The data-entropy quality-budget developed by the authors is used as an alternative to the conventional power budget. The traditional power budget approach is not capable of providing a full analysis of a system with different noise types and specifically providing a measure of signal quality. The quality-budget addressed this issue by applying its dimensionless 'bit measure' to integrate the analysis of all types of losses. A data-entropy visualisation is produced for each set of points in a reference and test signal. This data-entropy signal is a measure of signal disorder and reflects the power loss and types of signal degradation experienced by the test signal. To analyse the differences between two signals an algorithm known as phase-coherent data-scatter (PCDS) is used to assess levels of attenuation, dispersion, jitter, etc. Practical analysis of telecommunications signals using the new multiple-centroid (MC) PCDS is presented here for the first time. MC-PCDS is then used to analyse differences between sets of data-entropy signals and digital signals. The theory behind MC data-scatter is discussed and its advantages for the quantification of signal degradations are assessed. Finally, a brief consideration is given to the use of pattern recognition algorithms to measure optical signal degrading factors.

Date Published: 13 October 2005
PDF: 11 pages
Proc. SPIE 5970, Photonic Applications in Devices and Communication Systems, 59701Q (13 October 2005); doi: 10.1117/12.628588

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 5970:
Photonic Applications in Devices and Communication Systems
Peter Mascher; John C. Cartledge; Andrew Peter Knights; David V. Plant, Editor(s)