Use of error-correction codes to improve the performance of optical fiber code division multiple-access systems

Optical multiple-access interference (OMAI) is a major performance impairment in all-optical code division multiple-access (CDMA) systems, which can ultimately limit the number of active users for a given bit error rate (BER). To efficiently reduce the effect of OMAI, error-correction codes can be used in optical fiber CDMA systems with all-optical processing. This paper shows that using asymmetric error-correction binary block codes not only can effectively reduce the BER, but also can increase the maximum number of active users in a constant-bandwidth network more efficiently than employing symmetric error-correction binary block codes. As a result, a cost-effective optical fiber CDMA network can be implemented