ERROR-PROBABILITY EVALUATION OF OPTICAL-SYSTEMS DISTURBED BY PHASE NOISE AND ADDITIVE NOISE

A direct and efficient method for evaluation of the error probability of optical heterodyne receivers in the presence of phase noise is pres ented. A closed form expression for the statistics of the decision var iable, including photodetector shot noise and thermal noise from elect ronic circuitry, is derived. The analysis assumes simple integrating f ilters in the receiver and is based on a power series expansion of the filtered phase noise. The error probability is calculated using a sad dle point approximation which is numerically simple and gives accurate results. The optimal prefilter bandwidth for best phase noise rejecti on is easily determined.