Optical Communication

Attenuation
 The attenuation or transmission loss of optical
fibers has proved to be one of the most
important factors in bringing about their wide
acceptance in telecommunications.
 Signal attenuation within optical fibers, as with
metallic conductors, is usually expressed in the
logarithmic unit of the decibel.
 The decibel, which is used for comparing two
power levels, may be defined for a particular
optical wavelength as the ratio of the input
(transmitted) optical power Pi into a fiber to the
output (received) optical power Po from the fiber
as:
A number of mechanisms are responsible for the
signal attenuation within optical fibers.
These mechanisms are influenced by the material
composition, the preparation and purification
technique, and the waveguide structure.
They may be categorized within several major areas
which include material absorption, material
scattering (linear and nonlinear scattering), curve
and micro-bending losses, mode coupling radiation
losses and losses due to leaky modes.
There are also losses at connectors and splices.
 Inoptical fiber communications the attenuation
is usually expressed in decibels per unit length
(i.e. dB km−1) following:

 where αdB is the signal attenuation per unit

length in decibels which is also referred to as the
fiber loss parameter and L is the fiber length
3.3 Material absorption losses in silica
glass fibers
 Material absorption is a loss mechanism related to the material composition
and the fabrication process for the fiber, which results in the dissipation of
some of the transmitted optical power as heat in the waveguide.
 The absorption of the light may be intrinsic (caused by the interaction with
one or more of the major components of the glass) or extrinsic (caused by
impurities within the glass).
3.3.1 Intrinsic absorption
 An absolutely pure silicate glass has little intrinsic absorption due to its
basic material structure in the near-infrared region.
 It does have two major intrinsic absorption mechanisms at optical
wavelengths which leave a low intrinsic absorption window over the
0.8 to 1.7 μm wavelength range.
 There is a fundamental absorption edge, the peaks of which are
centered in the ultraviolet wavelength region. This is due to the
stimulation of electron transitions within the glass by higher energy
excitations.
 The effects of both these processes may be minimized
by suitable choice of both core and cladding
compositions.
 For instance, in some non-oxide glasses such as fluorides
and chlorides, the infrared absorption peaks occur at
much longer wavelengths which are well into the far
infrared (up to 50 μm), giving less attenuation to longer
wave-length transmission compared with oxide glasses.
 3.3.2 Extrinsic absorption
 In practical optical fibers prepared by conventional melting
techniques, a major source of signal attenuation is extrinsic
absorption from transition metal element impurities.
 Some of the more common metallic impurities found in
glasses given in table:
 Certain of these impurities, namely chromium and copper, in
their worst valence state can cause attenuation in excess of 1
dB per km in the near-infrared region.
 Transition element contamination may be reduced to
acceptable levels (i.e. one part in 1010) by glass refining
techniques such as vapor-phase oxidation, which largely
eliminates the effects of these metallic impurities.
 Another major extrinsic loss mechanism is caused by
absorption due to water (as the hydroxyl or OH ion) dissolved
in the glass.
 Scattering Losses
 Scattering losses in glass arise from microscopic variations in
the material density, from compositional fluctuations and from
structural inhomogeneities or defects occurring during fiber
manufacture.
 3.4 Linear scattering losses
 Linear scattering mechanisms cause the transfer of some
or all of the optical power contained within one
propagating mode to be transferred linearly
(proportionally to the mode power) into a different mode.
 This process tends to result in attenuation of the
transmitted light as the transfer may be to a leaky or
radiation mode which does not continue to propagate
within the fiber core, but is radiated from the fiber.
 linear processes, there is no change of frequency on
scattering.
 Linear scattering may be categorized into two major types:
Rayleigh and Mie scattering. Both result from the non-
ideal physical properties of the manufactured fiber which
are difficult and, in certain cases, impossible to eradicate
at present.
 3.4.1 Rayleigh scattering
 Rayleigh scattering is the dominant intrinsic loss
mechanism in the low-absorption window between the
ultraviolet and infrared absorption tails.
 It results from inhomogeneities of a random nature
occurring on a small scale compared with the wavelength
of the light.
 These inhomogeneities manifest themselves as refractive
index fluctuations and arise from density and
compositional variations which are frozen into the glass
lattice on cooling.
 The compositional variations may be reduced by improved
fabrication, but the index fluctuations caused by the
freezing-in of density inhomogeneities are fundamental
and cannot be avoided.
Rayleigh scattering:
 For glass fibers the foremost type of scattering is Rayleigh
scattering. With this process, atoms or other particles within the
fiber absorb the light signal and instantly re-emits the light in
another direction.
 In this way Rayleigh scattering appears very much like
absorption but it absorbs and redirects the light so quickly that is
considered scattering.
 The subsequent scattering due to the density fluctuations,
which is in almost all directions, produces an attenuation
proportional to 1/λ4 following the Rayleigh scattering
formula:

where γR is the Rayleigh scattering coefficient, λ is the optical

wavelength, n is the refrac-tive index of the medium, p is the
average photoelastic coefficient, βc is the isothermal
compressibility at a fictive temperature TF and K is
Boltzmann’s constant
The Rayleigh scattering coefficient is related to the transmission
loss factor (transmissivity) of the fiber following the relation

where L is the length of the fiber.

