Implementation of Offset Pulse Position Modulation

Optical fibre systems have played a key role in making possible the extraordinary growth in world-wide communications that has occurred in the last 25 years, and are vital in enabling the proliferating use of the Internet. Its high bandwidth capabilities, low attenuation characteristics, low cost, and immunity from the many disturbances that can afflict electrical wires and wireless communication links make it ideal for gigabit transmission and a major building block in the telecommunication infrastructure.

The main concern of this thesis is a full and detailed investigation and implementation of the Offset Pulse Position Modulation (Offset PPM) communication system. Novel work is carried out for applying Offset PPM over an optical communication channel theoretically and experimentally to examine the system performance.

An Offset PPM encoder and decoder were implemented to code Pulse Code Modulation (PCM) format into Offset PPM format and to decode back the Offset PPM to PCM. The first paradigm of implementation was implemented using electronic components.

A further investigation took place on the Offset PPM associated output. Computer programming and simulation using the VHSIC Hardware Description Language (VHDL) of this PPM code was considered and comparison with previous theoretical results presented. The received Offset PPM signal returned back to its original input PCM form without errors.

Successful VHDL and Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) implementation using Altera Quartus II of Offset PPM encoder and decoder as a single system has been presented in the study. An FPGA embedded Bit Error Rate (BER) test device has also been implemented for sensitivity measurements purposes and all the designs have been tested successfully with back-to-back testing. Results show that Offset PPM is an advantageous PPM code for optic communication. Furthermore, the system has achieved a very high data rate of 50 Mb/s without an optical communication set.

An optical communication system (transmitter/receiver) over POF was developed and the Offset PPM scheme was investigated through this optical channel. Results show that the Offset PPM sequence transferred through the optic system without being altered. In addition, this implementation is optimised PPM coding; the system is working perfectly with up to 10 Mb/s with 10-12 BER based on the limitations of the optical communication set.

All the results and analyses indicate that Offset PPM is an ideal alternative to be considered for highly dispersive optical channels, and performance evaluation for higher bandwidths also favourably compares to existing coding schemes.