Unipolar codes for optical spectral-amplitude code-division multiple-access systems based on combinatorial designs

A novel class of optical signature codes based on combinatorial designs is proposed for optical spectral-amplitude code-division multiple-access (CDMA) systems. It is applicable to both synchronous and asynchronous incoherent optical CDMA and is compatible with both frequency-encoded and time-spreading schemes. Simplicity of construction, larger code cardinality and larger flexibility in cross-correlation (CC) control make the proposed code family an interesting candidate for future optical CDMA applications that require a large number of simultaneous users. It has been shown that the system performance can be significantly improved by using the proposed codes with ideal in-phase CC in preference to Hadamard codes.