Contents

•Overview of optical fiber communications

•Definitions of Optical Fiber
•A History of Fiber Optic TechnologyFiber
•Advantages
•es
•Af Application
•ical fiber Construction
•Fiber optic cable
•Elements of an Optical Fiber communication
•Introduction and Classification of Optical Waveguides
Overview of optical fiber communication

⮚It is a method of transmitting information from one place to another place by sending light through an optical fiber
⮚The light forms an electromagnetic carrier wave that is modulated to carry information

Creating optical
Convert to
signal using Receive Signal
electrical signal
transmitter
 Definitions of optical fiber

⮚ An optical fiber (or fibre) is a glass or plastic fiber that carries light along its length.

⮚ Light is kept in the "core" of the optical fiber by total internal reflection.

⮚ Optical fibers are widely used in fiber-optic communication, which permits transmission over longer distances and at
higher data rates than other forms of wired and wireless communications.

⮚ Optical fibers are long, thin strands of very pure glass usually 120 μm in diameter. They are arranged in bundles called
optical cables and used to transmit light signals over long distances.

⮚ An optical fiber is a hair thin cylindrical fiber of glass or any transparent dielectric medium.

⮚ The fiber which are used for optical communication are wave guides made of transparent dielectrics.

⮚ Its function is to guide visible and infrared light over long distances.
 A History of fiber optic technology
The Nineteenth Century

• John Tyndall, 1870

– water and light experiment
– demonstrated light used internal reflection to
follow a specific path
• William Wheeling, 1880
– “piping light” patent
– never took off
• Alexander Graham Bell, 1880
– optical voice transmission system
– called a photophone
– free light space carried voice 200 meters
• Fiber-scope, 1950’s
 The twentieth century

⮚ Glass coated fibers developed to reduce optical loss

⮚ Inner fiber - core
⮚ Glass coating - cladding
⮚ Development of laser technology was important to fiber optics
⮚ Large amounts of light in a tiny spot needed
⮚ 1960, ruby and helium-neon laser developed
⮚ 1962, semiconductor laser introduced - most popular type of laser in fiber
optics
⮚ 1966, Charles Kao and Charles Hockman proposed optical fiber could be
used to transmit laser light if attenuation could be kept under 20dB/km
(optical fiber loss at the time was over 1,000dB/km)
⮚ 1970, Researchers at Corning developed a glass fiber with less than a
20dB/km loss
⮚ Attenuation depends on the wavelength of light
 core

cladding
 Evaluation of optical fiber

•1880
•Alexander Graham Bell

•1930
•Patents on tubing

•1950
•Patent for two-layer glass wave-guide

•1960
•Laser first used as light source

•1965
•High loss of light discovered

•1970s
•Refining of manufacturing process

•1980s
•OF technology becomes backbone of long distance telephone networks in NA.
 Advantages
⮚ Thinner
⮚ Less expensive
⮚ High bandwidth
⮚ Higher carrying capacity
⮚ Less signal degradation & Digital signals
⮚ Light signals
⮚ Non-flammable
⮚ Light weight
⮚ Immunity to noise
⮚ Safety
⮚ High security
⮚ Less loss
⮚ Reliability
⮚ Size
⮚ Durability
⮚ Flexibility
 Advantages

⮚ Immunity to noise- Immune to electromagnetic interference (EMI)

⮚ Safety- Doesn’t transmit electrical signals, making it safe in environments like a
gas pipeline
⮚ High security-Impossible to “tap into”
⮚ Less loss- Repeaters can be spaced 75 miles apart (fibers can be made to have only
0.2db/km of attenuation)
⮚ Reliability-More resilient than copper in extreme environmental conditions.
⮚ Size- Lighter and more compact than copper
⮚ Flexibility-Unlike impure, brittle glass, fiber is physically very flexible.
 Advantages

⮚The life of fiber is longer than copper wire.

⮚Handling and installation costs of optical fiber is very nominal

⮚ It is unaffected with electromagnetic interference.

⮚Attenuation in optical fiber is lower than coaxial cable or twisted pair.

⮚There is no necessity of additional equipment for protecting against grounding and voltage problems.

⮚As it does not radiates energy any antenna or detector cannot detects it hence provides signal security.

⮚Long Distance Transmission: The lower transmission losses in fibers compared to copper wires
allow data to be sent over longer distances.
⮚Increased Signal Security: An optical signal is well-confined within the fiber and an opaque coating
around the fiber absorbs any signal emissions.
 Disadvantages

•Interfacing costs
•Expensive over short distance
•Requires highly skilled installers
•Adding additional nodes is difficult
•Remote electrical power
•Susceptible to losses introduced by bending cable
 Areas of Applications

•Telecommunications
•Local Area Networks

•Optical fiber sensors

 Areas of Applications

Optical fiber have wider range of application in almost all field, some are been
specified below:

⮚In space applications

⮚ Broadband applications
⮚ Computer applications industrial applications
⮚Mining applications
⮚ In medical applications
⮚ In military applications etc.
 Areas of Applications
• Military
– 1970’s, Fiber optic telephone link installed aboard the U.S.S. Little Rock
– 1976, Air Force developed Airborne Light Fiber Technology (ALOF)
 Areas of Applications
▪ Commercial
▪ 1977, AT&T and GTE installed system
▪ Fiber optic telephone networks are common today
▪ Research continues to increase the capabilities of fiber optic transmission
 Medical Applications
⮚ Endoscope
⮚ Eyes surgery
⮚ Blood pressure meter
⮚ Key hole surgery
 Future

⮚ Fiber Optics have immense potential bandwidth (over 1 terahertz, 10 12 Hz)

⮚ Fiber optics is predicted to bring broadband services to the home
⮚ Interactive video
⮚ Interactive banking and shopping
⮚ Distance learning
⮚ Security and surveillance
⮚ High-speed data communication using (Li-Fi Technology).

