Optical Communication Receiver Design (SPIE Tutorial Texts in Optical Engineering Vol. TT22) [Illustrated] [Paperback]

Stephen B. Alexander (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1997 | ISBN-10: 0819420239 | ISBN-13: 978-0819420237 | Edition: illustrated edition

This tutorial text provides an overview of design principles for receivers used in optical communication systems, intended for practicing engineers. The author reviews technologies used to construct optical links and illustrates the flow of system performance specifications into receiver requirements. Photodetector fundamentals, associated statistics, characteristics and performance issues are presented, together with a tutorial on noise analysis and the specific techniques needed to model optical receivers.

Contents

- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Glossary
- Optical Communications
- System Performance
- Photodetection
- Photodetectors
- Receiver Noise Modeling
- Receiver Front-End Design
- Receiver Performance Analysis
- Index

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Stephen B. Alexander is Director of Lightwave Systems Development at Ciena Corporation and previously was assistant leader of the Optical Communication Technology Group at MIT Lincoln Laboratory. He is an associate editor for the Journal of Lightwave Technology.

Product Details

• Paperback: 340 pages
• Publisher: SPIE Publications; illustrated edition edition (January 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0819420239
• ISBN-13: 978-0819420237
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 7.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,743,642 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Strong introduction to receiver design, May 21, 2001

By 

D. Dobkin (Sunnyvale, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Optical Communication Receiver Design (SPIE Tutorial Texts in Optical Engineering Vol. TT22) (Paperback)

This book is an excellent introduction to the field, in that all the key elements are covered: => derivation of the shot-noise limit for optical receivers => description of how one integrates over the distribution of correctly and erroneously received bits in order to find the bit error rate, and why Gaussian distributions are convenient if often inaccurate; what the "Q function" is and why it is used => review of electrical noise sources (thermal and shot noise) and clear description of why a transimpedance topology is often the best choice => summary of sensitivity and error rate for numerous topologies.

In pretty much all cases the book strikes a nice balance in content: enough mathematical detail to provide useful results, with enough physical background to understand what the results mean.

However, the book is already somewhat dated: it has rather too much information on coherent receivers (which, while very interesting, have not played a significant role to date in the fiber communications scene) and too little information on EDFA's and optically amplified systems. The organization of material could use some improvement: chapter 3 (photodetection) introduces the basic concepts of signal distribution, threshold, and bit error rate determination, which are then not employed until chapter 6 and (mostly) 7, by which time the reader has to go back and review what was presented. The discussion of receiver amplifier circuit topologies is extremely brief, considering that this is one of the basic topics of the book; there is little discussion of the benefits of HBT vs FET implementations and differential vs. single-ended circuits, etc.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good theory, April 18, 2001

By 

Sunny (CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Optical Communication Receiver Design (SPIE Tutorial Texts in Optical Engineering Vol. TT22) (Paperback)

It gives mostly theoretical coverage. Some practical aspects are missing. It briefly covers amplified receivers which should have be given more attention. Good for receiver designer and not so useful for receiver users