The Study of an Optical Photon-Counting Channel: Capacity and Cut-off Rate

In optical communication, direct amplification limits the information rate to 1.44 bits/photon. To increase the capacity, the idea of a Poisson-type photon-counting channel has been conceived. In this model, the input signal modulates the envelope of the optical field which is detected at the receiver by an ideal detection device. This photon detector counts the number of photons at a rate proportional to the incident field strength. The capacity of such a channel in the average power constraint case has been found out to be 104 bits/photon. Pulse Position Modulation (PPM) technique is considered to be well-suited for such channel, with the source having peak power as well as average power limitations. Reed-Solomon coded PPM enhances the cut-off rate of the channel and exhibits better performance compared to the uncoded PPM scheme.

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