Li-Fi advantages: High Speed, Green

Information Technology, Lighting points used
as Hotspot
 Optical fiber Construction

• Optical fiber consists of a

• core, cladding, and a
• protective outer coating,
• which guides light along
• the core by total internal
• reflection.
• • Core – thin glass center of the
• fiber where light travels.
• • Cladding – outer optical
• material surrounding the core
• • Buffer Coating – plastic
• coating that protects the
• fiber.
• The core and the lower refractive index cladding, are typically made of high-quality silica glass, through they can
both be made of plastic as well
 Optical fiber Construction

plastic jacket glass or plastic fiber core

cladding
Optical fiber Cable
 Optical fiber Cable

• Contains one or several glass

fibers at its core
• Surrounding the fibers is a
layer of glass called cladding

⮚ Plastic core and cladding

⮚ Glass core with plastic cladding ( called PCS fiber- Plastic Clad Silica )
⮚ Glass core and glass cladding ( called SCS - Silica Clad Silica )
 Elements of an optical fiber communication

Optical
Fiber
User
Transmitt User
Input(s Receiver Outp
) er
ut(s)
Electrical-to-Optical Optical-to-Electrical
Conversion Conversion

⮚Transmitter: a light source and signal-formatting circuitry

⮚A optical cable: offering mechanical and environmental protection to the optical fibers contained inside
⮚A receiver: consisting of a photo detector plus amplification and signal-restoring circuitry
⮚Other components: Optical amplifiers, connectors, splices, couplers, regenerators, and passive and active devices.
 Transmitter (Tx)

User Optical
Electrical Data Encoder/ Light
Input( Output
Interface Modulator Emitter
s)

⮚ Electrical interface encodes user’s information through AM, FM or Digital Modulation

⮚ Encoded information transformed into light by means of a light-emitting diode (LED) or laser diode
(LD)
 Receiver (Rx)

⮚ Decodes the light signal back into an electrical signal

⮚ Types of light detectors typically used
⮚ PIN photodiode
⮚ Avalanche photodiode
⮚ Made from silicon (Si), indium gallium arsenide (InGaAs) or germanium (Ge)
⮚ The data decoder/demodulator converts the signals into the correct format

Optical Light Data User

Detector/ Decoder/ Electrical Output(
Input Interface
Amplifier Demodulator s)
 Transmission Comparison
⮚ Metallic: limited information and distance
⮚ Free-space:
⮚ Large bandwidth
⮚ long distance
⮚ Not private
⮚ Costly to obtain useable spectrum
⮚ Optical fiber: offers best of both
Optical fiber functional diagram
 Optical Source

Two Components are used as light sources:

▪ Light emitting diodes (LED’s)
▪ Laser diodes
because they couple light efficiently in to the fiber. Efficient coupling means to couple
the maximum output power to the fiber.

⮚The light emitting diodes are used for short distances and low data rate
applications due to their low bandwidth and power capabilities.
⮚Two such LEDs structures include Surface and Edge Emitting Systems.
 Optical Source

⮚The surface emitting diodes are simple in design and are reliable, but due to its
broader line width and modulation frequency limitation edge emitting diode are
mostly used.

⮚Edge emitting diodes have high power and narrower line width capabilities.

⮚For longer distances and high data rate transmission, Laser Diodes are preferred
due to its high power, high speed and narrower spectral line width characteristics.

⮚But these are inherently non-linear and more sensitive to temperature variations
 Comparison between LED and LASER

Characteristic LED Laser

Output power Lower Higher

Spectral width Wider Narrower

Numerical aperture Larger Smaller
Speed Slower Faster
Cost Less More

Ease of operation Easier More difficult

 Other components and its functions

⮚Optical splice: is used to permanently join two individual optical fibers.

⮚Optical connector: is for temporary non-fixed joints between two individual optical
fibers.

⮚Optical coupler or splitter: provides signal to other devices.

⮚Repeater: Converts the optical signal in to electrical signal using optical receiver and
passes it to electronic circuit where it is reshaped and amplified as it gets attenuated
and distorted with increasing distance because of scattering, absorption and dispersion
in waveguides, and this signal is then again converted in to optical signal by the optical
transmitter.
 Optical Receiver

⮚Optical signal is applied to the optical receiver. It consists of photo detector, amplifier and signal
restorer.

⮚Photo detector converts the optical signal to electrical signal.

⮚Photo detector is normally a semiconductor device and may be a p-n junction, a p-i-n photo diode
or an avalanche photo diode. Photo transistors are not used because they do not have sufficient
speed.

⮚Signal restorers and amplifiers are used to improve signal to noise ratio of the signal as there are
chances of noise to be introduced in the signal due to the use of photo detectors.

⮚Once the optical signal from the fiber optic cable has been applied to the photo –detector and
converted in to an electrical format it can be processed to recover the data which can then be
passed to its final destination.
 Final Comments

For short distance communication only main elements are required

▪ Source-LED
▪ Fiber-Multimode step index fiber
▪ Detector-PIN detector

For long distance communication along with the main elements there is need for couplers, beam
splitters, repeaters, optical amplifiers.

▪ Source-LASER diode
▪ Fiber-Single mode fiber
▪ Detector-Avalanche photo diode (APD)
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