Issues on Bit-Error Rate Estimation for Fiber-Optic Communication Systems

When designing fiber-optic networks, careful computer modeling of the systems performance is essential as lab experiments and field trials are costly and time consuming. Because of this, they should be deployed only in the final steps of a systems design. One of the most important performance parameters is the bit-error rate (BER), defined as ratio between erroneously detected bits by total number of bits. As BER values of interest are typically very low (10−6…10−12) direct counting methods (Monte Carlo) are not feasible. Thus, BER estimation methods are based on analytical models for the optical propagation channel and/or assumptions about the probability density functions of symbol amplitudes at the electrical detector.