Performance of different SAC-OCDMA detection schemes with NRZ and RZ data formats

Non-return-to-zero (NRZ) and return-to-zero (RZ) are two basic data formats in optical communication systems. In this paper, we compare the performance of NRZ against RZ with both AND as well as modified-AND subtraction detection techniques in spectral-amplitude coding optical code-division multiple-access (SAC-OCDMA) systems. Modified double-weight (MDW) codes are used as the signature codes for SAC-OCDMA systems. This study has been carried out through simulation of a real-like SAC-OCDMA system by using OptiSystem software from optiwave™. It has been found that using NRZ pulse generator yields better bit-error rate (BER) performance than using RZ pulse generator for all simulations. However, the choice of the detection technique proves to be more effective than the type of data formats in reducing BER.