Fiber-optic digital video multiplexing using optical CDMA

The use of laser pulsing in the form of code-division multiple access (CDMA) to multiplex a set of digital video signals over a fiber network is proposed. The laser pulsing is used to generate unique code sequence addresses which identify each source, and the video data are modulated on these sequences. Digital encoding using pulse position modulation (PPM) is proposed, having advantages that permit efficient integration of optical and electronic processing. Data recovery is achieved by optical correlation for sequence recognition, followed by standard electronic PPM decoding. The relation between key system parameters of the encoding, decoding, and optics is derived, and indicates that compressed video rates between 5 and 20 Mb/s/channel, with 25-50 channels, is possible with relatively standard hardware. Experimental breadboard results being carried out at USC on this system indicate the feasibility of the CDMA concept for fiber multiplexing.