Noise Analysis Problems and Techniques for RF Electronic Circuits and Optical Fiber Communication Systems

Various forms of linearized noise analysis techniques have been extensively used for analyzing the performance of electronic circuits in the presence of undesired disturbances since the early 70´s. Practical numerical algorithms based on linearized perturbation formulations have been implemented in public domain and commercial electronic circuit simulators. In this paper, we describe the noise analysis problems in optical fiber communications and discuss their relationships to RF circuit noise analysis. In particular, we recognize that the noise analysis of electronic circuits with time-invariant (time-varying) large signal excitations corresponds to the analysis of noise propagation in optical fibers along with unmodulated (modulated) light carriers. We discuss how linearized perturbation formulations are used for noise analysis in both domains and draw analogies between them by providing a comparative review of the techniques that have been proposed in the literature.