Lecture Set 5:

Optical Communication Systems

Thas A Nirmalathas
nirmalat @ unimelb . edu . Au

Contact me with a subject line starting

[UoJGuestLecture]
 Optical Fibre - Structure

Guest Lecturer from the Dept. of Electrical and Electronic ©Thas A Nirmalathas 2016 Optical Communications Systems:
Engineering, The University of Melbourne LectureSet5_slide2
 Physical Structure of Optical Fibres
• The cladding is made of pure silica, with refractive index ncl
(or n2)
• The core is made of doped silica, with refractive index nco
(or n1)
• nco > ncl by a very small amount
• Crucial – to confine light in the core
• Change of nco and ncl can be stepwise or graded
• Size of the core determines the fibre properties

Guest Lecturer from the Dept. of Electrical and Electronic ©Thas A Nirmalathas 2016 Optical Communications Systems:
Engineering, The University of Melbourne LectureSet5_slide3
 Ray Representation of Light

• Cross-section of fibre – shows two interfaces:

– One between ‘upper’ cladding and core
– One between core and ‘lower’ cladding
• Since there is a refractive index change at these interfaces, Snell’s law
applies
• Note that the ray picture is really
only valid when the core
dimensions are much larger
than the wavelength, and
diffraction can be ignored. In
particular, the “single mode” ray
picture is highly “conceptual”
(i.e. wrong!)
Guest Lecturer from the Dept. of Electrical and Electronic ©Thas A Nirmalathas 2016 Optical Communications Systems:
Engineering, The University of Melbourne LectureSet5_slide4
 Snell’s Law and
Total Internal Reflection
• When a light ray strikes an interface between two materials of different
refractive index, some of the light is transmitted and some is reflected
Snell’s Law
n1 sin f1 = n2 sin f2

– angle of incidence and angle of reflection are equal

– angle at which the transmitted ray leaves the interface
• The critical angle fcr is the smallest
incident angle for which there is no
transmitted wave
n2
f2 = 90o \ sin f2 = 1, sin fcr = ( n1 > n2 )
n1
fcr

Guest Lecturer from the Dept. of Electrical and Electronic ©Thas A Nirmalathas 2016 Optical Communications Systems:
Engineering, The University of Melbourne LectureSet5_slide5
 Numerical Aperture (NA)
• A ray entering a fibre from air (n0)
and being guided within the fibre. ncl
• Increase a, fi decreases until it fi fi
n0
reaches its minimum for no
transmitted wave (the critical a amax nco

angle fcr) i.e. a is a maximum ncl

• This gives the numerical aperture
(NA)
n0 sin a max =nco cos fcr = nco
2
- ncl2 ºNA
• NA is a measure of the fibre’s ability to gather light, because the
larger the NA is, the larger amax is, indicating that light will be
captured from a larger “cone” at the input of the fibre.

Guest Lecturer from the Dept. of Electrical and Electronic ©Thas A Nirmalathas 2016 Optical Communications Systems:
Engineering, The University of Melbourne LectureSet5_slide6
 Profile Height

• It is useful to define an additional fibre parameter D,

– known as the “profile height”

2 2
nco - ncl
D= 2
2nco
• With this definition, the NA can be written as

NA=nco 2D

• The really useful thing about this is that usually D << 1, nco - ncl
in which case it is possible to approximate D»
nco

Guest Lecturer from the Dept. of Electrical and Electronic ©Thas A Nirmalathas 2016 Optical Communications Systems:
Engineering, The University of Melbourne LectureSet5_slide7
 Rays, Wavefronts, and Modes
• Consider the waves represented by the rays reflecting inside the fibre
– some travel upwards and along, while some travel downwards and along
– all these waves must interfere in the fibre:
• where two peaks (or troughs) meet, we get a large peak (or trough);
• where a peak and trough meet we get cancellation

• Each allowed ray corresponds to

a single waveguide mode in the
cross-sectional axis of the fibre. l

Wavefront propagates at a phase velocity:

w 2pu c
vp = = =
b 2p n n
l

Guest Lecturer from the Dept. of Electrical and Electronic ©Thas A Nirmalathas 2016 Optical Communications Systems:
Engineering, The University of Melbourne LectureSet5_slide8
 Waveguiding and Modes in Optical Fibres
• A full understanding of the way in which • Optical fibres, on the other hand,
light is guided in an optical fibre requires are 3D and circular, so the
the solution of Maxwell’s Equations to situation is more complicated!
determine the waveguide modes Mode well suited for light transmission

