BER Performance Improvement in IMDD Systems Using FBMC Signals

Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing with cyclic prefix (CP-OFDM) is an attractive technique proposed for application in fiber-optic communication systems with intensity modulation and direct detection (IMDD). To improve the spectral efficiency, OFDM can be replaced with filter bank multicarrier (FBMC). Under the fixed bit rate conditions, FBMC can provide an energy gain over OFDM. The purpose of this work is to determine the effective values of the system parameters for CP-OFDM and FBMC signals and to compare their bit error rate (BER) performance. A set of parameters was found providing the lowest signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) per bit required to achieve BER=0.01, in particular, the number of data subcarriers (SC), the size of Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) and the value of the direct current of the laser (DC). It was shown that the energy gain due to FBMC can reach 1 dB at BER=0.01 in a channel with chromatic dispersion.