OPTICAL FIBER
COMMUNICATIONS
Lecture 1: Introduction
Contents
Lecture 1: Introduction
Lecture 2: Physics of Light
Lecture 3: Optical Fibers
Lecture 4: Single Mode Fibers
Lecture 5: Fabrication, Cabling and
Installation
Lecture 6: Fiber Cable Connectorization
and Testing
Lecture 7: Optical Sources_Part 1
Lecture 8: Optical Sources_Part 2
Lecture 9: Optical Transmitters
Lecture 10: Photodiodes
Lecture 11: Optical Receivers
Text Books
Main Text Book:
Fiber-Optics Communication Technology, Djafar K.
Mynabaev and Lowell L. Scheiner
Optical Fiber Communications, Principles and Practice,
Third Edition, John M. Senior
Fiber Optic Communications, Joseph C. Palais
Optical Fiber Communications, Fourth Edition, Gred
Keiser, 2011.
Understanding Optical Fiber Communications, Fifth
Edition, Jeff Hecht.
Telecommunication
Telecommunications is the exchange of information over
a certain distance using some type of equipment.
There 3 types of information Voice, Video and Data.
The simplest form of telecommunication is the point to
point.
Transmitter Receiver
Telecommunication is mainly in the form of Networks.
Telecommunication – contd.
Information Carrying Capacity
The main requirement of modern
telecommunication systems is the Capacity.
Information Carrying Capacity is the ability of a
communication link to transmit a certain amount
of information per unit of time.
The demand placed on telecommunication
systems is for more information carrying capacity,
because of the volume of information produced
increases rapidly.
Digital technology for high reliability and quality
is used.
Traffic Growth and Composition
Why Digital?
There are two basic forms of signals:
Analog
Digital
The analog signals carries information by means of the values
of its amplitude, frequency, or phase.
Noise and other distortions change these values, resulting very
often in incorrect understanding of the delivered information.
Digital signals carries information by bits, which can be either
logic 1 or 0.
These logic meaning are represented as electrical pulses.
Any distortion results in signal amplitude change but doesn’t
change the logical meaning of the signal.
Why Digital? – contd.
Digital technology is much more reliable than analog
technology, most modern systems are digital.
There is a price to pay for digital signals, digital
transmission require more channel capacity than analog
transmission.
To convert a analog signal to digital signal samples are
taken.
Every sample of the analog signal requires several bits.
The better the transmission quality required, the greater
the number of bits.
Analog to Digital
The need for Optical fiber
Communications Systems
The major characteristic of a telecommuincation system is
its information carrying capacilty.
There is alimit on the capacity of a link, which is given by
the Shannon-Hartley Theorem:
C BW log 2 (1 SNR )
C is the capacity(bits/sec), BW is the bandwidth(hertz),
and SNR is the signal-to-noise power ratio.
The equation above shows the information carrying
capacity is limited by the channel bandwidth.
The channel bandwidth is limited by the frequency of the
signal carrier.
The need for Optical fiber
Communications Systems – contd.
The higher the carrier frequency, the greater the channel
bandwidth and higher the information carrying capacity
of the system.
Copper wire can carry a signal up to 1 MHz, a coaxial cable can
propagate up to 100 MHz.
Radio frequencies are in the range of 500 KHz to 100 MHz.
Microwave, including satellite channels, operate up to 100
GHz.
Fiber-optic communications systems use light as the signal
carrier, light frequencies are between 100-1000 THz.
Therefore, one can expect more capacity for optical systems.
Fiber-Optic Communication
System: The Basic Blocks
Fiber Optics Communication system consist of three major
elements:
Transmitter
Optical Fiber
Receiver
Transmitter: the heart of the transmitter is a light source.
The major function of a light source is to convert an
information signal its electrical form into light.
The light source can be either Light Emitting Diode (LED)
or Laser Diode (LD).
Transmitters include power-supply connections and
modulation circuitry. All components are packed together.
Fiber-Optic Communication
System: The Basic Blocks – contd.
Optical Fiber: the transmission media in a fiber optic system is
an optical fiber.
The optical fiber is a transparent flexible filament that guides
light from a transmitter to a receiver.
Optical fibers are generally fabricated from silica or plastic, and
cover by coating(bare fiber) and bundled together with other
optical fibers to form an optical fiber cable.
Receiver: the key component of an optical receiver is a
photodetector. The major function of a photodetector is to
convert an optical information signal back into electrical signal
(photocurrent).
Receivers include power-supply connections and signal
amplification circuitry. All components are packed together.
Basic Elements
TRANSMITTER FIBRE RECEIVER
+ –
+ –
Historical Developments
800 BC Use of fire signal by the Greeks
400 BC Fire relay technique to increase transmission
distance
1880 Invention of the photophone by Alexander
Graham Bell
Historical Developments – contd.
Scientist began to increase the frequency of signal beyond UHF
for higher data rates.
The signal attenuated very quickly
Waveguides where invented for light carriers similar for
microwave
1955 The birth of clad optical fibre, Kapany et al (USA)
1962 The semiconductor laser, by Natan, Holynal et al (USA)
1966 A paper by Kao and Hockham (UL) was a break through
Loss < 20 dB/km
Glass fibre rather than crystal (because of high viscosity)
Strength: 14000 kg /m2
Historical Developments – contd.
1970 Low attenuation fibre, by Apron and Keck (Corning
USA) from 1000 dB/km - to - 20 dB/km.
Dopant added to the silica to increase/decrease fiber refractive
index
1976 800 nm Graded multimode fibre @ 2 Gbps/km.
1980’s
1300 nm Single mode fibre @ 100 Gbps/km
1500 nm Single mode fibre @ 1000 Gbps/km
Erbium Doped Fibre Amplifier (EDFA)
Historical Developments – contd.
1990’s
Soliton transmission (exp.): 10 Gbps over 106 km with no error
Optical amplifiers
Wavelength division multiplexing
Optical time division multiplexing
2000 and beyond
Optical Networking
Dense WDM, @ 40 Gbps/channel, 10 channels
Hybrid DWDM/OTDM
~ 50 THz transmission window
> 1000 Channels WDM
> 100 Gbps OTDM
Polarization multiplexing
Intelligent networks
Applications
World Wide Submarine Networks
Backbone Networks
Optical Fiber Vs Satellite Systems
Optical fiber have higher information carrying capacity
In satellite, signal experience delay due to long distance
travelled from earth to satellite and back
Satellite communications depends on atmospheric
conditions
The main advantage of satellite communication is it has
the ability to reach any point in the globe
Fiber optics and satellite systems are more likely to
complement each other, then compete one another.
Undersea Cables
Installed Fiber in the USA
Applications – contd.
Metropolitan Area Networks (MANs)
Local Area Networks (LANs)