Demonstrates how to perform bit error rate (BER) testing for a binary phase-shift keyed (BPSK) optical system with Reed Solomon (RS) encoders and decoders.
The typical output of a BER analysis is a set of waterfall curves that map a system’s BER results against increasing background noise levels, defined as Eb/No (the ratio of energy per bit to noise density). When Reed Solomon encoding is applied, the BER performance can be significantly improved as RS encoding can correct multiple errors per symbol block. BER coding gain results are shown for RS4, RS8 and RS16 coding schemes.