output power
there is decrease in threshold voltage. But again, rise in drive current decreases life
period of the laser.
Kuchta [2] presents that a directly modulated 850nm VCSEL-based optical link
operating free of error (BER < 1E-12) at 64 GB/s over 57m of OM4 multimode fiber.
At 60 GB/s, the error free distance increases to 107m.
The author in [3] give their ideas on temperature dependence of the performance
characteristics of latest generation high-speed oxide confined 850-nm vertical cavity
surface-emitting lasers. By using a 7-m oxide aperture diameter VCSEL, they
demonstrate a maximum modulation bandwidth of 27 GHz at room temperature and 21
GHz at 85 C.
Rylyakov [4] reported a complete VCSEL optical link operating at 40-Gb/s (BER<1012) with an eye opening of 0.56 UI and 6 dB of link margin. Transmitter pre-distortion
enables substantial improvements in speed, jitter, and link margin.
Kocot et al. [5]presents a directly modulated 850nm VCSEL-based optical link
operating at 56.1Gb/s (BER < 1E-12). This is the maximum modulation rate for a
VCSEL-based link of any wavelength. In this, we obtained open eye at 60 GB/s.

11

The authors in

[6] have investigated the fading resistant OFDM-FSO system

employing OSSB and ODSB schemes under clear weather conditions. The data rates of
transmitted data are 1 Gbps, 5 Gbps and 1 Tbps enhanced by employing coherent
detection over FSO link. Also in this work, OSSB and ODSB schemes are compared to
report the best scheme that can be used in CO-OFDM-FSO system which can achieve
acceptable BER and SNR at 1 Tbps high data rates. The coherent detection in the
system helps to reduce interference and also cost of the system can be reduced
significantly. The author has used FFT for modulation in his system which provides
orthogonality to the subcarriers that helps to prevent demodulator to see the frequencies
other than its own. The authors have concluded that the coherent OFDM-FSO system
performs better than the direct detected OFDM-FSO system having acceptable BER
over FSO link.
The authors in [7] describes the design of FSO link that integrates OFDM and FSO
system at high transmission data rates under clear weather conditions .The performance
of this hybrid system is evaluated using ODSB, OSSB and OTSB schemes. Direct
detection method is used to detect the transmitted signal .It has been proved that the
hybrid OFDM-FSO links performs better than traditional FSO systems having
acceptable BER and SNR. The authors have also indicated that OTSB performs better
than ODSB and OSSB performs intermediate of both OTSB and ODSB under clear
weather conditions.
Wakamovi et al. [8] the author have presented the design concept and performance
evaluation of radio on FSO (RoFSO) system .The experimental RoFSO system have
resulted in satisfactory reliability and stability when the authors used quality parameters
that have been defined for different RF signals. The radio on free space optics
communication (RoFSO) is one of the latest emerging technologies. The multiple RF
signals using WDM technology can be transmitted simultaneously using RoFSO
technology. Further the convergence of fiber and free space optical communication
networks can be enabled by applying RoFSO technology. Hence, the broadband
connectivity can be extended to underserved areas. The RoFSO system provides
multiple wireless services in underserved areas, low bandwidth services and to the areas
where installation of new network is very costly. The goal of authors work is to
12

develop a RoFSO system which can transmit multiple RF signals simultaneously and
can be operated in strong atmospheric turbulences.
The authors in[9] reports a design of ODSB-FSO system which employs OFDM
modulation scheme. This fading resistant FSO system is used to compute FSO range
having acceptable SNR and BER at the data rate as high as 5 Gbps under different
weather conditions that are fog, haze and clear weather conditions. The author has made
efforts to investigate the effect of these atmospheric conditions by designing a high
speed long reach FSO link which is free from the effects of multipath fading by
introducing OFDM scheme. The author has concluded that a higher bit rate is achieved
with an increased FSO link in a high speed hybrid OFDM-ODSB-FSO system.
Rafai[10] has demonstrated transmission of modulated RF analog signals over an FSO
link. The performance parameters of FSO link and fiber optic link configured in same
manner have also been compared. The optical fiber has many advantages over coaxial
cable for transmission of radio frequency (RF) signals. The optical fiber has less loss,
supports signals that demands high bandwidth, immune to electromagnetic interference
and has less size and weight. Free space optics communication is an emerging
technology which uses modulated light to transmit digital signals for civilian
application as well as for military applications. The results of this paper includes
measurement of optical power ,reflection response, transmission response, group delay,
carrier to noise ratio (CNR) and dynamic range. This paper indicates that for RF
transmission over short distances fiber optics link can be replaced by FSO.
Kazaura et al. [11] proposes a method to estimate an FSO links operating rate at
Western Kanto area in Japan. In this area, mostly rain is the main reason for
performance degradation of FSO system. In this method, performance is calculated on
the basis of analysis of recorded rain intensity and visibility data. FSO link is influenced
by several atmospheric factors like fog, rain and snow. So while designing a FSO
communication system, weather dependence of the system must be considered. It has
been deduced from the experiment that FSO link operating rate can be estimated by a
technique that can estimates only short term FSO link performance. The authors have
concluded that estimated FSO link operating rate compiles with the experimental
results. The author has studied the effects of snow, rain and fog on FSO/RF hybrid
13

