Comparison of NRZ and RZ modulations in laser intersatellite communication systems

Laser intersatellite communication (LIC) is a promising choice for intersatellite communication due to the high data rate that can be achieved with the advantages of light weight, smaller size and lower power consumption. In this paper, we compare the maximum transmission distance with non-return-to-zero (NRZ) and return-to-zero (RZ) modulations for two different LIC scenarios. Simulation results show that for the long-range LIC system with a saturated booster optical amplifier, the RZ modulation scheme can offer a longer transmission distance than the NRZ modulation scheme. For the short-range LIC system without an optical amplifier, the RZ modulation scheme performs almost the same as the NRZ modulation scheme.

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