• In a planar, rectangular waveguide, the

solutions are sinusoidal oscillations and
decaying exponentials

Guest Lecturer from the Dept. of Electrical and Electronic ©Thas A Nirmalathas 2016 Optical Communications Systems:
Engineering, The University of Melbourne LectureSet5_slide9
 Mode Profile

Guest Lecturer from the Dept. of Electrical and Electronic ©Thas A Nirmalathas 2016 Optical Communications Systems:
Engineering, The University of Melbourne LectureSet5_slide10
 Multi-mode Fibres

• Therefore with large NA – large core diameter, more light can be

captured and guided through the fibre
• Able to support multiple modes within the core
• MULTI-MODE FIBRE
• Usually with a core diameter of 62.5 µm

• Multi-mode fibres suffer from intermodal dispersion

Guest Lecturer from the Dept. of Electrical and Electronic ©Thas A Nirmalathas 2016 Optical Communications Systems:
Engineering, The University of Melbourne LectureSet5_slide11
 Group Velocity and Dispersion Diagram
• Each mode propagates with different
propagation constant, b (although
illuminated by monochromatic
radiation)
dw
• Dispersion diagram – slope ( ) at a db

particular w is the group velocity (vg)

• All allowed modes contained between
• At same w, each mode has different
vg c
and
c
n1 n2

Guest Lecturer from the Dept. of Electrical and Electronic ©Thas A Nirmalathas 2016 Optical Communications Systems:
Engineering, The University of Melbourne LectureSet5_slide12
 Light Transmission in Multimode Fibre

• Light energy is transported via one or more of the allowed modes of

propagation
• Higher order modes – penetrates more into the cladding
• These modes travel at different group velocity
• At end of fiber – all excited modes constitute the emerging light beam

Guest Lecturer from the Dept. of Electrical and Electronic ©Thas A Nirmalathas 2016 Optical Communications Systems:
Engineering, The University of Melbourne LectureSet5_slide13
 Intermodal Dispersion 1

• Group velocity (vg) of a mode – speed the

Shortest path
information propagate down the fibre
Longest path c
vg = sin q i
nco
• A whole series of allowed values of qi
– the set which establish standing-
wave patterns across the fibre
• The two extremes: • Propagation time, t, over distance, L
– a ray straight down the centre of the
fibre (qi = p/2) nco
t =L
– a ray at (or near) the critical angle (qi
= qcr)
c sin q i

Guest Lecturer from the Dept. of Electrical and Electronic ©Thas A Nirmalathas 2016 Optical Communications Systems:
Engineering, The University of Melbourne LectureSet5_slide14
 Intermodal Dispersion 2
• If all rays enter the fibre at the same time, they will emerge at different
times (centre ray first (qi = p/2) and ray at the critical angle last (qi = qcr))

• The maximum differential delay is given by

æ ö
n ç 1 1 ÷ nco æ nco - ncl ö L NA2
Dt = t cr - t centre = L co ç - ÷= L ç ÷»
c ç sin q cr p ÷ c è ncl ø 2c nco
sin
è 2 ø

• Intermodal dispersion (“spreading out between modes”) is defined as

Dt
D int =
L
Guest Lecturer from the Dept. of Electrical and Electronic ©Thas A Nirmalathas 2016 Optical Communications Systems:
Engineering, The University of Melbourne LectureSet5_slide15
 Signal Distortion

• Dispersion-induced signal distortion

– Different wavelengths of an optical signal travel at
different speeds
– Broadening of light pulses – overlapping with
neighbouring pulses (causes intersymbol interference)

Guest Lecturer from the Dept. of Electrical and Electronic ©Thas A Nirmalathas 2016 Optical Communications Systems:
Engineering, The University of Melbourne LectureSet5_slide16
 Pulse Spreading

t t+Dt
I I

t L (km) of fibre t

• Pulse broadening - occurs in general if the leading edge of a

pulse consist of wavelength components that travel faster
than the trailing edge of a pulse
• Pulse broadening can produce intersymbol interference
(limit on bandwidth–distance product for communication
systems)