network as a result of which RF frequencies having best results can be used for backup
link.
The authors in [12] said that free space optics (FSO) can provide high data rates for
bandwidth limited applications. But FSO communication links are highly affected by
different weather conditions and these different weather conditions reduce link
availability to the different extends. The hybrid network having an FSO link and a
backup RF link offers high availability with high data rates. Concluding the paper,
authors have suggested that a free space optical link can be supplemented with 40 GHz
RF link for near carrier class availability.
Vaiopovlos et al. [13] construct a simple and adequate scenario to investigate radio
transmission over optical wireless channels by considering WiMAX standard i.e.
IEEE802.16. The optical wireless systems can be a good alternative where the
deployment of optical fibers is difficult or the installation cost is high. In this paper, the
channel model that has some of the parameters of optical channel i.e. attenuation,
atmospheric turbulences, pointing error effects and also some of the RF channel like
path loss, shadowing and Rayleigh fading is taken into account to carry out the
experiment. Feasibility of the proposed architecture was studied with realistic values of
the parameters.
The authors in [14] discuss about internal and external parameters upon which the
performance of FSO system depends. Also the mitigation techniques of degradations of
FSO link have been discussed. Free Space Optics is one of thecurrent emerging
technology which do not require any spectrum licensing or any frequency coordination
with other users. FSO provides secure transmission as the interception is negligible
which can be obtained by using point to point laser signals. The performance of FSO
link is degraded by external parameters by the process of absorption and scattering by
atmospheric molecules and aerosols present in the atmospheric channel.After analyzing
different degrading factors in FSO link and its mitigation techniques the authors have
concluded that the important factors that are main reason of attenuation of power in
FSO link are rain drops and its size, fog and atmospheric turbulences. The optimization
of FSO link having acceptable attenuation can be done by proper selecting visibility,
14

size distribution of scattering particles, optical transmission power, bit rate, operating
wavelength and antennas aperture .
The use of FSO link to transmit modulated radio frequency (RF) analog signal is
reported by Rafai et al. [15]. Free Space Optics is a technology in which the
information is transmitted by using modulated optical beam through atmospheric
channel. Today, the main research and development of FSO is the transmission of
digital signal to the end users mainly and to the areas where fiber optics cannot be
reached. The main advantages of FSO are high security and low electromagnetic
interference. Over FSO, RF signals offer minimum distortion. The author has concluded
that FSO is suitable for transmitting RF signals. The measurement of parameters like
transmission response, reflection response, SNR and group delay gives the results in
favor of FSO. Thus the establishment of direct line of sight can provide a good FSO
link to transmit modulated RF analog signals to short distances and this FSO link can be
replaced by fiber optic links.
The author in [16] discuss the extend of limited range of FSO systems, use of relays is
one of the options which increase performance of FSO systems. But several factors like
atmospheric conditions strongly influence the performance of FSO systems. So there is
a great demand of strongly connected networks. Authors of the paper have discussed
about the performance of a multi-hop FSO network in which nodes/transceivers are at
fixed place on a given path link under the influence of different weather conditions like
rain, fog and snow . Taking a particular path loss model, the authors have also derived
expressions for node isolation probability. Also the number of transceivers for a
particular path link has been calculated for reliable performance. For a particular
number of FSO transceivers, the total transmission length has been calculated. In the
presence of thick fog having visibility of 50 m, the network requires 15 nodes to
transmit the signal to a distance of 1km.
The authors in [17] validate that the performance of Free Space Optics systems is
dependent on weather conditions and also on FSO link parameters like transmitted
optical power, receiver sensitivity, beam divergence and link distance. Absorption,
scattering and turbulence are the phenomena in atmosphere which affects signal
transmission but in case of FSO system performance, only scattering and turbulence are
15

appropriate to be taken into account. The authors have used Rytov scintillation theory to
calculate power loss caused by turbulence and attenuation due to scattering.
The authors in [18] explain that free Space Optical communication (FSO) can be used
as an alternative to radio frequency communication over the last two decades. This
introductory paper provides an analysis of confrontation that a system designer will face
while designing of FSO transmission system. The improvements and failures along the
path while travelling from transmitter to receiver through the channel have been
introduced during the study. This paper focuses on outdoor FSO link, some basic link
models and some simple atmosphere models. FSO system results better due to laser
beam characteristics like its huge frequency, coherence and small divergence due to that
power delivery to a receiver is efficient and increase capacity of the system. The
performance of outdoor FSO links is degraded mainly due to attenuation and fluctuation
of optical signal. To improve reliability, a hybrid FSO/RF system can be applied which
increases link availability. Considering the advantages and disadvantages of FSO, it has
good prospects for implementation in terrestrial links, mobile links and satellite links.
In [19] author discuss about three adaptive modulation scheme are considered-ficklerate fickle-power adaptation, channel conversion and truncated channel conversion
schemes. The results show that a simple channel conversion scheme performs better in
low turbulence region as compared to other modulation scheme and faces degradation
in performance in high turbulence region. Further adaptive coding based on low density
parity check coded (LDPC) modulation is study. The setup shows that the proposed
scheme can tolerate deep fades in strong turbulence region and adaptive LDPC coded
modulation provides communication in saturation region. The spectral efficiency for
adaptive modulation and adaptive coding has also been determined.
The author in [20] discuss radio on free space optical technology (RoFSO) is recently
regarded as a universal platform for convergence of fiber and free space optical
communication networks which extends broadband connectivity to underserved areas.
In this paper, demonstration of advanced RoFSO system is presented which can
transmit the Japanese integrated services digital broadcasting terrestrial signals at a
range of 1 km distance. This innovative system combines full optical FSO system with
radio over fiber technology. The performance parameters such as modulation error ratio
16

and bit error rate are analyzed for characterizing deployment environment that influence
ISDB-T signal transmission over FSO link. The results obtained from this experiment
can be useful in prediction, designing and evaluation of RoFSO system over turbulent
FSO links. The results predict that when atmospheric turbulence is absent, then
RoFSOlink can transmit OFDM based digital TV signals efficiently. The RoFSO
system can be used effectively as a reliable alternative for wireless broadband
technology in areas where optical fibers cannot be deployed.
Chan [21] has discussed about Free Space Optical communication and considered its
high cost and also have mentioned some methods to reduce the cost of FSO systems.
With demonstration of FSO system in laboratory, space and atmosphere, it is clear that
the technology is ready for operational deployment. These experiments have shown that
this technology is successful but it cost is too high due to some considerations. There
are two types of deployment which can reduce cost of FSO system. The first one is
improvement of physical link communication efficiency by using photon counting
receivers for vacuum channels which will reduce weight, system complexity and power
for space systems. The second method is to use coherent systems in links in which air
turbulence decreases efficiency of communication system and in multiple access
applications in which coherent detection will reduce interference and system cost
reduction can be realized.
Shieh et al. [22] propose coherent optical orthogonal frequency division multiplexing
(CO-OFDM) for optical transmission which can encounter dispersion in optical media.
The paper shows that without dispersion, single mode fiber can transmit a 10Gbps
signal up to 3000 km with optical SNR penalty below than 2 dB without any dispersion
compensation. Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing is investigated for
combating RF multipath fading and has been carry out in digital communication
standards like wireless local area network standards. In this paper an optical equivalent
of RF OFDM which is called as coherent optical OFDM in fiber media has been
discussed to combat dispersion. The CO-OFDM may be a different method for
electrical predistortion with an additional advantage of increase range.

