Performance of the PAC optical packet network

For multiuser packet communications with unpredictable user demands (e.g., in a local or metropolitan area network), coordination and control of access to the frequency-division multiplexing (FDM) channels are difficult. B. Glance (J. Lightwave Technol., vol.10, pp.1323-1328, Sep 1992) proposed using a simple protection-against-collision (PAC) circuit to solve this media access problem and achieve full optical connectivity. The PAC system has the potential to interconnect hundreds of ports, each transmitting at several gigabits per second. Performance aspects of the PAC optical packet network are discussed here. The delay-throughout performance of this network is analyzed for uniform traffic patterns. The results show that in geographically distributed applications the maximum achievable throughput (normalized to the transmission rate) is typically between 0.4 and 0.5 per channel. In a centralized switch the (normalized) maximum achievable throughput can approach 0.8 per channel     

Wavelength-tunable add/drop optical filter

A new type of add/drop optical filter discretely tunable along equally spaced channels is presented. This device may have very useful applications in WDM optical networks.     

Polarization independent coherent optical receiver

This paper describes an optical heterodyne receiver for DPSK signals which can receive an optical signal having an arbitrary polarization state. This is achieved by splitting the received signal between two orthogonal polarization axes and processing the resulting two signals as in a conventional DPSK heterodyne receiver. The sum of the two demodulated signals provides a baseband signal independent of the polarization state of the received optical signal. When the receiver noise is dominated by the shot noise of the photodetectors, the receiver provides a BER of 10^-9for an average number of 22 photon/bit. In comparison, a conventional optical heterodyne receiver requires under the same noise condition 20 photon/bit to achieve the same BER for a received optical signal polarized along the polarization axis of the local optical signal.     

Crosstalk degradation caused by optical amplification in amultichannel FSK heterodyne system

The crosstalk degradation caused by an optical amplifier in a four-channel FSK (frequency-shift-keyed) heterodyne communication system is measured. A bit error rate (BER) floor of 3×10^-4 is observed when the channels are spaced by 200 MHz, FSK modulation at 45 Mb/s, and when the optical input signal is large enough such that the gain is compressed by 2 dB relative to its small-signal value. The receiver is substantially improved by reducing the optical power amplifier input. However, the sensitivity increases only to a maximum value beyond which it degrades as the optical power of the demodulated channel becomes small relative to the noise of the optical amplifier. The combined effect of the crosstalk and the amplifier noise yields an optimum sensitivity of 250 photons/b for BER=10^-9. This result is 5 dB poorer than the sensitivity obtained in the absence of an optical amplifier     

Performance of homodyne detection of binary PSK optical signals

This study evaluates the performance of an optical receiver for binary phase shift keyed (BPSK) signals in the presence of noise originating from the photodetectors and the phase fluctuations of the optical sources. Analysis of the homodyne detection process shows that the performance is degraded by two effects: One due to the phase error fluctuations of the recovered carrier and the other due to reduction of the energy per bit available for data recovery. The resulting power penalty can be minimized by dividing in an optimal way the received optical signal between the carrier recovery and the data recovery circuits of the receiver. The minimum penalty thus obtained depends on the 3-dB linewidth and on the transmission rate. For example, a penalty of 0.5 dB, relative to the quantum limit of 9 photon bit needed to achieve a BER of 10^-9, imposes a minimum transmission rate of about 180 Gbit/s when the optical source has a 3-dB linewidth of 20 MHz.     

Fast frequency-tunable external-cavity laser

We describe a tunable, single-frequency, narrow-line external-cavity laser that can be FSK up to 100Mbit/s by modulating the laser current. The result is obtained by using a two-section laser: one section for lasing and the other for FSK modulation.     

Intensive care unit prognostic scoring systems to predict death: a cost-effectiveness analysis

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the cost-effectiveness, using the technique of decision analysis, of withdrawing care from patients in the intensive care unit (ICU) who are predicted to have a high probability of death (>90%) after 48 hrs using a mortality risk estimate based on daily Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation (APACHE) III scores. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A decision tree model was constructed to compare the cost-effectiveness of two clinical strategies. In the first strategy, patients receive ICU care until they were discharged, died, or had care withdrawn based on subjective clinical criteria. In the second strategy, patients remained in the ICU until they were either discharged, died, or had life-sustaining care withdrawn based on subjective criteria or if they were predicted to have a >90% risk of mortality after 48 hrs by a prognostic scoring system. Transition probabilities were based on a retrospective data analysis of 4,106 noncardiac ICU patients admitted to a tertiary surgical ICU over a 9-yr period. Cost estimates were based on daily Therapeutic Intervention Scoring System (TISS) scores from our database and using published data on the estimated production cost for a TISS point. The sensitivity (16.6%) and specificity (99.6%) of the mortality risk estimate at 48 hrs (using the >90% decision point) based on daily APACHE III scores were derived from published data. RESULTS: In the base case analysis, we assumed that the sensitivity and specificity of the prognostic risk estimate are unchanged when exported to a new environment. Not using a prognostic scoring system as the basis for withdrawing care resulted in a slightly higher survival rate (87.2% vs. 86.85%) at a cost-per-death prevented (CPDP) of $263,700. Since prognostic scoring systems have not been shown to retain the same predictive power when exported to new databases, we chose to explore the effect of varying the specificity of the scoring system on CPDP. Decreasing the specificity from .996 (baseline) to .98 causes the CPDP to drop to $53,300. Changing the specificity to .95 results in a CPDP prevented of $21,700. Using one-way sensitivity analysis, the CPDP is shown to be relatively insensitive to delaying the decision point from ICU day 3 to day 7. Sensitivity analysis also indicates that CPDP increases rapidly with hospital death rate. For a death rate of 30%, the CPDP increases to $768,600 (in the base case, the death rate is 12.8%); when the specificity is decreased to .95, the CPDP drops to $62,100. CONCLUSION: Unless daily mortality risk estimates based on APACHE III can be shown to retain the same level of predictive power in ICUs outside the development database, it is unlikely that the incremental cost-effectiveness gained by using them as the basis to withdraw care is sufficient to justify their use in this manner.     

