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Electrical and Computer Engineering

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

2014

Bit error rate

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Full-Text Articles in Engineering

On The Use Of Gaussian Approximation In Analyzing The Performance Of Optical Receivers, George El-Howayek, C. Zhang, Y. Li, J. S. Ng, J. P.R. David, Majeed M. Hayat Feb 2014

On The Use Of Gaussian Approximation In Analyzing The Performance Of Optical Receivers, George El-Howayek, C. Zhang, Y. Li, J. S. Ng, J. P.R. David, Majeed M. Hayat

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

The analytical calculation of the bit error rate (BER) of digital optical receivers that employ avalanche photodiodes (APDs) is challenging due to 1) the stochastic nature of the avalanche photodiode's impulse-response function and 2) the presence of intersymbol interference (ISI). At ultrafast transmission rates, ISI becomes a dominant component of the BER, and its effect on the BER should be carefully addressed. One solution to this problem, termed the bit-pattern-dependent (PD) approach, is to first calculate the conditional BER given a specific bit pattern and then average over all possible bit patterns. Alternatively, a simplifying method, termed the bit-pattern-independent (PI) …