17

CHAPTER 3
PROBLEM FORMULATION AND OBJECTIVES
For deployment of communication systems, operators are encouraged to invest on a
optical fiber infrastructure. Incorporating VCSEL lasers offers a better solution to
reduce

the

cost

of

current

architectures.

Although

Optical

fiber

based

telecommunication and free space technology is mature for backbone networks, its user
handling capacity is good for longer transmission distance that is the reason it is still
considered for networks. Therefore, there is still a need to solutions for OFDM for
future networks in terms of performance and cost.
First From literature survey, we come across a number of suggested ways come but the
issues with implementation of these ways inspires us to look forward for solution which
in itself should not be a problem to increase Data rate and decrease the cost of system.
Discussions of these solutions include:
From literature review we came across various suggestions to increase Data rate and
users like:
1) VCSEL laser are cost effective and line width falls in between laser and led
source. However, VCSEL is prone to temperature effects and degrades
performance with the increase of temperature. Moreover Physical parameters of
VCSEL studied and optimized so far, But the combined effects of one parameter
in order to improve performance which effected by another parameter has not
been studied till date.

2) VCSEL OFDM transmission links are designed for short range application and
less data rates. However correct design of VCSEL laser and optical fiber may
enhance the total system reach.

3) In reported work, as VCSEL direct modulation suffered to dispersion effects in

18

coherent OFDM system, no dispersion compensation is used to extend the reach of

system.

3.1OBJECTIVES
1) Performance enhancement of directly modulated VCSEL system by optimizing
laser parameters.
2) Investigation of CO-OFDM system using VCSEL for long reach systems
employing symmetrical dispersion compensation modules.

3) Comparative analysis of coherent detection OFDM over free space with

improved and unimproved VCSEL.

3.2RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research Methodology that will be taken to complete the project is described as under:
The first step will be designing and simulation of the OFDM-ROF and OFDM-ROFSO
system. After this more work will be done on the system for better results. This will be
done by using OptiwavesOptisystem software. Firstly the study about software will be
done. The optisystem software provides easy handling capacity, flexibility moreover
this software is powerful and fast. The optisystem allows users to plan, test and simulate
the following:
1

WDM/TDM or CATV network design.

Transmitter design, Channel and Receiver design.

Dispersion map design.

Estimation of BER and system penalties with different Data rates and
Amplifiers.

Amplified system BER and link budget calculations.

19

The optisystem components library introduces hundreds of components that permit to

enter parameters that can be measured from real devices. We can cover new
components based on subsystems and user-defined libraries, or utilize co-simulation
with a third party tool such as MATLAB or SPICE.
In order to predict the performance of system, optisystem considers parameters such as
OSNR and Q factor using numerical analysis for systems that are used to minimize the
effect of Intersymbol Interference(ISI)and noise. Optisystem allow us to cover variety
of modulators, filters, WDM systems and lot more components .This allows data to
process after simulation without recalculating. An inconsistent number of visualizers
can be attached to the monitor at the same time.
In optisystem software, the parameters such as Data rate,different modulators,signal
power etc are varied and then used to study system performance. The BER analyzer and
WDM analyzer, the two visualizers will be used for analysis, where the system Qfactor, and eye diagrams will be obtained. And the graphs between Q-factor,power will
be plotted.

20

CHAPTER 4
PERFORMANCE ENHANCEMENT OF VCSEL BY
OPTIMIZING LASER PARAMETERS
In this chapter VCSEL laser parameters are optimized to enhance the performance of
the system. Vertical cavity surface emitting lasers plays an important role in current
system designs for optical communication. These laser are demonstrated and used for
optical inter connections as a light medium.

4.1 INTRODUCTION
VCSEL (Vertical cavity surface emitting laser) lasers can support many applications
such as information transfer, optical computing. Advantages of VCSEL laser brings it
into light of researchers, due to short cavity and small beam divergence. Now days as
work has been done on laser parameters such as temperature, bias current and slope
efficiency. For the VCSEL laser, circuit should be temperature independent where there
is no temperature control circuit. Effect of temperature degrades the performance and
raise the derive current.
The rise in temperature is mainly due to (a) self heating (b) thermal crosstalk produce in
instantaneous operation of array devices, and (c) changes in enclosing temperature.

4.2 SYSTEM SETUP

In this workperformance analysis of VCSEL laser has been studied by varying
temperature, cavity volume and bias current. A PRBS is used to generate a random data
of 10Gbps followed by modulator driver NRZ. A VCSEL Laser has been used which is
operating at 1310 nm where temperature, bias current and cavity volume are varied and
corresponding results are taken. A fork 1x2 is used whose input is driven from VCSEL
laser and is split into two parts. The signal at the output is split with the use of splitter
and provide to power meter and optical receiver separately. After this, power meter is
21

used to calculate the optical power at the output.At the side of receiver the photodiode
is used for optical to electrical conversion. The detector at receiver is PIN photodiode
with dark current 10nA and responsivity 1 A/W.
To examine the behaviour of laser temperature oflaser is varied. Then output is plotted
adjacent to temperature, bias current and cavity volume. To compensate the effect of
temperature on the output of the laser a compensating parameter cavity volume of the
laser is varied.WDM analyzer is kept at the receiver side for output to examine the
OSNR values as shown in fig 4.1. Some optical spectrum analyzers and RF spectrum
analyzers are kept in the intermediate stages to evaluate the input and the output.

