Jitter accumulation in fiber optic systems.

In this thesis we have rigorously developed and expanded the presently accepted models of jitter accumulation along a chain of self-timed optoelectronic regenerators. This was done by collecting, expanding and substantiating the earlier results available in the literature on the modeling of jitter accumulation. We then formulated a concise, rigorous and complete model of the jitter accumulation for a chain of fiber optics regenerators. By studying the physical actions of the retiming process, the parameters used in the jitter accumulation models were derived analytically from the physical model of the retiming process. We then developed the measurement technique needed to fully characterize and measure all of the modeled jitter parameters of an individual fiber optic regenerator. Forty optoelectronic regenerators were characterized individually and their measured jitter parameters were used in the jitter accumulation models.