Burst bit-error rate calculation for GPON systems

This paper presents a methodology to calculate the bit-error rate for the data transmission in the upstream direction of Gigabit PON systems. In traditional optical receivers, the signal consists of a continuous bit stream. In the upstream direction of a PON however, the signal consists of a succession of packets with varying amplitudes. Hence the receiver needs to quickly extract the decision threshold and clock phase from an overhead at the beginning of each packet. Such extraction results in a sensitivity penalty. To estimate how big this penalty is as a function of system parameters, burst bit-error rates need to be calculated.