Compact disc players in the laboratory: Experiments in optical storage, error correction, and optical fiber communication

The compact disc player is a synergy of optics, communication theory, digit al signal processing, and control engineering. This familiar consumer produ ct may be employed as a test-effective laboratory instrument to teach the f undamentals of optical storage, error detection and correction; and optical communication. The compact disc audio system, from analog input, through o ptical storage and distribution, to audio reproduction, provides an excelle nt model of a complete real-world optical transmission and storage system. A series of experiments, which illustrate some of the more significant oper ational principles of the compact disc player, are presented in this contri bution. Optical read-out and the physics of information density are explore d through a set of experiments in optical storage. Error detection and corr ection are studied experimentally by evaluating the performance of the comp act disc player's error control system, The design of an optical fiber comm unication system is studied by extracting the channel, bit stream from a co mpact disc player, transmitting it over an optical fiber link, and then rei nserting it back into the compact disc player for audio reproduction.