Proceedings ofICCT20I 5

Bit Error Rate Analysis of OOK Modulation Scheme under

Non-Coherent Demodulation for Space Uplink Optical
Communication Systems
Mi Li*,t,2, Tingguang Lit, Xuping Zhangt, Yuejiang Songt, Yang Liut

lInstitute of Optical Communication Engineering, Nanjing University, Nanjing, Jiangsu 2 10093, China
2Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA
*Corresponding email: [email protected]

Abstract: With the development of communication fully developed [5-14]. Li Fei established a mathematic
technique, space microwave communication technique simulation model of error performance for FSO system,
has shown its limitation in the transmission of high data and proposed an expression of bit error rate for FSO
rate. While space optical communication system system through turbulent atmosphere [ 15]. Zheng Yang
introduces laser as the signal carrier and can solve this did the research about space optical hybrid system and
problem very well. At present, on-off keying (OOK) is designed a mechanical structure of new space optical
one of the most important modulation scheme widely hybrid [ 16]. Ma Jing analyzed the differences of packet
used in space optical communication systems, and the error rate of OOK, DPIM and PPM modulation schemes
intensity modulation direct detection (lM-DD) for ground-to-satellite optical communications, and
non-coherent demodulation is the corresponding deduced the packet error rate [ 17, 18]. It is universally
demodulation scheme. However, researchers always pay known that coherent demodulation enjoys a lower BER
attention to the coherent demodulation for OOK comparing to non-coherent demodulation. But at present
modulation scheme. That deviates from the practical almost all OOK space optical communication systems
systems. This paper focuses on the OOK communication take intensity modulation direct detection non-coherent
systems with non-coherent demodulation and analyzes demodulation. Therefore the research based on OOK
the relationship between BER and the key parameters of modulation with coherent demodulation is not applicable
this systems, such as transmission power, ratio of beam for real optical communication systems.
radius and transmission power, ratio of receiver radius
This paper takes parameters of real space optical
and transmission power, ratio of divergence angle and
communication systems based on OOK modulation, and
transmission power, and so on. We also compare the
takes uplink channel for example, compares
BER performance between non-coherent demodulation
non-coherent demodulation and coherent demodulation
and coherent demodulation under the same low level of
with the consideration of the impact of atmospheric
noise. The work will practically benefit the optimal
turbulence such as beam wander and intensity
design of the space optical communication systems.
scintillation. And then we analyze the relationship
Keywords: Optical communications; Non-coherent between BER at different noise level and transmission
demodulation; Bit error rate; OOK power, ratio of beam radius and transmission power,
ratio of receiver radius and transmission power, ratio of
1 Introduction divergence angle and transmission power. The work will
be helpful to the optimal design of the space optical
With the arrival of information age, the amount of communication systems.
information grows in an exponentially speed, and it
exerts huge pressure on the transmission rate of 2 Probability distribution of beam wander
communication systems. At present, space microwave
and intensity scintillation
communication technique has shown its limitation in the
transmission of high data rate, while space optical In the process of optical communication, laser beam will
communication system, which uses laser as the signal propagate the atmosphere and be influenced by
carrier, can solve this problem very well [ 1]. At the same atmospheric turbulence. Under a weak turbulence
time, optical communication system possesses better condition, the probability density distribution of beam
security because laser has a small divergence angle [2]. wander for uplink channel can be expressed as [ 19]
Nowadays optical communication has been the research
Z
focus of world power [3-4]. r r
Per) -exp( )
(Jz 2(Jz
= -- (I)
These years the researches about the optical r r

communication systems based on OOK modulation

scheme with coherent demodulation scheme have been where (J} is the variance of the beam wander.

