This paper proposes and theoretically evaluates two different schemes of code acquisition for pulse-position modulation (PPM) and overlapping PPM (OPPM) fiber-optic code-division multiple-access (CDMA) systems, namely threshold-based and demodulator-based code acquisition. Single-dwell detector and serial-search algorithm are employed for both schemes. Theoretical analysis is carried out for shot-noise-limited photon-counting receiver. Discussions upon effects of various parameter settings on the performance of code acquisition for PPM/OPPM fiber-optic CDMA systems, such as index of overlap, PPM/OPPM multiplicity, average photon counts per information nat, and darkcurrents, are presented. It is shown that when the threshold is properly selected, the threshold-based code acquisition system offers better performance, in terms of mean number of training frames, than the demodulator-based one.

We analyze the effect of overlapping technique on differential pulse position modulation (DPPM) in optical direct-detection channel when the pulsewidth and the average power of the channel are constrained. We refer to the modulation scheme employing an overlapping technique in DPPM as differential overlapping PPM (DOPPM). To avoid frame synchronization problems, we analyze the performance of DOPPM under the window scheme that results in lower bounds on the capacity and the cutoff rate of DOPPM but is easy to analyze. Under this scheme, we analyze the lower bounds on the capacity and the cutoff rate of DOPPM. It is shown that DOPPM with the window scheme has higher capacity and cutoff rate than PPM and DPPM, and also than OPPM when the average received number of photons per slot is somewhat large. The overlapping technique is thus shown to be effective on DPPM under the pulsewidth constraint when the average received number of photons per slot is somewhat large.