TE381Lecture1 Introduction
TE381Lecture1 Introduction
Communications
Lecture 1: Course Information & Introduction
Course Information
▪ Instructor: Prof. James Dzisi Gadze
▪ Phone: 020 689 1515
▪ E-mail: [email protected]
▪ Office: Room 319, FECE Building
▪ Communication systems
▪ Send messages/data from one place to another
▪ Use SIGNALS to represent messages/data
▪ Signals are in the form of electromagnetic energy
EM Radiation & Spectrum
▪ Electromagnetic radiation
▪ Wave of electric and magnetic fields
▪ Form of energy emitted and absorbed by charge particles
▪ Optical Fiber
▪ Thin transparent flexible filament that guides light from a transmitter to
a receiver
▪ Receiver
▪ Converts an optical signal back into an electrical signal
▪ the key component is photodetector
Optical Fiber System
Free Space Optical (FSO) Communications
Course Objective
▪ To introduce students
▪ to the fundamental principles of optical communication systems
▪ Thus
▪ To provide students with the understanding of
▪ the function and performance characteristics of the major elements
in an optical link
▪ We will describe/study the
▪ various technologies, implementation methodologies, and
performance measurement techniques that make optical fiber
communication systems possible
Learning Outcomes
▪ At the end of this course, students should:
▪ Explain the physics of light
▪ Understand and be able to explain the physical principles of how an
optical fiber guides light
▪ Be able to estimate the limitations on transmission speed and/or
distance caused by attenuation and dispersion
▪ Understand and be able to explain the operating principles, advantages
and limiting characteristics of semiconductor light sources
▪ Understand and be able to explain the operating principles of
semiconductor photo-detectors
Learning Outcomes
▪ At the end of this course, students should:
▪ Be able to estimate the receiver sensitivity for PIN and APD
photodetectors
▪ Design fiber optic communication links limited by loss and/or fiber
dispersion
▪ Demonstrate understanding of the concepts behind the operation of
optical fibers, light sources and optical receivers
▪ Be able to analyse optical communication systems
▪ Demonstrate understanding of the concept of WDM
Course Outline
▪ Physics of light
▪ The geometric view: Beams or rays
▪ The quantum view: Stream of photons
▪ The wave view: Electromagnetic waves
▪ Optical fiber
▪ How optical fibers conduct light (light propagation)
▪ Optical fiber characteristics
▪ Underlying concepts
▪ Optical fiber configurations
▪ Optical fiber modes (mode description and cutoff conditions)
▪ Single mode
▪ Multimode
• Step-index
• Graded index
Course Outline
▪ Signal Degradation in fiber
▪ Losses (Attenuation)
▪ Intrinsic loss mechanisms
▪ Bending loss
▪ Coupling loss
▪ Loss measurement (LAB)
▪ Dispersion
▪ Group delay distortion in multimode fibers (Intermodal dispersion)
▪ Dispersion mechanisms in single mode fibers
▪ Group Velocity Dispersion
▪ Chromatic dispersion
• Materials dispersion
• Waveguide dispersion
▪ Optical pulse propagation and broadening
▪ Dispersion Measurement (LAB)
Course Outline
▪ Light sources
▪ Basic light emission mechanisms in semiconductors
▪ Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs)
▪ Laser Diodes
▪ Light detectors
▪ Receiver components
▪ Basic light absorption concepts in semiconductors
▪ Photodetectors
▪ pn
▪ p-i-n
▪ Avalanche
▪ Response time and photodetector noise
▪ Bit error rate and receiver sensitivity
▪ Detectors and noise studies (LAB)
Course Outline
▪ System Fundamentals
▪ Design guidelines
▪ Point-to-point link power budgets
▪ BER Measurements
▪ Multichannel systems
▪ Performance measurement and monitoring
▪ Optical spectrum analyzer
▪ Optical time-domain reflectometer
▪ Bit error rate test set
▪ Eye diagram analysis
▪ Advanced Topics
▪ Optical amplifiers
▪ Soliton propagation
Course Outline
▪ Laboratory
▪ Loss measurement
▪ Fiber coupling/splicing
▪ Dispersion measurement
▪ Optical emitter characterization
▪ Detectors and noise studies
▪ Link characterization
Reference Books
1. Optical Fiber Communications
by Gerd Keiser
2. Fiber-Optic Communication Systems
by Govind P Agrawal
3. An introduction to Optical fibers
by Allen, H Cherin
The Evolution of Fiber Optic Systems
▪ First generation
▪ Developed in 1975
▪ Used GaAs semiconductor lasers, multimode fibers and silicon
detectors
▪ operated around 850 nm. Bit rate 45-140 Mb/s with 10 km repeater
spacing
▪ Second generation
▪ Used InGaAsP semiconductor lasers
▪ operated at 1300 nm and bit rate of (622 Mb/s-2.5 Gb/s)
▪ Both multimode and single mode fibers were used with 50 km repeater
spacing
The Evolution of Fiber Optic Systems
▪ Third generation systems
▪ operated around 1550 nm since the fiber loss @ 1550 nm is the lowest.
▪ Transmission rates – 2.5 Gb/s on single mode fiber with 100 km repeater spacing
▪ Fourth generation systems
▪ operated at 1550 nm
▪ Made used of optical amplifiers (EDFA) as replacement of repeaters and utilized
WDM to increase data rates
▪ Operated at a data rate of 5-10 Gbps over 11300 km
▪ Fifth generation system
▪ Used dense wave division multiplexing (DWDM) and concept of optical solitions
▪ Operated at 40 Gbps
THANK YOU