COHERENT-DETECTION OPTICAL COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS: A PROOF OF THE GAUSSIAN BIT ERROR RATE.

It is shown that the asymptotic probability of error of a binary equiprobable hypothesis test for observed Poisson point-processes with rate lambda //i(t) equals b//i (t) plus (p//i (t) plus z)**2, i equals 0, 1, z yields infinity is equal to the error probability of optimum deterministic-signal detection in additive white Gaussian noise when the signals coincide with the square root of the point-process rates. This result proves the folk theorem that coherent-detection optical communication systems have Gaussian bit error rates.