Fiber-reflection-induced impairments in lightwave AM-VSB CATV systems

Impairments due to multiple fiber reflections are evaluated for amplitude-modulated (AM) vestigial-side-band (VSB) lightwave cable TV (CATV) systems using directly modulated distributed feedback (DFB) lasers or externally modulated diode-pumped YAG laser transmitters. For DFB lasers, the spectral broadening caused by laser chirp results in a Gaussian optical spectrum with a width near 5 GHz. Square-law detection of multipath signals from two -30-dB reflections results in an effective intensity noise near -150 dB/Hz. For externally modulated YAG lasers, the same multiple reflections result in interference that cannot be described by an effective RIN. Although the total interference power is comparable to that of the DFB lasers, the signal and interference are highly correlated. As a result of this correlation, multipath interference for YAG-based systems cannot be measured using the standard test procedure with unmodulated carriers