Experimental Characterization of Fiber Optic Communication
Experimental Characterization of Fiber Optic Communication
Experimental Characterization of Fiber Optic Communication
: EXPERIMENTAL CHARACTERIZATION OF FIBER OPTIC COMMUNICATION LINK FOR DIGITAL TRANSMISSION SYSTEM
Abstract
In this paper, main focus is on the experimental characteristic of
optical communication link and of their components. We give an
introduction to optical fiber systems and various phenomenons related
to it. The phenomena of attenuation and dispersion are discussed
elaborately and details are provided through experimental observation
and verification. A laser diode and photodetector are also discussed
and their characteristics curves are plotted. All the details about
various topics mentioned above are concluded and verified through
experiments.
Keywords:
Attenuation, Dispersion, Source, Detector
1. INTRODUCTION
An optical fiber is a cylindrical structure made from a
transparent material such as glass and consists of a central core of
refractive index n1, surrounded by a cladding of refractive index
n2. Light gets guided through the fiber by total internal reflection,
in which a light ray incident on an interface between the denser
medium (a medium of higher refractive index) and a rarer medium
(a medium of lower refractive index) at angles greater than the
critical angle, gets totally reflected, i.e. undergoes complete
reflection [1]-[2]. The realization of low loss optical fibers and
room temperature operation of compact semiconductor lasers in
1970, laid the foundation for long distance fiber optic
communication. Technological advances such as optical
amplifiers, dispersion compensators, high speed transmitters and
receivers, optical dense wavelength division multiplexing etc.
have contributed to the phenomenal growth of optical fiber
communication industry [3]. The increased demand on the
bandwidth continues and new innovations such as photonic crystal
fibers, tunable lasers, high speed modulators, all optical signal
processing, compact integrated optical devices, new modulation
formats etc are expected to cater to this need [4].
This papers presents, complete experimental characterization
of optical fiber communication system with emphasis a laser
diode characteristics, attenuation, dispersion and, photo detector
etc. In section 2 about Light Runner kit is discussed.
Experiments of attenuation and dispersion in optical fiber are
performed in section 3 and 4 respectively. Experiments of
characterization of laser diode and photo detector are performed
on Light Runner in section 5 and 6 respectively. Finally,
conclusion of the paper is presented in section 7.
2.1 EXPERIMENT
OF
OPTICAL FIBER
ATTENUATION
IN
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ISSN: 2229-6948(ONLINE)
10 PL
log
(1)
L
P0
Attenuation in dB = -10log (P2/P1)
(2)
where, P(0) is optical power at the input (z = 0) and P(L) is
optical power at the output i.e. L km away from the input ends.
Here we assume z to be the direction along the length of the
optical fiber.
dB km
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SK RAGHUWANSHI et al.: EXPERIMENTAL CHARACTERIZATION OF FIBER OPTIC COMMUNICATION LINK FOR DIGITAL TRANSMISSION SYSTEM
BCN Cable
(a)
Total
MATERIAL LOSS (dB/km)
Light
Runner
Fiber Spool
RS
UV
OH
IR
SC-SC SM Fiber
Path Card
(a)
WAVELENGTH (m)
(b)
Fig.6. (a) Experimental Plot of power loss vs. fiber length (b)
different material loss vs. wavelength
From Fig.6(a), it can be seen that the power loss goes on
increasing with the increase in length. At fiber length 3km the
loss is minimum, thus the attenuation coefficient is also
minimum. It can be concluded from this experiment that the loss
as well as attenuation coefficient both increase with increase in
length of the fiber.
The Fig.6(b) shows the plot of different material loss vs.
wavelength. In this case, we consider the loss due to OH,
Infrared, UV light and Rayleigh scattering. Fig.7 shows the
effect of micro bending and macro-bending with respect to
wavelength. From this plot, it seems that macro-bending is small
than the micro-bending and both are gradually increasing with
wavelength.
(b)
Fig.5. Experimental setup for attenuation experiment (a)
waveform of the input signal, (b) waveform at the output of fiber
end after attenuation
The value of power loss in decibels (dB) is calculated
according to the Eq.(1). A graph between power loss (dB) and
length (Km) is plotted.
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ISSN: 2229-6948(ONLINE)
Pulse Strength
Micro Bending
Pulses
Macro Bending
Fig.7. Experimental observation of micro bending and macrobending with respect to wavelength
Hence, we can say that pulse broadening per unit length for
unit spectral width is called Dispersion. A dispersion
phenomenon is a weak phenomenon. Each dispersion can be
calculated independent of each other. When we calculate the
material dispersion, we assume that waveguide dispersion is
negligibly small. When we go for intra-modal dispersion, then
we assume that material dispersion is practically small. The total
dispersion is just the addition of all other dispersion.
vg
Pulse broadening g
dt g
d
n .
tg
But
d d d
.
d d d
2c
tg
dn
.
c d
Dmat
dt g
d
d 2 n
c
d2
1
2c
l
vg
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SK RAGHUWANSHI et al.: EXPERIMENTAL CHARACTERIZATION OF FIBER OPTIC COMMUNICATION LINK FOR DIGITAL TRANSMISSION SYSTEM
2 22
b 2
1 22
GROUP DELAY (ps/km)
n1 n2
n1
WAVELENGTH (m)
2
1 2
DISPERSION (ps/km.nm)
(a)
DISPERSION
2
2 1 b 1
= 2[1+b]
Group delay
tg
d n2
d c
d bV
1 dV
Material
Waveguide
Total
where,
a
n12 n22
c
Hence, we can write the waveguide dispersion
V
WAVELENGTH (m)
(b)
n 2 d 2 bV
Dwg
V
d
c
dV 2
Total dispersion is the summation of the two dispersions.
