A 40-Gbps fiber-FSO convergent transmission system employing OFCL-based WDM and external modulation technique

Abstract

We have proposed and demonstrated a 40Gbps fiber-free space optics (FSO) convergent system based on external modulation and wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) technique. In this experiment, 4010×4 Gbps signal is successfully transmitted employing WDM scheme over 50 km single mode fiber plus 2.5 km FSO distance. Optical frequency comb lines (OFCL) are generated using a continuous wave laser diode, a radio frequency signal generator, a dual drive Mach Zehnder modulator, and an electrical attenuator. OFC lines, having a side mode suppression ratio (SMSR) value of ∼40 dB and flatness of ∼0.4 dB, are employed as broadband laser source in the presented convergent system. The performance of the fiber-FSO system is investigated theoretically for different weather conditions. Very low power penalty with low bit error rate (BER), clear eye diagrams, and standard Q-factor are achieved in the proposed system. The power penalty is restricted within 2.5 dB and 5.8 dB at a BER of 10−9 for 50 km SMF plus 2.5 km FSO distance in clear weather and 50-km SMF plus 0.4-km FSO distance in heavy fog condition respectively. Thus, the proposed WDM-convergent system is efficient enough for high data rate transmission along with low BER value of ∼10−9 and high Q-factor for different environmental scenarios.