Time Diversity with Adaptive Error Detection to Combat Rayleigh Fading in Digital Mobile Radio

A new diversity technique is proposed to combat Rayleigh fading in digital mobile radio systems transmitting speech signals. The speech signals are μ-law PCM encoded (mu = 255, 8 kHz sampling, 8 bits/code word, 64 kbit/s data rate), and alternate data words are used to form two streams called "odd" and "even." The even stream is delayed by τ seconds and the streams are interleaved prior to radio transmission using two-level PSK modulation. At the receiver the odd data stream is delayed by τ and interleaved with the even stream. Consequently, if an error burst occurs, the effect of the reshuffling of the data stream is, in general, to place words with bit errors in juxtaposition to those correctly received. After μ-law PCM decoding of the words, a statistical error detection strategy is evoked to identify the erroneous samples. These samples are replaced by adjacent sample interpolation to give the recovered speech sequence. No recourse to channel protection coding is made. In our experiments a Rayleigh fading envelope was generated from a hardware simulator and stored in a computer, along with four sentences of speech. The system was then simulated and the recovered speech perceived. The objective performance measures were segmental SNR for the audio signal, and BER. Different error detection strategies were examined and restrictions on τ investigated. For a mobile speed of 30 mph, SNR values of 32, 21, and 16 dB were obtained for BER values of 0.1, 1, and 2 percent, corresponding to SNR gains over an uncorrected system of 3, 9, and 11 dB, respectively.     

Polarization-insensitive frequency-shift-keying optical heterodynereceiver using discriminator demodulation

A polarization-state-independent binary frequency-shift-keying optical heterodyne receiver, achieved by splitting the received signal between two orthogonal polarization axes and combining the signals after demodulation, is described. The authors consider various receiver configurations, using a discriminator with a limiter for applications in which received-signal-envelope fluctuations cannot be ignored, and without a limiter when the fluctuations are negligible. For applications that require the limiter, a diversity method or a variable-gain limiter that improves the performance of the limiter/discriminator receiver is proposed. Numerical results indicate that with diversity and a limiter/discriminator structure, polarization independence can be achieved with a system performance which is nearly that of an ideal receiver. Using a discriminator without a limiter, when there is no source of envelope fluctuations other than those due to Gaussian noise, the receiver performance degradation compared to the ideal baseline receiver is 0.5 dB     

Frequency-Selective Fading Effects in Digital Mobile Radio with Diversity Combining

we analyze the effects of frequency-selective fading in a cellular mobile radio system that uses 1) phase-shift keying (PSK) with cosine rolloff pulses, and 2) space diversity with maximal-radio combining. The distorting phenomena with which we deal are multipath fading (which produces the frequency selectivity), shadow fading, and cochannel interference. The relevant quality measure is defined to be the bit error rate averaged over the multipath fading, denoted by (BER). The relevant system performance characteristic is defined to be the probability distribution for (BER), taken over the ensemble of shadow fadings and locations of the desired and interfering mobiles. To obtain numerical results, we use a combination of analysis and Monte Carlo simulation, invoke widely accepted models for the multipath and shadow fadings, and assume a cellular system with seven channel sets and centrally located base stations. The outcome is a set of performance curves that reveal the influences of various system and channel parameters. These include: the number of modulation levels (two or four), the diversity order, the shape of the multipath delay spectrum, and the standard deviation (or delay spread, τ0) of the multipath delay spectrum. Practical factors accounted for in these assessments include fading- and interference-related timing recovery errors and combiner imperfections. Our results highlight the importance of the ratiotau_{0}/T, whereTis the digital symbol period. They show that the delay spectrum shape is of no importance fortau_{0}/T leq 0.2, but can have a profound influence fortau_{0}/T geq 0.3. We also find that using 4-PSK leads to better detection performance, in certain cases, than using 2-PSK.