UC San Diego

This thesis analyzes methods to improve the performance of avalanche photodiodes (APD) in optically switched networks. The optical links in these networks must re-initialize the optical signal after a switching event, which is called burst mode operation. The change in the lightwave signal along with the biasing characteristics of the APD can produce artifacts in the signal that require mitigation. This thesis explores the use of Maximum Likelihood Sequence Estimation to overcome artifacts such as intersymbol interference (ISI).