Both the dispersion because of the finite bandwidth. These
dispersion are together is called the chromatic dispersion.
Chromatic dispersion = Dmat + Dwg
Dmat depends upon the material taken for the construction of
the optical fiber. Dwg is the parameter that depends upon the
structure of the fiber. It depends upon the fiber based parameters
and it can be manipulated as a result the total dispersion quantity
is manipulated. Fig.9(a) shows the experimentally observed
value variation of group delay vs. wavelength; it seems from this
plot that group delay is gradually increases with wavelength.
Fig.9(b) shows the effect of wavelength on dispersion.
The Fig.10 shows the experimental setup along with the output
waveform. Using the experiment it is possible to check if lower
wavelengths travel slower or faster than longer wavelengths,
whether the time difference increases linearly with increasing
length of the fiber [11]. The Fig.11 shows the input waveform for
dt g
Light
Runner
Fiber Spool
SC-SC SM Fiber
Path Card
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ISSN: 2229-6948(ONLINE)
shows the P-N junction laser diode and its mechanisms and
Fig.12(b) shows the characteristics curve.
Delay between
Position of Position of position of 850
Fiber
850 nm
1550 nm nm and 1550 Dispersion
Length
Laser Laser Pulse nm Laser
per km
(km)
Pulse (s)
(s)
pulses
(ns)
1.0
19.93
19.45
0.48
0.48
2.0
20.09
19.45
0.64
0.32
3.0
19.93
19.45
0.48
0.16
4.0
19.93
19.77
0.16
0.04
5.0
19.77
19.45
0.32
0.064
6.0
19.93
19.77
0.16
0.032
7.0
20.09
19.93
0.16
0.023
8.0
19.77
19.14
0.63
0.078
Average Dispersion per km = 0.149
Dispersion from Sellemeier equation = 10 s
Due to dispersion, pulses of light launched at 850 nm and
1550 nm take different times and the time difference determined
per km is consistent with the estimation obtained from the
Sellemeier equation.
Drive
Current
Ith
(b)
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SK RAGHUWANSHI et al.: EXPERIMENTAL CHARACTERIZATION OF FIBER OPTIC COMMUNICATION LINK FOR DIGITAL TRANSMISSION SYSTEM
(b)
Fig.14. Experimental observation of (a) diode current with
respect to laser optical power and (b) laser current vs. laser
optical power
Light
Runner
Fiber Spool
The Fig.14(b) shows the plot of laser current vs. laser optical
power. It is seen from the characteristics the optical power rises
from linearly after a certain value of the laser current, known as
threshold current and, linearly changes with the diode current.
SC-SC SM Fiber
Path Card
(a)
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ISSN: 2229-6948(ONLINE)
BW
0.7
1
tr
2RC
3. CONCLUSION
In this paper, we have provided the detailed description of
attenuation and dispersion and its effect inside the optical fiber
with some experimental result implemented on light runner. The
paper describes the theoretical background of optical sources
(LASER) and optical detector and its importance in modern
technological scenario with some experimental result reflecting
the characteristics of laser and optical detector.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Authors would like to acknowledge to Fiber Optika to
provide us Light Runner to do these experiments. One of the
authors Santosh Kumar also wants to acknowledge to Nikhila
Mandre (KIIT, Bhubaneswar) to help during these experiments.
REFERENCES
[1] S.K. Raghuwanshi, Contemporary Optical Fiber
Technology, Agrawal Publication, 2012.
[2] Gerd Keiser, Optical Fiber Communication, McGrawHILL International Edition, 2000.
[3] Ching Fuh Lin, Optical Components for Communication:
Principles and Applications, Springer, 2004.
[4] R.P. Khare, Fiber optics and optoelectronics, Oxford
University Press, 2004.
[5] Reference manual for Light Runner, Fiber optic
communication bench top laboratory With WDM.
[6] R.K. Shevgaonkar, Speakfirst, L28-Integrated Optics-I,
2011.
[7] S.K. Raghuwanshi and V. Kumar, Analysis of double clad
single-mode step-index fibers, World Journal of Science
and Technology, Vol. 1, No. 8, 2011.
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SK RAGHUWANSHI et al.: EXPERIMENTAL CHARACTERIZATION OF FIBER OPTIC COMMUNICATION LINK FOR DIGITAL TRANSMISSION SYSTEM
Proceedings of the
Optical Fiber Communication
Conference, Vol. 2, pp. 3-6, 2004.
[11] J. Broeng, D. Mogilevstev, S.E. Barkou and A. Bjarklev,
Photonic crystal fiber: A new class of optical
waveguides, Optical Fiber Technology, Vol. 5, No. 3, pp.
305-330, 1999
[12] N. Schunk and K. Pertermann, Stability analysis for laser
diode with short external cavities, IEEE Journal on
Photonics Technology Letters, Vol. 1, No. 3, pp. 49-51,
1989.
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