Guest Lecturer from the Dept. of Electrical and Electronic ©Thas A Nirmalathas 2016 Optical Communications Systems:
Engineering, The University of Melbourne LectureSet5_slide17
 Pulse Spreading
• Consequence of intermodal dispersion – pulse spreading
• Exercise: 2 2
Dt NA 0.12
Dint = » = 8
= 1.6 ´ 10 -11 sm-1 = 16 ns/km
L 2cnco 2 ´ 3 ´ 10 ´ 1.5

• This means that if we inject a short pulse of light into the input of the fibre,
after travelling through 1 km of fibre the output pulse will be 16 ns wider
than the input pulse
1 km
• Dispersion of 16 ns/km means
that pulses spread out by 16 ns
for every kilometre of fibre they
T+16 ns
propagate through T

Guest Lecturer from the Dept. of Electrical and Electronic ©Thas A Nirmalathas 2016 Optical Communications Systems:
Engineering, The University of Melbourne LectureSet5_slide18
 Intersymbol Interference

• Why is pulse broadening “bad”?

• If we assume that it is “OK” for pulses
– Consider a series of pulses and to spread half-way into adjacent
spaces representing a bit pulses, then they can each spread out
stream at bit-rate B (so that the by a total of one bit period, i.e.
pulse period is 1/B) propagating
1 L NA 2
through a multi-mode fibre Dt max = \B =1
B 2c n co
• The pulses start to run into each
other, so that it gets hard to tell the
2cn co
‘1’s from the ‘0’s \ BL=
Input NA2
1/B
• BL, is known as the bit-rate-distance
Output product

Guest Lecturer from the Dept. of Electrical and Electronic ©Thas A Nirmalathas 2016 Optical Communications Systems:
Engineering, The University of Melbourne LectureSet5_slide19
 Graded-Index Fibre

• Intermodal dispersion limits bit- • a is known as the profile

rate and/or transmission parameter, and determines the
distance. So what do we do exact shape of the graded-index
about it? profile
• First solution: graded-index
multi-mode fibre, in which the
core refractive index is a
function of the radial coordinate
1
a
é æ rö ù
2
n( r ) = nco ê1 - 2D ç ÷ ú
ë è aø û

Guest Lecturer from the Dept. of Electrical and Electronic ©Thas A Nirmalathas 2016 Optical Communications Systems:
Engineering, The University of Melbourne Lectur9_slide20
 Graded-Index Fibre and Intermodal Dispersion

• Why does this reduce intermodal dispersion?

• Minimising the differential delay between the shortest and longest rays!

Guest Lecturer from the Dept. of Electrical and Electronic ©Thas A Nirmalathas 2016 Optical Communications Systems:
Engineering, The University of Melbourne LectureSet5_slide21
 Modes in Optical Fibre
• Second solution to minimise intermodal
dispersion b Single-mode fibre
– have one mode propagating in fibre 1 (core diameter~10µm)
• For a Step Index Fibre, number of linearly Single LP01
polarised modes and their propagation 0.8
Mode is LP11
constants, b are determined by this normalised possible
0.6
frequency parameter, V. LP21
2pa
V=
l
(n 2
co - ncl2 )
0.4
LP02
• Normalised propagation constant, b when 0.2
plotted against V for various modes 0 V
2
æ b 2 3 4 6
ç k ö ÷ - ncl 0 1 5
2

b= è 2 ø 2 V=2.405
nco - ncl

Guest Lecturer from the Dept. of Electrical and Electronic ©Thas A Nirmalathas 2016 Optical Communications Systems:
Engineering, The University of Melbourne LectureSet5_slide22
 Other Limitations
• Overcome intermodal dispersion using
– Graded Index Fibre
– Single-Mode Fibre
• Other limitations in relation to transmission of light over
fibre
– Losses/attenuation
• Material losses
• Scattering losses
• Bending losses
– Intramodal dispersion

Guest Lecturer from the Dept. of Electrical and Electronic ©Thas A Nirmalathas 2016 Optical Communications Systems:
Engineering, The University of Melbourne LectureSet5_slide23
 Review - dB

• In general to express X in dB:

X in dB = 10 log10 ( X )

• To express in terms of dBm, is essentially taking the decibels of

X relative to 1mW
æ X ö
X in dBm = 10 log10 ç ÷
è 0.001 ø

Guest Lecturer from the Dept. of Electrical and Electronic ©Thas A Nirmalathas 2016 Optical Communications Systems:
Engineering, The University of Melbourne LectureSet5_slide24
 Signal Attenuation (Loss)

When light propagates through a material, its amplitude decreases

governed by the loss experienced by the wave.

