Crosstalk penalities due to coherent Rayleigh noise in bidirectional optical communication systems

The statistical properties, i.e. power spectral densities and probability density functions, of the noise due to Rayleigh backscattered light and due to interference of backscattered and reflected light are derived from the autocorrelation function of the optical source field. The crosstalk penalties due to Rayleigh backscattering in single- and double-source bidirectional systems are calculated. It is shown that it is possible to realize a bidirectional system with commercially available connectors in which Rayleigh backscattering is the dominant crosstalk contribution. The measured crosstalk penalties and bit-error probabilities in a double-source bidirectional system confirm the theoretical results