978-1-4673-7005-9 /15/$31.00 ©2015 IEEE

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Proceedings ofICCT2015

Besides, the atmospheric turbulence will also cause And BER of coherent demodulation can be expressed as
intensity scintillation and correspondingly the [ 17]
probability density distribution of the received intensity
foX BERc (1)f(� 1', (1)P(r)drdl
� 1f
can be described as [20] BERc =

1 I r I 1 r2 (6)
�.(1) = x
= f x

-er ( )
2 fc -4
x

� exp(- - )

: IW2+(J7(r,L)/2)2 j
�
J 21Ta}(r,L) o 0 (J2r 1 21T(J2 (L) 2(J2

[ (2) 1 r, r

[l
(In I 1(1(O,L))+2r 2 ,
) II
exp xexp - In
I 2r2 (J2(r,
1 L) 12(J;(r, L) dr dl
2CTI (r.L) (I(,OL)) + W2 +_-2-

where (1(0, L)) =

aP
� D2 is the mean value near the
2W 4 Simulation results
beam center [2 1], and a is the energy impairment of
Here we do the simulation about BER of uplink channel
the laser beam, Dr is the receiving caliber and �. is
based on the real parameters of space optical
the transmission power of the optical pulse when communication system and parameters are as follow [9]:
sending' I'. W(z) = Wo + (}z / 2 is the beam radius at z, the altitude of the satellite , the altitude of the ground
where Wo stands for the beam radius at the station , wave length , the zenith angle , the divergence
transmission terminal and () stands for the divergence angle , the received aperture , the transmission power ,
the beam radius at the transmission terminal , and energy
angle. And (J7(r,L) represents the variance of impairment of the laser beam . In order to analyze the
scintillation [20]. system performance at different noise levels, we select
three typical noise power , , .
3 Demodulation scheme and BER

For the same modulation scheme, different

- CD In low nolsa
demodulation schemes have different BER. For OOK __ NCO In low noise
signal, BER of IM-DD can be calculate as [22] --NCO In medium noist
NCO In strong noise

BER ( ) N I =-
1
4
erfc(H-)+-e
4
1
2
-v/4
< (3) �
w
ID

in which s=
12
-- is the signal-noise ratio at the input
2CT,�
terminal of the demodulator. I is the received intensity,
�
and CT is the noise power.

As for coherent demodulation, its BER can be calculated

Figure 1 BERs as functions of transmitting power
as [22]

H-)
1
BERcC1) = -erfc( (4) First, the BER of communication system is related to
2 4 transmission power directly, and we analyze the

where s=
12
-- is also the signal-noise ratio.
relationship between BER and transmission power.
Considering beam wander and intensity scintillation, the
2CT,�
variation of BER as a function of transmitting power in
For uplink channel of OOK space optical two demodulation schemes at different noise levels is
communication, taking beam wander and intensity shown in Figure I. When noise is at a low level which
scintillation into consideration, BER of non-coherent means noise power is , the BERs of coherent and
demodulation can be expressed as [ 17] non-coherent demodulation show a consistent decrease
with the increase of the transmitting power, and the BER
under non-coherent demodulation is always higher than
C BERv (1)r 1', (I)P(r)drdl
l,4jsoc
BERN =

that under coherent demodulation. The gap between

�1 � r 1 I r2
exp(- -)
them tends to get larger. And when transmission power
=
So (-erfc(
4
-)+-e-' )
4 2 (J;: 1 � 2Jr(JJ (r,L)
0 2(J;:
(5) is 4W, the BER under non-coherent demodulation is
about 7 dB higher than that under coherent

xexP -
I[In (!(O,L)) I 2r2 (J2(r,L) 2 j j
1 2(J2(r,L) r dI
l( 1 demodulation. For non-coherent demodulation, channel
l +WT+-'-2 -<

f noise has a big impact on BER. When transmitting

power is 4W, the BERs at medium and high noise level
are 14dB and 2 1dB higher than that at low noise level,

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Proceedings ofICCT2015

respectively. transmission power. It is obvious that at low noise level

the BER of coherent demodulation is always lower than
10.5 r-------.,.--..,.---, that of non-coherent demodulation. Besides, BER is
--CD in low noise quite sensitive to the ratio. The BER of non-coherent
demodulation at low noise level decreases from to
10'"
..... NCO in slrong noise when the ratio increases from O.2m1W to 1.6m1W. In
conclusion, we should take the ratio into full
,� consideration for the design of space optical system.