22

Figure 4.1 System design

Table 4.1 Simulation Parameters

Parameters

Values

Bit rate

10Gbps

Frequency

1310 GHz

Samples per bit

64

Sequence length

128 bits

Dark current

10 nA

Responsivity

1 A/W
Table 4.2 Parameters

4.3

Generation

Parameters

Values

Temperature

-20 to 80 C

Bias Current

5 to 35 mA

Cavity volume

10-9to 10-13 cm3

and

Characteristics

of

Various

Modulation

Formats4.3.1 NRZ Non return to zero (NRZ) has been the effective modulation
format for fiber-optical communication systems. There are many reasons for using NRZ
in the previous days of fiber-optical communication: Firstly, electrical bandwidth for
the transmitters and receivers is small (compared to return-to-zero); secondly, laser
phase noise (compared to phase shift keying) is sensitive in case of NRZ; and lastly, it
has the straightforward structure for the transmitter and receiver. Also NRZ is more
tolerant to XPM and FWM in DWDM systems because of its strong carrier component
in the optical spectrum [18].

23

(a) NRZ

(b) NRZ waveform

Figure 4.2 Transmitter design for a single channel with a) NRZ and b) NRZ
waveform

4.3.2 MULTIMODE FIBRE

Multi-mode optical fiber is a kind of optical fiber mainly used for communication over
short distances, such as within a building or on a campus. Because of its high capability
and reliability, multi-mode optical fiber is generally used for backbone applications in
buildings. Multi-mode fibers are described by their core and cladding diameters. Thus,
62.5/125 m multi-mode fiber has a core size of 62.5 micrometres (m) and a cladding
24

diameter of 125 m. Multi-mode fibers may be designed with either graded or stepindex profile. Theoretically the multimode fibers (MMF) reveal a higher transport
capacity limit than single mode fibers (SMF) by employing the various modes.
However, these improvements also come with additional complications in transmitter,
receiver, arrangement and packaging, thus making them expensive and improper for
small and medium sized networks.
In present short range optical fiber networks i.e. local area networks (LANs) the
existing infrastructure is widely based on MMF, due to its good achievement over short
spans.
The capacity of optical fiber cant be utilized by a signal user, so to effectively use the
available bandwidth some multiplexing technique is needed. The single mode fiber is
only suitable for long haul communication networks, it is having huge bandwidth and
good bit error rate. The MMF based MIMO system can be available solution for short
range optical networks. The MIMO system make is possible to have effective use of
diversity in MMFs. Thus it becomes suitable for short optical communication links. The
cheaper cost of multimode fiber is additional advantage over single mode along with
simple transmitter receiver design.

4.4 RESULT AND DISCUSSION

This presents the results and discussion of the methods outlined in the previous chapter.
In the earlier sections, we considered various components that are used in the
simulation setup. Using this system measurements of output power by varying the
temperature from -20C to 80C are taken in table 4.1.This is shown in figure 4.4. It is
noticed due to increase in temperature there is significant reduction in output power
level of the laser. This limits the applications of the laser to operate at high temperatures.
The below is figure 4.4 Temperature v/s OSNR.

25

OSNR
46
44
42
OSNR

40

OSNR (dB)

38
36
-40

-20

34
0

20

40

60

80

100

TEMPERATURE

Figure 4.4 TEMPERATURE V/S OSNR.

Table 4.1 Temperature and its OSNR

Temperature (in C)

OSNR (dB)

-20

44.48

42.39

20

38.06

40

38.30

60

37.9

80

37.81

It is also noticed that with increase in threshold there is reduction in output power. The
threshold is observed at different values from 0.1 to 4 keeping the temperature constant
26

at 10C. It is noticed that there is reduction in the output with rise in bias current i.e. Qfactor decreases. This is shown in figure. 4.8.
Bias current is maximum at 5 mA and minimum at 15 mA. It is also noticed with
increase in bias current the output power decreases. The bias current is observed at
different values from 5 mA to 15 mA keeping the temperature constant at 10C. It is
noticed that there is decrease in the output with rise in bias current i.e. Q-factor
decreases.This is shown in fig. 4.8 that bias current ismaximum at 5 mA having value of
63.03 and is 31.04 at 15 mA . The below is the simulation for bias current and cavity
volume the outputs at the receiver after detection it is passed through low pass Bessel
filter with cut-off frequency of 0.75 Hz then 3R regenerator used for reshaping,
resampling and re amplification followed by analyzer that show eyediagrams.

Figure 4.5 Simulation setup for bias current and cavity volume
Finally effect of cavity volume has been studied in terms of power and Quality of the
system. We have varied cavity from 10-8 to 10-13 cm3 to observe effect on power. . It has
been observed that 0 quality is found on volume 10 -8 cm3 and600on 10-13cm3. Maximum
output power and quality found on 10-13cm3 cavity length when no fiber is inserted in
setup. Q-factor of 600 is noted with no error at this point. Also graphical representation
has been done on different cavity volume with respect to Quality factor.In final step, we
have analyzed the combined effect of temperature with cavity, bias with cavity. It is

27

prominently observed that at volume 10-13cm3 of cavity, temperature effects minimized

along with threshold effects.

Q factor versus cavity volume

800
600
400

Q-Factor

Q-Factor 200
0

Cavity Volume

Figure 4.6 Cavity volume V/ S Quality factor

(a) Bias current (5 mA)

(b) Bias current (15 mA)
Figure 4.8 Eye diagram showing bias current (a) at 5 mA (max) (b) at 15
mA (min).

