Power, block probability, and throughput studies of a hybrid, multirate, multimedia incoherent O-CDMA system

Optical communication systems are expected to support multimedia services that have different bit rates and quality-of-services. Our recent proposed hybrid, multirate, multimedia optical code-division multiple access (O-CDMA) system meets these requirements with reasonable (hardware and synchronization) complexity and high user/code flexibility. Beside creating strong multiuser interference, a large number of active users increases the optical power in transmission, potentially causing power saturation in optical devices and fiber nonlinearities. To ensure normal operation, a new power model of the hybrid multirate O-CDMA system is formulated. Block probability and average throughput models are presented for quantifying the system performance. Finally, the hybrid system is shown to have higher throughput than conventional O-CDMA systems.