Computer modeling and simulation of the Optoelectronic Technology Consortium (OETC) optical bus

The Optoelectronic Technology Consortium (OETC) 16 Gbit/s, 32-channel parallel fiber optic bus introduces new requirements for modeling and simulation of an optical bus which were not present for previous single-channel optical link systems. These requirements include the simulation of the statistical variation in component parameters, timing skew, and crosstalk. Due to the required simulation of statistical variation in component parameters, a time efficient simulation approach such as the quasi-analytical simulation methodology is vital. In addition, the adoption of a block-oriented simulation environment facilitates mixed-level simulation which minimizes the computational requirements of the bus simulation while achieving the required accuracy in the simulation of all bus components. Simulation results indicate that while noise is not a limiting factor in the performance of the optical bus, timing skew, and device uniformity across the channels of the bus are the most important factors for satisfactory performance. Experimental measurements confirm these simulation results.