28

(b)

Figure 4.9 Cavity volume effects at (a) 10-9cm3volume (b) 10-13cm3volume

4.5 CONCLUSION
This chapter provides the summary of research work done in this work. All the results
and conclusions have been made from outcome obtained and then recommendations for
the future research have been discussed. The obtained results can summarize in the
following points. Firstly, we have analyzed the performance of VCSEL laser by varying
different physical parameters like Temperature, bias current. It is noticed that with the
increase of temperature, OSNR (dB) of the system decreases. Maximum performance
has been reported at -20C with OSNR (dB) of 44.48 and worst for 80C with OSNR
(dB) of 37.81. Next system is analyzed for different cavity volumes. It is observed that
system provide best results at volume 10-13cm3. Also very less variation of Quality and
output power can be seen at his cavity volume due to temperature. So, current work
enhances the laser performance.

CHAPTER 5
29

INVESTIGATION OF CO-OFDM SYSTEM USING

VCSEL FOR LONG REACH SYSTEMS
In this chapter the reach of VCSEL is increased by 10 times means the VCSEL is
working on 100 Gbps rather than 10 Gbps by using dispersion compensation modules.
Moreover EVM i.e (Error Vector Magnitude) can be calculated for smaller and larger
distancesvarying from 60 Km to 540 Km.

5.1 INTRODUCTION
Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing is a very attractive multiplexing and
modulation technique which is used in broadband wireless and wired communication
system due to its spectrum efficiency and channel robustness. Regardless of the benefits
provided by OFDM and its prevalent use in wireless communications, it has been
considered for optical communications during the last years.

5.2 SYSTEM DESCRIPTION

Figure 5.1 shows the system simulation setup consisting of a improved VSCEL laser
with cavity volume 10-13cm3 laser source centered at frequency 193.1THz. A PRBS is
used to generate random data followed by QAM in order to convert serial bit stream
into parallel bit stream. OFDM modulator with 512 subcarriers is used for conversion of
signal into orthogonal frequency in order to utilize bandwidth. Two linb Mach zander
modulator modulators are used to modulate OFDM signal into optical domain and
combined by a power combiner. Output OFDM signal then fed to the loop consisting of
SMF, DCF and EDFA. Symmetric dispersion compensation is used to mitigate the
effects of dispersion. One Local oscillator (LO) is used for phase matching centered at
freq. 193.1THz.Signal fed to OFDM demodulator and then m-array threshold detector
is used to detect multilevel signal followed by QAM decoder. A constellation visualize
is used to check error vector magnitude EVM i.e deviation of pulse from ideal point to
another point.BER analyzer is used to analyze the OFDM signal in terms of Q-factor
and BER.

30

Figure 5.1Simulation setup for OFDM system with improved VCSEL and with
WDM analyzer
31

Table 5.1 System specifications for OFDM system

Parameters

Values

Data Rate

100Gbps

Frequency

193.1TH
z

Modulation

4-QAM

No. of Subcarrier

512

EVM is error vector magnitude that is evaluated to give an indication of the signal
distortion or we say how much signal is deviated from thir ideal position. EVM can be
calculated as :

EVMRMS =

1
SNR

(1)

Now at 120 km, the SNR comes out to be 87.56, So EVM is :

EVMRMS =

1
SNR

1
87.56
=0.106

EVM %= EVMRMS * 100

(2)

Now at 100gbps and after 120 km the EVM comes out to be 10.6% in equation (2)
.After 100 km the value of EVM comes out to be 10.7% which is almost constant for
the distances above 120 Km. The below graph showing the EVM of direct modulation
after OFDM rescaling.

32

20
18
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
EVMrms%

Figure 5.1 (a) EVM after 120 Km

5.3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Figure 5.2 represents the power spectrum of OFDM signal centered at frequency
193.1THz. Encoded OFDM signal has been shown in fig.5.3 at OTDV visualizer.

33

Figure 5.2 Spectrum of OFDM system at 193.1 THz

Figure5.3Time domain representation of OFDM signal

Performance of the system has been analyzed for different parameters of VCSEL i.e
improved VCSEL and unimproved over different distance varied from 60 Km to 540
Km with the help of loop control.
System is analyzed for different data rate to check the capability of improved VCSEL
over dispersion compensation transmission module. Dispersion is used here due to the
pulse broadening at high data rates. Interference is more at higher data rates and less

34

forlower data rates. Graph has been plotted between different data rates with respect to
distance in case of improved VCSEL and unimproved VCSEL.
Table 5.4 Values of OSNR at different distance for improved VCSEL
Distance(
Km)

10 Gbps

100 Gbps

60

50.57

18.79

180

48.57

14.02

300

42.77

11.8

420

36.89

10.33

540

31.11

9.5

60

50

40

OSNR (dB) 30

10 Gbps
100 Gbps

20

10

0
0

100 200 300 400 500 600

Distance (KM)

Figure 5.5 OSNR v/s Distance for improved VCSEL

35

Table 5.6 Values of SNR at different distances

Distance(
Km)

10 Gbps

100 Gbps

60

54.54

87.58

120

46.53

87.56

180

34.91

87.50

240

15.56

86.96

Table 5.7 Values of EVM at different distance for above SNRs

Distance(
Km)

10 Gbps

100 Gbps

60

13.5

10.6

120

14.6

10.6

180

16.9

10.7

240

25.3

10.8

Figure.5.8 and Figure.5.9 represents the constellation of OFDM signal at receiver side
for 60Km and 540Km for improve VSCEL. It is examined that with the increase of
distance from 60 Km to 540 Km, EVM increase. Error in constellation is less at shorter
distances and signals are less deviated from ideal position. However increase indistance
causes more deviation in the signal placement to correct slot and error occurs at longer
distances.

36

(a)
Figure 5.8 OFDM signal transmission constellation at 60 Km

(b)
Figure 5.9 OFDM signal transmission constellation at 540 Km
More noises has been seen in longer distance as nonlinearities act on signal. Less
dispersion is found on lower distance and more on longer distance 540 Km.
37

5.4 CONCLUSION
In this work, Performance of the OFDM system has been analyzed for optimized
VCSEL laser and conventional laser. Two lasers are studied for different distance varied
from 60 Km to 540 Km. Comparison has been done for improved and conventional
VCSEL laser in terms of signal to noise ratio at 100 Gbps. Also less error vector
magnitude is seen for improved VCSEL as compared to other laser.Error in
constellation is less at shorter distances (60 Km) and signals are less deviated from ideal
position. However increase in distance causes more deviation in the signal placement to
correct slot and error occurs at longer distances (540Km). Moreover , EVM %= 10.6%
at 120 km distance and at 100 Gbps while base paper EVM is 19.4 % at 10 Gbps and at
100 km distance after 120 km the value of EVM is 10.7% and it is remaining almost
constant for the distance above 120 km.