10"

0::
10 ·' 0 '-------'--'---' w
o 0.05 0.1 0.15 m
W,jPT(mlW)

--CD in low noise

Figure 2 BERs as functions of the ratio of beam radius and __ NCO in low noise
10·'0
transmission power -e-NCD in medium noise
� NCO In strong noise

The ratio of beam radius and transmission power is also 10·'2 '----'-----'--'
10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
an important reference for the design of space optical
communication systems. Figure 2 indicates the
relationship between BER and the ratio of beam radius Figure 4 BERs as functions of the ratio of divergence angle
and transmission power. By comparing the curves at low and transmission power
noise level where noise power is , it is clear that the
BER of coherent demodulation is consistently lower Figure 4 shows the relationship between BER and the
than that of non-coherent demodulation. But the optimun ratio of divergence angle and transmission power. When
ratio of beam radius and transmission power, which transmission power is fixed, the received intensity will
means the BER reaches the lowest at that position, is decrease with the increase of divergence angle, and BER
almost the same, and it's about . For non-coherent will also increase. At low noise level, BER of
demodulation, when noise power increases from to non-coherent demodulation is consistently higher than
and to , the corresponding optimun ratio is O.055m/W, that of coherent demodulation, but the optimum ratio
O.050m/W, O.045m/W, respectively. So it is necessary to where the BER reaches the lowest is almost the same
adjust the ratio of beam radius and transmission power and it's about . Besides, for non-coherent demodulation,
according to channel noise to obtain an optimun ratio. when the noise power is , and , the optimum
divergence angle is , and IW respectively. So we could
make the conclusion that the optimum ratio of
divergence angle and transmission power tends to
--CD in low noise decrease when the noise power increases. Therefore we
should also consider the ratio to reduce BER.

5 Conclusions

This paper is based on the uplink channel of space

optical communication systems and takes beam wander
and intensity scintillation caused by atmospheric
turbulence into consideration. We analyze OOK signals
10'" '----'-----'---'
under non-coherent demodulation and coherent
o 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.2 1.4 1.6
modulation, and compare the relationship between BER
and transmission power, ratio of beam radius and
Figure 3 BERs as functions of the ratio of receiver diameter transmission power, ratio of receiver radius and
and transmission power
transmission power, ratio of divergence angle and
transmission power.
The ratio of receiver diameter and transmission power
also exert an obvious influence on BER. That is because The simulation results shows that at the same noise level,
when transmission is a constant, the larger the receiver BER of non-coherent demodulation is always higher
diameter is, the higher SNR is, and consequently the than that of coherent demodulation. For non-coherent
lower BER will be. Figure 3 indicates the variation of demodulation, channel noise has a big impact on BER.
the BER as a function of ratio of receiver diameter and Both improving transmission power and increasing the
ratio of receiver radius and transmission power can

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reduce BER, but the latter method has a more obvious optical communication under the atmospheric turbulence.
effect. Therefore it is wise to try to enlarge receiver Optics Express, 20 1 4,22(22): 25354-2536l.
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MSK in ground-to-satellite uplink optical
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This work was supported by the National Natural [ 1 2] X. M. Qian, W. Y. Zhu, R. Z. Rao. Numerical
investigation on propagation effects of pseudo-partially
Science Foundation of China under Grant 6 1205045
coherent Gaussian Schell-model beams in atmospheric
Jiangsu Provincial Natural Science Foundation of Chin � turbulence. Optics Express, 2009, 1 7(5): 3782-379 1 .
under Grant BK20 15 1256, Suzhou Province Science and [ 1 3] C. Davis, 1. Smolyaninov. Effect of atmospheric
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SYG201307, National Natural Science Foundation of wireless system. Proc. SPIE. 2002,4489: 1 26- 137.
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