 Mie Scattering
 caused in inhomogeneities which are comparable in size to the
guided wavelength.
▪ These result from the non-perfect cylindrical structure of the
waveguide and may be caused by
▪ fiber imperfections such as irregularities in the core-
cladding interface
▪ core-cladding refractive index differences along the fiber
length
▪ diameter fluctuations
▪ strains and bubbles
 When the scattering inhomogeneity size is greater than
λ/10, the scattered intensity which has an angular
dependence can be very large.
 The scattering created by such inhomogeneities is mainly
in the forward direction and is called Mie scattering.
 It can be reduced by removing imperfections of glass at
the time of manufacture, increasing the relative refractive
index of the core and the cladding and carefully
controlled extrusion and coating of the fiber.
 Nonlinear Scattering Losses
 Optical waveguides do not always behave as completely
linear channels whose increase in output optical power is
directly proportional to the input optical power.
 Several nonlinear effects occur, which in the case of
scattering cause disproportionate attenuation, usually at high
optical power levels.
 This scattering cause disproportionate attenuation, usually at
high optical power levels.
 Non linear scattering causes the power from one mode to be
transferred in either the forward or backward direction to the
same or other modes, at the different frequency.
 The most important types are;
1. Stimulated Brillouin Scattering SBS
2. Stimulated Raman scattering SRS
 Both are usually only observed at high optical power density
in long single mode fibers
 These scattering mechanisms in fact give optical gain but
with a shift in frequency, thus contributing to attenuation
for light transmission at a specific wavelength.
 Stimulated Brillouin Scattering (SBS)
SBS Regarded as modulation of light regarded as modulation
of light through thermal molecular vibrations within fiber.
Incident photon in this scattering process produces phonon of
acoustic frequency as well as scattered photon. This produces
optical frequency shift which varies with scattering angle
because frequency of sound waves varies with acoustic
wavelength.
This frequency shift is maximum in backward direction ,
reducing to zero in forward direction, making SBS is mainly
backward process.
In SBS strong optical signal generates acoustic waves. These
waves produce variations in refractive index.
It causes lightwaves to scatter in backward direction towards
transmitter called as backward scatter wave which affects the
forward signal leading to depletion in signal power.
 Threshold power is given by:

where d and λ are the fiber core diameter and the operating
wavelength, respectively, both measured in micrometers, α dB
is the fiber attenuation in decibels per kilometer and ν is the
source bandwidth (i.e. injection laser) in gigahertz.

The expression given in Eq. (3.6) allows the determination of

the threshold optical power which must be launched into a
single-mode optical fiber before SBS occurs.
 Stimulated Raman Scattering (SRS)
 SBS is similar to SRS except that a high frequency optical
phonon is generated rather than acoustic phonon in the scattering
process.
 SRS is transferring of energy from short wavelengths to
neighbouring high wavelength channels.
 Also, SRS can occur in both the forward and backward
directions in an optical fiber, and may have an optical power
threshold of up to three orders of magnitude higher than the
Brillouin threshold in a particular fiber
 If two input signal with equal power are transmitted than the
former will lose its own energy and the latter will gain this
energy, this limits the performance of the system.
 Shorter wavelengths are robbed of power and fed to longer
wavelengths.
The threshold optical power for SRS PR in a long single-
mode fiber is given by

.
 Fiber bend loss
 Optical fibers suffer radiation losses at bends or curves on
their paths. This is due to the energy in the evanescent field at
the bend exceeding the velocity of light in the cladding and
hence the guidance mechanism is inhibited, which causes light
energy to be radiated from the fiber.
 It is shown in Figure that the part of the mode which is on the
outside of the bend is required to travel faster than that on the
inside so that a wave front perpendicular to the direction of
propagation is maintained.
 Hence, part of the mode in the cladding needs to travel faster
than the velocity of light in that medium.