CHAPTER 6

38

COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF OFDM OVER

FREE SPACE WITH IMPROVED AND
UNIMPROVED VCSEL
In this chapter two lasers that is improved and unimproved VCSEL are studied for
different distance varied from 2 Km to 8 Km in presence of free space optics by using
improved VCSEL and unimproved VCSEL.

6.1 Free space optics communication system

The main components of the free space optical communication system are as shown in
the Figure 6.1

Figure6.1Block Diagram of FSO

The source is the input provider which inputs the information to be transmitted. The
input data is now modulated with optical carrier like laser and then it travels through the
39

wireless channel i.e. atmospheric channel. The features of transmitter which are to be
considered are size, power and beam divergence which will give the laser intensity and
divergence of the system. The receiver features which should be taken into account are
antenna aperture by which the amount of light which is collected is calculated.
The source data can be modulated with the electromagnetic carriers mainly in three
types which are frequency modulation (FM), amplitude modulation (AM) and phase
modulation (PM) and these three modulation schemes can be implemented at any
frequency theoretically. The optical signals can be modulated with a different
modulation scheme called as intensity modulation (IM).
Two types of optical receivers are present coherent receivers and non-coherent
receivers. When the instantaneous power of the received optical signal is detected
directly by the receiver, then the receiver is called as non-coherent receiver.

6.2SYSTEM SETUP
The thesis work is carried out in the OPTISYSTEM software having the version 13. It
is paid software and has been provided by the University in the Research Lab. The main
components of the experiment are as follows

Data Source

QAM sequence coder/decoder

OFDM modulator/demodulator
Optical modulator
Laser source
Optical filter

FSO transceivers

The basic block diagram of the experimental setup is shown in the Fig. 6.2

40

Figure6.2 Simulation Setup of Experiment

The various blocks of the setup are discussed as below:

6.2.1 Data Source

The source is one which gives input to FSO system to be transmitted. In this work the
input source is taken as pseudo random bit sequence generator which provides binary
data. In digital communication, the binary sequence with known pattern of 1s and 0s is
commonly used to measure bit error rate (BER) rather than signal to noise ratio (SNR)
and these binary sequences are easy to generate and regenerate. The most common form
of binary sequence is pseudo random binary sequence (PRBS). The pseudo random bit
sequence generator generates a bit stream of binary pulses which is a sequence of 1s
and 0s of known pattern. The number of the bits per seconds which is calculated by
external clock frequency that drives PRBS generator is called bit rate. The external
clock can be called as a bit clock as the generator generates only one bit either 1 or 0 is
generated having width same as of clock period for every clock period. In long bit
sequence, 1s and 0s are placed randomly. After a fixed number of clock periods
sequence of 1 and 0 are repeated. The length of bit sequence can be fixed as 2 n clock
periods, n is an integer. The PRBS generator determines the data rates of information to
be transmitted. The data rate of the transmitted signal is 100Gbps in this work.
41

6.2.2QAM Sequence Coder and Decoder

The QAM modulation has both analog and digital forms. In this the analog data signals
or digital bit streams are transmitted by varying the amplitudes of the carrier signals
using ASK digital modulation scheme. The carrier waves are out of phase with 90 0 and
are called as quadrature carriers and thus the name of the scheme is Quadrature
Amplitude Modulation. The resultant modulated signal has both phase shift keying
(PSK) and amplitude shift keying (ASK). The digital QAM uses a finite number of at
least two phases and at least two amplitudes. In digital communications, the QAM is
mainly used as the modulation technique as it offers high spectral efficiency. The main
advantage of using QAM is that it increases transmission efficiency of the
communication system. The limitation of the QAM is that it is less immune to the
noise. The digital QAM can be found in many forms like QAM, n-QAM where n=2 m
and m is the number of bits per symbol. The experimental setup uses 4-QAM sequence
generator and 4-QAM sequence decoder having 2 bits per symbol.
The ideal QAM transmitter is shown as in the Fig. 6.3. The carrier frequency is f 0 and
Ht represents the frequency response of the transmitter filter.

Figure 6.3Ideal QAM Transmitter

The input bit stream is first divided into two separate signals to be transmitted. These
independent signals are encoded separately as in ASK modulator. Then one signal is
multiplied by the cosine and the other signal is multiplied with sine wave and thus these
signals are 900 out of phase. Then these signals are added together and are transmitted
through the channel.
42

The transmitted signal can be received by the receiver which is demonstrated in the Fig.
6.4.

Figure6.4 Ideal QAM Receiver

The operation of receiver is just inverse of the transmitter. The H r(f) is the filter
frequency response. The in phase components can be extracted by multiplying the
signal with asine or a cosine wave and then pass to a low pass filter. After that ASK
demodulator is present and then two streams are combined together back. Practically,
the local oscillator of the receiver should be synchronized in order to compensate the
unknown phase delay.

