Fiber Optics Receiver Error Rate Prediction Using the Gram-Charlier Series

This paper applies the Gram-Charlier series method to the calculation of error probabilties in digital optical receivers. This method allows the calculation of “exact” error probabilities including the effects of avalanche noise, thermal noise, and arbitrary postdetection processing filter. The prediction of this method are compared with those of a simple Gaussian approximation and with the Chernoff bounds. Finally, the effects of modal noise are included in the theory, and some specific cases are explored numerically.