DISCUSSION ON THE USE OF OPTICAL AMPLIFIERS IN IM-DD RECEIVERS

After a brief introduction on the general principle of optical amplifi cation and on the main devices available, the performance of optically preamplified Intensity Modulated Direct Defection (IM-DD) receivers i s investigated, in terms of sensitivity and bit error rate, employing a statistical model that is move accurate than the customary Gaussian approximation. A comparison between the predictions of the two statist ical methods is presented. The implications for practical receivers of the performance of the system have been analysed in detail. Particula r cave has been taken to investigate the penalties arising from a non- optimum threshold setting of the comparator.