Impact of fast transient power excursions on the performance of optical networks due to receiver constraints.

The article focuses on the impact of fast transient power excursions on the performance of optical networks due to receiver constraints. It was found that if fast power transients occur at the input of the receiver, then during the transients the bit error rate performance will be significantly affected due to changes in the optimum receiver threshold caused by the high-pass frequency response of the AC-coupled receiver. For dynamic transient power changes that occur in a time frame much slower than the receiver cut-off frequency, the impact of power changes can be described by the static receiver behaviour.