Link Impairment consideration and

system design
Prof. G. Aarthi
Asst. Professor (SG)
SENSE

Overview
In this section we develop a simple point-topoint digital transmission link design
considering
Link power budget calculations and
Link rise time calculations
A link should satisfy both these budgets

Simple point-to-point link

This p-p link forms the basis for examining

more complex systems

System Requirements
1. Transmission Distance
2. Data Rate for a given BER

Selecting the Fiber

Bit rate and distance are the major factors
Other factors to consider: attenuation (depends on?)
and distance-bandwidth product (depends on?) cost
of the connectors, splicing etc.
Then decide
Multimode or single mode
Step or graded index fiber

Selecting the
Optical Source
Emission wavelength
Spectral line width and
number of modes
Output power
Stability
Emission pattern
Effective radiating area

LED
LASER

Selecting the detector

Type of detector
APD: High sensitivity but complex, high bias voltage
(40V or more) and expensive
PIN: Simpler, thermally stable, low bias voltage (5V or
less) and less expensive

Responsivity (that depends on the avalanche gain

& quantum efficiency)
Operating wavelength and spectral selectivity
Speed and photosensitive area
Sensitivity (depends on noise and gain)

Design Considerations
Link Power Budget
There is enough power margin in the system to
meet the given BER

Rise Time Budget

Each element of the link is fast enough to meet
the given bit rate
These two budgets give necessary conditions
for satisfactory operation

Link Power Budget

The link loss budget is derived from the sequential loss contributions of
each element in the link expressed in dB as

Optical power-loss model

Optical power-loss model

PT Ps PR mlc nlsp f L System Margin

PT : Total loss; Ps : Source power; PR : Rx sensitivity
m connectors; n splices

Optical power-loss model

PT Ps PR mlc nlsp f L System Margin

Problem

Problem 2
An optical system has the following characteristics:
LED power (Ps) = 2 mW (3 dBm)
LED to fiber loss (Lsf) = 3 dB
Fiber loss per km (FL) = 0.5 dB/km
Fiber length (L) = 40 km
Connector loss (Lconn) = 1 dB (one connector between two 20-km fiber lengths)
Fiber to detector loss (Lfd) = 3 dB
Receiver sensitivity (Pr) = 36 dBm
Find the loss margin.
Solution:

PT [dB] Ps [dBm] PR [dBm]

PT 2lc [dB] f [dB / km] L[km] System Margin
Lm = 3 dBm 3 dB (40 km 0.5 dB/km) 1 dB 3 dB (36 dBm) = 12 dB

The optical power budget for a system is given by the following

expression:

where Pi is the mean input optional power launched into the fiber, Po is the mean
incident optical power required at the receiver and CL is the total channel loss
When total channel loss is substituted,

When Dispersion equalization penalty is included,

This allows the maximum link length without repeaters to be determined.

Problem 3

Rise Time Budget

Convenient method for determining the dispersion limitation of an
optical fiber link-Each element of the link is fast enough to meet the given bit rate.
Total rise time depends on:
Transmitter rise time (ttx)
Group Velocity Dispersion (tGVD)
Modal dispersion rise time (tmod)
Receiver rise time (trx)

t sys

1/ 2

2
ti
i 1

Total rise time of a digital link should not exceed

70% for a NRZ bit period, and 35% of a RZ bit period

Rise Time

Rise Time
trx 350 /Brx ns; where
Brx is receiver bandwidth in MHz
Similarly

ttx 350 / Btx ns

Assuming both transmitter and receiver as first order
low pass filters

Modal Dispersion Rise Time

Bandwidth BM(L) due to modal dispersion of a
link length L is empirically given by,
BM ( L) Bo / Lq
B0 is the BW of a 1 km length of cable(MHz-km
product) and q ~0.5-1 is the modal equilibrium
factor
q

tmod (ns) 440 / BM 440L / B0

Where B0 is in MHzKm, BM is in MHz

Group Velocity Dispersion

tGVD | D | L
Where,
D is the dispersion parameter (ps/km.nm)
is the half power spectral width of the source (nm)
L is the distance in km

t sys

2 q2
2 2

2 2 2
L
440
ttx trx D L
2
B
0

1/ 2

For an RZ pulse format,

Alternatively, for an NRZ pulse format
The bit rate

where is the pulse duration

Thus the upper limit on Tsyst should be less than 35% of the bit interval
for an RZ pulse format and less than 70% of the bit interval for an NRZ
pulse format.

Problem 1
An LED together with its drive circuit has a rise time of 15ns.Taking a typical LED spectral width
of 40nm, the material dispersion rise time degradation is 21ns over the 6-km link. Assuming the receiver
has a 25-MHZ bandwidth,
1.Find the rise time degradation from the receiver.
2. If the fiber we select has a 400-MHz.km bandwidth-distance product and with q=0.7, find the modal
dispersion-induced fiber rise time.
3.Calculate the total rise time of the link

Problem 2
An optical fiber system is to be designed to operate over an 8 km length without repeaters.
The rise times of the chosen components are:
Source (LED) 8 ns
Fiber: intermodal 5 ns km1
(pulse broadening) intramodal 1 ns km1
Detector (pin photodiode) 6 ns
From system rise time considerations, estimate the maximum bit rate that may be
achieved on the link when using an NRZ format.

Problem 3

An LED together with its drive circuit has a rise time of 0.025ns. Taking a typical LED spectral width
of 40nm, the material dispersion rise time degradation is 21ns over the 6-km link. Assuming the receiver
has a 25-MHZ bandwidth,
1.Find the rise time degradation from the receiver.
2. If the fiber we select has a 400-MHz.km bandwidth-distance product and with q=0.6, find the modal
dispersion-induced fiber rise time.
3.Calculate the total rise time of the link .
From system rise time considerations, estimate the maximum bit rate that may be
achieved on the link when using an RZ format.

= 25 ns

0.35
=

= 14 Mbits/s