The recently developed digital coherent receiver enables us to employ a variety of spectrally efficient modulation formats such as $M$ -ary phase-shift keying and quadrature-amplitude modulation. Moreover, in the digital domain, we can equalize all linear transmission impairments such as group-velocity dispersion and polarization-mode dispersion of transmission fibers, because coherent detection preserves the phase information of the optical signal. This paper reviews the history of research and development related to coherent optical communications and describes the principle of coherent detection, including its quantum-noise characteristics. In addition, it discusses the role of digital signal processing in mitigating linear transmission impairments, estimating the carrier phase, and tracking the state of polarization of the signal in coherent receivers.

Fundamentals of Coherent Optical Fiber Communications

We present a theoretical and experimental investigation of injection locking of semiconductor lasers. The theoretical analysis takes into account the dependence of refractive index on the carrier density expressed by the linewidth enhancement factor α. Locking conditions and dynamic stability are analyzed. The nonzero value of α results in an increased locking bandwidth, where only part of the range corresponds to a dynamically stable state. Asymmetric characteristics are obtained for the locked power and phase as a function of frequency detuning between the master and slave laser. Outside the stable range, light injection gives rise to beat phenomena and intensity pulsations. The theoretical results were confirmed by experiments on 830 nm CSP lasers and 1.3 μm BH lasers. The experiments include the first measurements of locking bandwidth characteristics reported for 1.3 μm lasers. Power spectra are recorded under locked and near-locked conditions and compared with theory. The 1.3 μm lasers are found to have a better dynamic stability than 830 nm lasers. Even so, the stability problems may exclude the particular application of injection locking where phase modulation is generated for coherent transmission.

Locking conditions and stability properties for a semiconductor laser with external light injection

The feasibility of coherent optical fiber transmission systems, in which laser coherence is utilized to carry information, are studied from the view point of device and system consideration and expected performance. Modulation scheme comparison among optical ASK, FSK, and PSK, transmitter and receiver configurations, single-polarization transmission through fibers, problems in providing stable local oscillator waves, and wide-band photodetectors are discussed together with alternative technologies to realize high performance systems. A study on digital system impairments caused by FM quantum noise of laser oscillators, interferometric FM-AM conversion noise, IF frequency fluctuation, and optical fiber transmission turbulence show the feasibility of the systems. Repeater spacing is estimated by considering the transmitting and receiving signal levels, optical fiber loss, and fiber transmission capacity. Repeater spacing of 240 km is feasible by 400 Mbit/s PSK homodyne-detection system and 220 km by 400 Mbit/s FSK heterodyne-discrimination detection system. The regenerative repeater spacing can be expanded further by employing intermediate repeaters with direct optical signal amplification. Based on the performance of semiconductor laser amplifiers, such as traveling wave type, Fabry-Perot cavity type, and injection locked devices, it is estimated that regenerative repeater spacing of more than 104km is feasible with 50 km intermediate repeater spacing. These systems will find application in transoceanic optical fiber cable transmission as well as terrestrial long distance transmission systems.

Coherent optical fiber transmission systems

Balanced phase-locked loops for optical homodyne receivers are investigated. When a balanced loop is employed in a communications system, a part of the transmitter power must be used for unmodulated residual carrier transmission. This leads to a power penalty. In addition, the performance of the balanced loops is affected by the laser phase noise, by the shot noise, and by the crosstalk between the data-detection- and phase-lock-branches of the receiver. The impact of these interferences is minimized if the loop bandwidth B is optimized. The value of B opt and the corresponding optimum loop performance are evaluated in this paper. Further, the maximum permissible laser linewidth \delta\nu is evaluated and found to be 5.9 \times 10^{-6} times R b , where R b (bit/s) is the system bit rate. This number corresponds to BER = 10^{-10} and power penalty of 1 dB (0.5 dB due to residual carrier transmission, and 0.5 dB due to imperfect carrier phase recovery). For comparison, decision-driven phase-locked loops require only \delta\nu = 3.1 \times 10^{-4}. R_{b} . Thus, balanced loops impose more stringent requirements on the laser linewidth than decision-driven loops, but have the advantage of simpler implementation. An important additional advantage of balanced loops is their capability to suppress the excess intensity noise of semiconductor lasers.

Balanced phase-locked loops for optical homodyne receivers: Performance analysis, design considerations, and laser linewidth requirements

Coherent optical communications, an area of research that shows great promise for future high-bandwidth and long-haul applications, is reviewed. Coherent optical receivers, which add light to the received signal as part of the detection process, have numerous advantages over direct-detection receivers, most notably increased sensitivity and increased selectivity, at the cost of increased complexity. The performance of coherent optical receivers under shot-noise-limited conditions is reviewed for a variety of modulation and demodulation formats. In addition, laser phase noise is discussed, and its effect on receiver performance is analyzed. >

Performance of coherent optical receivers

The receiver sensitivity in optical communication is improved by heterodyne and/or coherent communication schemes, as compared with an ordinary intensity-modulation/direct-detection system. This paper presents the computation of the minimum signal level for achieving a prescribed bit-error rate in various heterodyne and coherent-type optical communication systems, as functions of the information-transmission rate and mixerdiode parameters. It is shown that in long-wavelength (1.3 um ~ 1.6 urn) region, the improvement in the signal level by the heterodyne/coherent schemes is relatively high (10 dB-20 dB). improvement of the receiver sensitivity especially at the longer wavelengths, because these schemes bring forth a sensitivity close to the shot-noise limit, regardless the mixer-noise performance [1]. The improvement of the sensitivity by these schemes was first computed by Yamamoto [2], who gave the BER vs. signal-power relations for various heterodyne/coherent schemes.

K. Emura

Papers

Computation of Bit-Error Rate of Various Heterodyne and Coherent-Type Optical Communication Schemes