Study of BER of 64-QAM signal and OMI-window of feasible operation in analog/digital hybrid SCM transmission systems

In an analog/digital hybrid subcarrier multiplexed (SCM) transmission, carriers have generally been substituted for transmission signals such as AM vestigal sideband (AM-VSB) AM signals and M-QAM signals to evaluate transmission quality. In practical hybrid SCM, however, carriers are modulated by video signals or digital data, and the amplitude of a multiplexed signal composed of these modulation signals is more compressed than that of the carriers. This causes a decrease in the frequency of clipping of the multiplexed signal at the laser threshold. Consequently, the BER of the M-QAM signal in a practical hybrid SCM is lower than that of the experimental results for the same optical modulation index (OMI). However, it is difficult to prepare many practical modulation signals for experiments in a laboratory. Therefore, there is demand for a bit error rate (BER) analysis method for a multiplexed signal that includes the modulation signals needed to sufficiently evaluate the BER and determine the optimum OMI in a practical hybrid SCM. In this paper, we describe such a BER analysis method that can effectively estimate the BER in a practical hybrid SCM. In practical systems, the BER was greatly improved over the BER of a multiplexed signal of carriers. Furthermore, BER degradations due to clipping can be neglected for the AM signals in setting a practical OMI range. We used this analysis method to study the effective OMI range of AM and M-QAM signals. By assuming modulation signals, the OMI range is enlarged and, significantly, the OMI of an AM signal becomes suitable for setting practical values in AM-SCM transmission. This OMI range is more practical than those of former studies.