Vacuum (or air) Medium

l0

k b
Wavelength
0 l0/n decreases
E ( z, t ) = E0 (0) exp[ j (w t - k0 z )] E0 (0) exp[(-a ) z ] exp[ j (w t - b z )]

Guest Lecturer from the Dept. of Electrical and Electronic ©Thas A Nirmalathas 2016 Optical Communications Systems:
Engineering, The University of Melbourne LectureSet5_slide25
 Signal Attenuation (Loss)

• When signal travels along a fibre, a certain fraction of the power will be
lost
– for example, in standard single mode fibre, it takes about 10 km for
1 half the power to be lost
• Plot shows a typical signal
0.8
strength after transmission
Remaining Power (mW)

0.6 over 40 km of standard single

mode fibre
0.4

0.2 • ½ power loss after 10 km

0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
Dis tance (km)

Guest Lecturer from the Dept. of Electrical and Electronic ©Thas A Nirmalathas 2016 Optical Communications Systems:
Engineering, The University of Melbourne LectureSet5_slide26
 Fibre Attenuation

• Loss can be quantified – Fibre Attenuation (a)

– Convenient to express this attenuation in units of decibels per kilometre,
and common to use the symbol a to denote this quantity
1 P
a = 10 log10 in (dB/km)
L Pout

1 P 1 1
a= 10 log10 in = 10 log = 0.3 dB/km
L Pout 10 0.5

• For single mode fibre, after travelling L=10km with Pin=1mW and
Pout=0.5mW,

Guest Lecturer from the Dept. of Electrical and Electronic ©Thas A Nirmalathas 2016 Optical Communications Systems:
Engineering, The University of Melbourne LectureSet5_slide27
 Causes of Signal Attenuation – Material
Absorption

• Optical fibres are actually highly transparent (typical attenuation 0.2-0.3

dB/km)
– if the ocean were this transparent to visible light, we could see clearly
to the bottom of the deepest trenches
• One cause of loss is absorption
– photons are absorbed by atoms and molecules in the glass, and
disappear completely (converted to vibrational energy)!
– Material absorption can be classified into
• Intrinsic absorption
• Extrinsic absorption

Guest Lecturer from the Dept. of Electrical and Electronic ©Thas A Nirmalathas 2016 Optical Communications Systems:
Engineering, The University of Melbourne LectureSet5_slide28
 Material Absorption – Intrinsic Absorption

• Intrinsic Absorption
– photons absorbed by molecules that are used to make the fibre (e.g.
SiO2, GeO2)
– Unavoidable
– Pure silica fibre exhibits very low intrinsic absorption over the
wavelength range of 800nm to 1800nm
– However needs dopant such as GeO2 to increase refractive index of
core –GeO2 has intrinsic absorption peak just below 1300nm and a
strong peak at around 1400nm

Guest Lecturer from the Dept. of Electrical and Electronic ©Thas A Nirmalathas 2016 Optical Communications Systems:
Engineering, The University of Melbourne LectureSet5_slide29
 Material Absorption – Extrinsic Absorption

• Extrinsic Absorption
– Caused by undesired impurities in the
glass (e.g. transition metal elements,
OH)
– Can be reduced by improving
fabrication techniques (minimising
metal elements)
– Some impurities almost impossible to
eliminate cost-effectively
• OH bond in water molecules – absorbs
around 1250nm, 1400nm and
harmonics of these frequencies

Guest Lecturer from the Dept. of Electrical and Electronic ©Thas A Nirmalathas 2016 Optical Communications Systems:
Engineering, The University of Melbourne LectureSet5_slide30
 Causes of Signal Attenuation - Scattering

