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Question Paper Code : 90127

St. JOSEPH'S COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING, CHENNAI - 119

(An Autonomous Institution)
B.E./B.Tech. DEGREE END SEMESTER EXAMINATIONS, NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2021

Seventh Semester
Electronics and Communication Engineering
EC8751 - OPTICAL COMMUNICATION
(Regulations 2017)

TIME : Three hours MAXIMUM : 100 MARKS

Answer ALL questions

PART - A (10 X 2 = 20 Marks)
1. State Snell’s law.
2. An application engineer has an optical fiber that has a 3 μm core radius and a
numerical aperture of 0.1. Will this fiber exhibit single mode operation at 800 nm ?
3. A continuous 12 km long optical fiber link has a loss of 1.5 dB/km. Evaluate the
minimum optical power that must be launched into the fiber to maintain the optical
power level of 0.3 μW at the receiving end.
4. Why do we calculate mode field diameter? Write its significance.
5. Why is silica not used to fabricate LED or LASER diodes?
6. What is the significance of intrinsic layer in PIN diodes?
7. Define quantum limit.
8. State the significance of maintaining the fiber outer diameter constant.
9. Draw the block schematic of ROADM.
10. What are solitons and give its significance?

PART - B (5 X 13 = 65 Marks)
11.a i) With a neat block diagram, explain the fundamental blocks of optical fiber (13)
communication. (7)

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 ii) Consider a fiber with 25 µm core radius, core refractive index of 1.48 and
core-cladding index difference of 0.01. If the operating wavelength is 1320 nm,
calculate V number and how many modes propagate in the fiber. What percent of
optical power flows in the cladding? (6)
OR
11.b i) Explain about any two fiber fabrication techniques. (7) (13)
ii) Find the core radius necessary for single mode operation at 1320 nm of a step
index fiber with core refractive index of 1.48 and cladding refractive index of 1.478.
Determine the numerical aperture and acceptance angle of the fiber. (6)

12.a i) Prove that the delay difference between the axial ray and extreme meridional (13)

ray is , where L is the fiber length, n1 is the core refractive index, c is

the velocity of light in vacuum and . (7)

ii) When the mean optical power launched into an 8 km length of fiber is 120 μW,
the mean optical power at the fiber output is 3 μW. Determine
(1) Overall signal attenuation in dB/km
(2) Overall signal attenuation for a 10 km optical link using the same fiber with
splices at 1 km intervals, each giving an attenuation of 1dB and
(3) Numerical input/output power ratio. (2+2+2)
OR
12.b Describe the techniques employed and the fiber structures utilized to provide (13)
(a) dispersion-shifted single mode fibers
(b) dispersion-flattened single mode fibers
(c) nonzero-dispersion shifted single mode fibers. (5+4+4)

13.a i) Derive an expression for internal quantum efficiency, power and external (13)
quantum efficiency of LED. (7)
ii) A double heterojunction InGaAsP LED emitting at a peak wavelength of
1310 nm has radiative and non-radiative recombination times of 25 ns and 90 ns,
respectively. The drive current is 3.5 mA.
(1) Find the internal quantum efficiency and internal power level.
(2) If the refractive index of the light source material is 3.5, find the power
emitted from the device. (4+2)

OR

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13.b i) Explain the structure and working of PIN photo diode. (7) (13)
ii) A silicon avalanche photodiode has a quantum efficiency of 65 percent at a
wavelength of 900 nm. Suppose 0.5 μW of optical power produces a multiplied
photocurrent of 10 μA. What is the multiplication M? (6)
14.a Discuss in detail about the methods used for measuring intermodal dispersion (13)
and chromatic dispersion.
OR
14.b (i) Describe the various types of connectors in detail. (7) (13)
(ii) Explain the lensing schemes used to improve optical source to fiber coupling
efficiency. (6)

15.a (i) Analyse the rise-time budget in detail. (7) (13)

(ii) Assume that LED together with drive circuit has a rise time of 15 ns. LED has
a spectral width of 40 nm. We have a material dispersion related rise time
degradation of 21 ns over the 6 km link. The rise time degradation from the
receiver is 14 ns. The modal dispersion induced fiber rise time is 3.9 ns.
Calculate link rise time. (6)
OR
15.b i) Explain in detail different types of Broad cast-and-select WDM networks. (7) (13)
ii) Illustrate the concept of routing and wavelength assignment technique in the
wavelength routed networks. (6)

PART - C (1 X 15 = 15 Marks)
16.a i) Discuss with the aid of a suitable diagram the cut- back technique used for the (15)
measurement of the total attenuation in an optical fiber. Indicate the differences
in the apparatus utilized for spectral loss and spot attenuation
measurement. (10)
ii) A spot measurement of fiber attenuation is performed on a 1.5 km length of
optical fiber at a wavelength of 1.1 µm. The measured optical output power from
the 1.5 km length of fiber is 50.1 µW. When the fiber is cut back to a 2 m length,
the measured optical power is 385.4 µW. Determine the attenuation per
kilometer for the fiber at a wavelength of 1.1 µm. (5)
OR
16.b What is optical power budgeting? Determine the optical power budget for the below (15)
system and hence determine its viability. Components are chosen for a digital

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optical fiber link of overall length 7 Km and operating at 20 Mbps using RZ code.
It is decided that an LED emitting at 0.85 µm with graded index fiber to a PIN
photodiode is a suitable choice for the system components giving no dispersion
equalization penalty. An LED which is capable of launching an average of 100 µW
of optical power (including connected loss) into a graded index fiber of 50 µm core

diameter is chosen. The proposed fiber cable has an attenuation of 2.6 dB·km -1
and requires splicing every kilometer with a loss of 0.5 dB per splice. There is also
a 1.5 dB connecter loss at the receiver. The receiver mean incident optical power

of -41 dBm in order to give the necessary BER of 10 -10, and it is predicted that
a safety margin of 6 dB will be required.

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