Nonlinearity effect of electro-optical modulator response in double spread CDMA radio-over-fiber transmissions

This study presents a double-spread code-division multiple-access (CDMA) scheme for radio-over-fiber (RoF) transmissions. The network coder/decoders (codecs) are implemented using arrayed-waveguide grating (AWG) routers coded with maximal-length sequence (M-sequence) codes. The effects of phase-induced intensity noise (PIIN) and multiple-access interference (MAI) on the system performance are evaluated numerically for different values of the optical modulation index (OMI) during the nonlinear electro-optical modulator (EOM) response. At low OMI optical device noise is dominant, but at high OMI nonlinear effect becomes significant. Numerical result shows that the system performance is highly sensitive to the OMI. Therefore, specifying an appropriate value of the OMI is essential in optimizing the system performance. The influence of the degree of polarization (DOP) in the system is also discussed. By employing the scrambler in front of the balanced photo-detector, the system performance can be enhanced. The high-performance, low-cost characteristics of the double-spread CDMA render the scheme an ideal solution for radio-CDMA wireless system cascaded with optical CDMA network.