6.2.3 OFDM Modulator and Demodulator

OFDM can be defined as the multicarrier modulation in which the available frequency
spectrum is divides into many carriers called as subcarriers and these subcarriers are
modulated by the low rate information. The subcarriers are orthogonal to each other. In
OFDM, the single user can use all the subcarriers in the frequency band and this
increase the data rate of the system. In the OFDM the spectrum is utilized more
efficiently as all the channels are spaced more closely and this is achieved if all the
subcarriers are orthogonal to each other. The OFDM removes the problems of FDMA
and TDMA. OFDM removes the problem of overhead present in FDMA by making the
channels orthogonal to each other which allow spacing them very close to each other.
The main advantages of the OFDM are high data rates and less bit error rate. The
43

increased system complexity and inter carrier interference are the major limitations of
the OFDM system. The basic OFDM modulator is as shown in Fig. 6.5

Figure 6.5 OFDM Modulator

During modulation, first the input information is changed into N parallel bit streams by
using serial to parallel converter. Here, the signal duration is stretched N times. After
the generation of the parallel bit streams, then each stream is modulated at various
center frequencies as in case of FDM and these should be orthogonal to one another.
When orthogonal subcarriers have done the modulation, then all the subcarriers are
added up so that they can be passed to the pass band filter so that only the required band
can be transmitted.
Now, at the receiver side the received signal is to be demodulated by OFDM
demodulator which is as depicted in the Fig. 6.6.
44

Figure 6.6 OFDM Demodulator

After receiving the signal, first it is transformed to the base band signal and after that
low pass filter is applied. Then, the subcarriers are separated by de-subcarriers. It is
made sure by the orthogonality that each sub band receives its own sub carrier.The
basic OFDM transmitter and receiver is as shown in the Fig. 6.7

Figure 6.7 OFDM Transmitter & Receiver

The main blocks of transmitter in Fig. 6.7 are modulator which modulates the
information data, then IFFT which performs the inverse Fourier transform and it
provides orthogonality to the subcarriers that helps to reduce the subcarrier interference.
After that the digital signal is converted to the analog by the digital to analog converter.
At the receiver side in Fig. 6.7 the analog signal is converted back to the digital one
with the help of analog to digital converter. After that FFT is performed on the signal
45

and then the signals are demodulated by the demodulator. The typical OFDM waveform
in time domain and frequency domain are shown in Fig. 6.8

Figure6.8 OFDM Waveform in Time & Frequency Domain

6.2.4 Optical Modulator

Optical modulator is the type of the modulator which modulates the signal with the light
wave carrier as a function of the light intensity. This type of modulation is known as
intensity modulation (IM). The most commonly used optical modulator is the Mach
Zehnder modulator. The optical device which is used to modulate light in intensity is
called as Mach Zehnder modulator. The Mach Zehnder modulator consists of MachZehnder interferometer. The interferometer is designed in such a way that the one arm
of the element provides a phase shift between two interferometer sides. The intensity at
the output is varied by the phase shift value. The transmission of the Mach Zehnder
modulator can be expressed as
T ( U )=cos2 (

0 U

)
2 2U (5.1)

where T is the transmission of the modulator in above equation 5.1

U is the applied voltage to the modulator
46

The simplest form of the Mach Zehnder modulator is as shown in the Fig. 6.9

Figure6.9 Typical Mach Zehnder Modulator

6.2.5 Continuous Wave Laser (CW Laser)

Lasers are the device that gives the powerful beams of light that are coherent and
monochromatic in nature. In comparison to the other light sources, the wavelength of
the laser is monochromatic and divergence of the laser light is very less. The basic
principle of the Laser is the Stimulated emission. Let us suppose that an electron is
present in the higher energy state and when a photon with the energy comparable to the
energy gap strikes the electron, and then it will stimulate the electron to the lower
energy level by emitting a photon. This emitted photon will have the energy as that of
the original photon and both the photons are in phase and have same frequency. They
strike to the other electrons and more photons are released and these photons combine
to form a intense light wave. This forms the principle of the laser. The CW laser used in
the experiment has the power of -4dBm. A CW laser is as shown in the Fig. 6.10

47

Figure 6.10 CW Laser Source

6.2.6 Optical Filters

Optical Filters are the filters which are used to transmit light of selective wavelengths in
the optical transmission. These filters allow topass the light of a particular wavelengths
and blocks all other wavelengths. The optical filters can be divided into three categories
as long pass, short pass and band pass filters. The short pass optical filter allows to pass
the shorter wavelengths and the long pass filter will transmit the long wavelengths
while the pass band filter allows to pass a band of wavelengths and blocks both short
and long wavelengths. The transition between the maximum and minimum wavelength
can be sharp or gradual allowing the pass band to be narrow or wide. The applications
of the optical filters include the areas like photography, in optical devices and in colour
lighting. The optical filters can be used in astronomy to block the light passing to the
spectral band of study. The band pass filters and a small prism are shown in the Fig.
6.11. These filters are narrow band pass filter having different pass band.

48

Figure6.11 Optical Filters

6.2.7 FSO Transmitter and Receiver

FSO communication systems are wireless optical communication systems, so they can
also be referred to as wireless fiber. FSO is a wireless technology in which the
information signal is transmitted through free space from the transmitter to the receiver.
FSO can be defined as the optical communication system in which light travelling in the
free space is used for transmitting information wirelessly .Free space can be air vacuum
or outer space. FSO can be used at the places where the installation of the other systems
is impossible due to its cost or some other factors. The simplest form of FSO
communication system is as shown in the Fig. 6.12. In this system both the devices at
each end serves the purpose of transmission and receiving the signals i.e. both the
devices act as transceiver.

49

Figure 6.12 A Basic FSO System

The main benefits of FSO system are high security and no license requirement which
decreases the system complexity and cost. There are many factors due to which the
performance of FSO system gets affected and these factors are rain, fog, dust, haze,
smog and atmospheric turbulences. The fog consists of many small water drops which
can reflect the light wave in all the directions and hence the signal is attenuated. The
signal is attenuated more if the size of the water drops is very small.
A typical transceiver is shown in Fig. 6.13

50

Figure6.13 FSO Transceiver mounted on tall building

Figure6.15 FSO Transceiver mounted on different locations

The various parameters for FSO system under study are as in Table 6.1
Table 6.1FSO Links Parameters

Parameters

Value

Transmitter aperture diameter

20 cm

Receiver aperture diameter

25 cm

Beam divergence

0.1 rad
51

Attenuation

0.1 dB

Geometrical gain

1 dB

6.3 RESULTS AND DISUSSION

In this work comparison has been done between improved and unimproved VCSEL
over free space optical medium. PRBS transmit bits at 100 Gbps and serial data
converted into parallel bits by QAM.
Here 4 QAM is used for operation. OFDM modulator introduce the concept of
orthogonality and immune system from multipath interference. Signal real and
imaginary modulated from two MZM intensity modulators taking one drive from
VCSEL laser and 50 50 given to modulators for electrical to optical conversion.
The below figures 6.16 and 6.17 are the simulation setup for improved and unimproved
vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL).