• Another important cause of signal attenuation is scattering

– in a scattering process, photons are not actually destroyed, they are
simply deflected out of the fibre
– scattering occurs whenever there are fluctuations in the material density
- and since glasses are amorphous (i.e. non-crystalline), there are always
density fluctuations if you look on a small enough scale

Guest Lecturer from the Dept. of Electrical and Electronic ©Thas A Nirmalathas 2016 Optical Communications Systems:
Engineering, The University of Melbourne LectureSet5_slide31
 Rayleigh Scattering

• The most significant scattering process in fibre is Rayleigh Scattering

– occurs when the material density fluctuations is smaller than the
wavelength of the light
– most of the light continues on, but a small percentage per unit length is
scattered away randomly
– the fraction of light scattered per unit length represents an attenuation of
the guided signal, aR
1
aR µ
l4

Guest Lecturer from the Dept. of Electrical and Electronic ©Thas A Nirmalathas 2016 Optical Communications Systems:
Engineering, The University of Melbourne LectureSet5_slide32
 Causes of Signal Attenuation – Bending
Losses

• Macrobending loss
– Speed of propagation of any guided mode lies between c/nco and c/ncl
– At a bend, part of mode closer to centre of curvature travels slower than
that further away
– Eventually tail of a mode lies in cladding region will have to travel faster
than c/ncl – not possible. Hence power at the outer part of the mode will
be radiated out!

Guest Lecturer from the Dept. of Electrical and Electronic ©Thas A Nirmalathas 2016 Optical Communications Systems:
Engineering, The University of Melbourne LectureSet5_slide33
 Bending Loss

• Microbends
– Small scale fluctuations in the radius of curvature of
the fibre axis
– Results from nonuniformities in the manufacturing
process or nonuniform stress introduce during cabling
– Consequence
• coupling of lower-order modes to high-order modes
• Coupling of higher-order modes to non-guided
modes – i.e. coupling power out of the fibre!

Guest Lecturer from the Dept. of Electrical and Electronic ©Thas A Nirmalathas 2016 Optical Communications Systems:
Engineering, The University of Melbourne LectureSet5_slide34
 Overall Fibre Attenuation Characteristics

• Transmission has moved up in First Second Third

wavelength over time to areas window window window

with reduced attenuation

• Note that in addition to the
mechanisms already discussed,
this graph shows the effect of
“waveguide imperfections”
– since the interface between
the core and cladding is not
perfectly smooth, some light
is scattered out of the core

Guest Lecturer from the Dept. of Electrical and Electronic ©Thas A Nirmalathas 2016 Optical Communications Systems:
Engineering, The University of Melbourne LectureSet5_slide35
 Pulse Spreading – Dispersion

t t+Dt
I I

t L (km) of fibre t
• Dispersion results in pulse broadening if the leading edge
of a pulse consist of wavelength components that travel
faster than the trailing edge of a pulse
– Intermodal dispersion in multimode fibre
• Due to different modes travel at different speeds
– Intramodal dispersion in single mode fibre
• Due to finite linewidth of incident light
• Material dispersion - caused by variation of n with λ.
• Waveguide dispersion

Guest Lecturer from the Dept. of Electrical and Electronic ©Thas A Nirmalathas 2016 Optical Communications Systems:
Engineering, The University of Melbourne LectureSet5_slide36
 Group Velocity Dispersion (GVD)

• an intramodal dispersion process (meaning that the spreading-out occurs within a single mode)
– power in a pulse is usually spread over a finite frequency spectrum (non- ideal monochromatic
signal)
– if the group velocity is not constant with frequency, different spectral components of the pulse
will travel at different speeds, and the pulse will spread out
– also called Group Velocity Dispersion (GVD)
• Main causes of GVD
– Group velocity is a function of wavelength
– the actual refractive index of the glass core is a function of frequency - MATERIAL DISPERSION
– the propagation constant for a guided mode is a function of frequency - WAVEGUIDE
DISPERSION

Guest Lecturer from the Dept. of Electrical and Electronic ©Thas A Nirmalathas 2016 Optical Communications Systems:
Engineering, The University of Melbourne LectureSet5_slide37