An Analytical Model of OSNR and SNR for Short Reach IM-DD Systems with MZM

A theoretical framework for OSNR and SNR/BER analysis in IM-DD based short-reach optical communication systems under various limitations is developed. The theoretical model is based on power spectrum analysis and can link OSNR with SNR/BER for accurate data transmission quality estimation. Different from previous models, which only apply to ASE noise limited systems, our model can be applied to non-ASE limited IM-DD systems. The proposed analytical model is verified and investigated via numerical simulations, where results show a maximum 0.3% error rate.