Figure 6.16 Simulation setup for improved VCSEL

52

Figure6.17 Simulation setup for unimproved VCSEL

Optical spectrum analyzer and OTDV are used to analyze spectrum and data
respectively.
Now OFDM signal is transmitted over free space channel of beam divergence 0.1 mrad
over 8 Km. Distance is varied in both improved and unimproved VCSEL to see
performance in terms of OSNR and BER. After 8 Km, optical spectrum broadened in
case of unimproved laser while less broadening is observed in case of improved laser.

53

(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

Figure 6.18Optical spectrum and data after 8 Km in case of (a) (b) un

improved VCSEL (c) (d) Improved VCSEL
System performance evaluated from BER of system, this BER should be less then 10 -3
in this case. Also system reach is decided by BER value and quality factor. OSNR is
taken into account for different distance for both lasers at 100Gbps. It is observed that
better OSNR, Quality is seen in case of improved VCSEL and less for other laser.
Table 6.19 OSNR values for improved and unimproved VCSEL

54

DISTANCE (KM)

OSNR VALUES
OSNR VALUES
FOR
IMPROVED FOR
UNIMPROVED
VCSEL
VCSEL

52.54

46.35

47.67

37.76

45.31

33.51

45.84

30.98

10

46.94

29.16

60
50
40
OSNR (dB) 30

OSNR for improved

VCSEL

20

unimproved VCSEL

10
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1011
Distance (km)

Figure 6.20 Graphical representation of OFDM system for improved and

unimproved VCSEL
Error vector magnitude is more in without improved laser and reverse in improved.
EVM is deviation of constellation from ideal phase and angle. Also error increases with
increase of distance of FSO.

55

(a)

(b)
Figure 6.21Constellations after 8 Km for (a) Improved VCSEL(b)
Unimproved VCSEL

6.4 CONCLUSION
In this work,Performance of the OFDM system has been analyzed for optimized
VCSEL laser and conventional laser. Two lasers are studied for different distance varied
from 2 Km to 8 Km in case of free space optics. Comparison has been done for
56

improved and conventional VCSEL laser in terms of signal to noise ratio at 100 Gbps.
Also less error vector magnitude is seen for improved VCSEL as compared to other
laser.Error in constellation is less at shorter distances (2Km) and signals are less
deviated from ideal position. However increase in distance causes more deviation in the
signal placement to correct slot and error occurs at longer distances (8Km).

CHAPTER 7
CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE SCOPE
57

This chapter provides the summary of the research work in the terms of conclusion and
future scope. This chapter provides the information about the research work.

7.1 CONCLUSIONS
First work,provides the summary of research work. All the results and conclusions have
been made from outcome obtained and then recommendations for the future research
have been discussed. The obtained results can summarize in the following points.
Firstly, we have analyzed the performance of VCSEL laser by varying different physical
parameters like Temperature, bias current. It is examined that with the increase of
temperature, Quality of the system decreases. Maximum performance has been reported
at -20C with OSNR of 44.4 (dB) and worst for 80C with OSNRof 37.8 (dB). Next
system is analyzed for different cavity volumes. It is observed that system provide best
results at volume 10-13cm3. Also very less variation of Quality and output power can be
seen at his cavity volume due to temperature. So,current work enhances the laser
performance. Further performance of VCSEL laser over SMF and MMF has been done.
It is observed that SMF provide 107.5 Km system reach while MMF limits to 1.5Km
distance due to modal dispersion and loses.
Secondly,Performance of the OFDM system has been analyzed for optimized VCSEL
laser and conventional laser. Two lasers are studied for different distance varied from 60
Km to 540 Km. Comparison has been done for improved and conventional VCSEL
laser in terms of signal to noise ratio at 100 Gbps. Also low error vector magnitude is
seen for improved VCSEL as compared to other laser.Error in constellation is less at
shorter distances(60Km) and signals are less deviated from ideal position. However
increase in distance causes more deviation in the signal placement to correct slot and
error occurs at longer distances (540Km).Moreover, EVM %= 10.6% at 120 km
distance and at 100 Gbps while base paper EVM is 19.4 % at 10 Gbps and at 100 km
distance after 120 km the value of EVM is 10.7% and it is remaining almost constant
for the distance above 120 km.
Thirdly,Performance of the OFDM system has been analyzed for optimized VCSEL
laser and conventional laser. Two lasers are studied for different distance varied from 2
Km to 8 Km in case of free space optics. Comparison has been done for improved and
58

conventional VCSEL laser in terms of signal to noise ratio at 100 Gbps. Also less error
vector magnitude is seen for improved VCSEL as compared to other laser.Error in
constellation is less at shorter distances (2Km) and signals are less deviated from ideal
position. However increase in distance causes more deviation in the signal placement to
correct slot and error occurs at longer distances (8Km).

7.2 FUTURE SCOPE

FSO technology is more secure and reliable technology than the wired or RF
technology. In future FSO technology can be used in copiers, fax, projectors, ATM
machines, credit cards, head sets and game consoles. These all are the indoor
applications where FSO technology can be used in future. The outdoor applications of
FSO technology are also growing. As the radio spectrum has crowded so much and no
licensing is required for FSO communication, so the communication companies and
broadcasters are moving to FSO technology.
1) VCSEL studied in this work for temperature, cavity and bias and operated
over OFDM systems. In future work for different systems may be analyzed
2) In case of OFDM in this work, Suppress sidebands are studied. However
comparison will study for single sideband and double sidebands.
3) For FSO systems, beam divergence effect is taken on low values. Effect of
more values of divergence also will be studied.

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APPENDIX
Paper got accepted in ICACCI 2016 conference.

63