UNIT 2
 As this is not possible, the energy associated with this part
of the mode is lost through radiation.
 The loss can generally be represented by a radiation
attenuation coefficient

 where R is the radius of curvature of the fiber bend and c1,

c2 are constants which are independent of R.
 large bending losses tend to occur in multimode fibers at a
critical radius of curvature Rc which may be estimated from

UNIT 2
An illustration of the radiation loss at a fiber bend. The
part of the mode in the cladding outside the dashed
arrowed line may be required to travel faster than the
velocity of light in order to maintain a plane wavefront.
Since it cannot do this, the energy contained in this part
of the mode is radiated away

UNIT 2
 Potential macrobending losses may be reduced by:
(a) designing fibers with large relative refractive index
differences;
(b) operating at the shortest wavelength possible.

critical radius of curvature for a single-mode fiber Rcs can

be estimated as

where λc is the cutoff wavelength for the single-mode fiber.

UNIT 2
 Bending is the common problem that can cause optical
fiber losses generated by improper fiber optic handling.
There are two basic types. One is micro bending, and the
other one is macro bending . Macro bending refers to a
large bend in the fiber
 Minimising microbending loss is by extruding a
compressible jacket over the fiber. When external force
are applied to this configuration jacket will be deformed
but fiber will tend to stay straight.
Dispersion
Dispersion of the transmitted optical signal
causes distortion for both digital and analog
transmission along optical fibers.
Dispersion is the broadening of actual time-
width of the pulse due to material properties
and imperfections.
As pulse travels down the fiber, dispersion
causes pulse spreading. This limits the distance
travelled by the pulse and the bit rate of data
on optical fiber.
 It may be observed from the figure that each
pulse broadens and overlaps with its neighbors,
eventually becoming indistinguishable at the
receiver input. The effect is known as
Intersymbol Interference (ISI).
 Signal dispersion alone limits the maximum
possible bandwidth attainable with a particular
optical fiber to the point where individual
symbols can no longer be distinguished.
 For no overlapping of light pulses down on an
optical fiber link the digital bit rate must be
less than the reciprocal of the broadened
(through dispersion) pulse duration (2τ) Hence:
The maximum bit rate is given
approximately by
 Multimode step index fiber exhibits the
greatest dispersion of a transmitted light pulse
and the multimode graded index fiber gives a
considerably improved performance.
 Single-mode fiber gives the minimum pulse
broadening and thus is capable of the greatest
transmission bandwidths which are currently in
the gigahertz range.
 Whereas transmission via multimode step
index fiber is usually limited to bandwidths of a
few tens of megahertz.
 The amount of pulse broadening is dependent
upon the distance the pulse travels within the
fiber, usable bandwidth is dictated by the
distance between regenerative repeaters
 Information-carrying capacity of the fiber, is
restricted by the amount of pulse dispersion
per unit length.
 In the absence of mode coupling or filtering,
the pulse broadening increases linearly with
fiber length and thus the bandwidth is
inversely proportional to distance.
 information-carrying capacity of an optical
fiber which is known as the bandwidth–
length product (i.e. Bopt× L)
 The typical best bandwidth–length products
for the three fibers are 20 MHz km, 1 GHz
km and 100 GHz km for multimode step
index, multimode graded index and single-
mode step index fibers respectively.
 Types of Dispersion
1. Chromatic / Intramodal Dispersion

• Material Dispersion
• Waveguide Dispersion

2. Intermodal Dispersion
Chromatic Dispersion
 Chromatic or intramodal dispersion may occur
in all types of optical fiber and results from the
finite spectral linewidth of the optical source.
 Since optical sources do not emit just a single
frequency but a band of frequencies.
 In the case of the injection laser
corresponding to only a fraction of a percent of
the center frequency, whereas for the LED it is
likely to be a significant percentage), then
there may be propagation delay differences
between the different spectral components of
the transmitted signal.
 This causes broadening of each transmitted
mode and hence intramodal dispersion.
The delay differences may be
caused by the dispersive properties
of the waveguide material
(material dispersion) and also
guidance effects within the fiber
structure (waveguide dispersion).
 Material dispersion
 Pulse broadening due to material dispersion
results from the different group velocities of the
various spectral components launched into the
fiber from the optical source.
 The pulse spread due to material dispersion may
be obtained by considering the group delay τg in
the optical fiber which is the reciprocal of the
group velocity υg
◦ group delay is given by:
 The pulse delay tm due to material dispersion in a
fiber length L:

For a source with rms spectral width σ λ and a

mean wavelength λ, the rms pulse broadening due
to material dispersion σ m may be obtained from
the expansion in a Taylor series about λ where:
 Figure 3.10 shows the variation of
the material dispersion parameter M
with wavelength for pure silica .
 material dispersion tends to zero in
the longer wavelength region around
1.3 μm (for pure silica). Operate at
longer wavelengths where the
material dispersion may be
minimized.
 Also, the use of an injection laser
rather than an LED as the optical
source leads to a substantial
reduction in the pulse broadening
due to material dispersion, even in
the shorter wavelength region.
Waveguide dispersion
 This results from the variation in group velocity with wavelength for a
particular mode.
 Considering the ray theory approach, it is equivalent to the angle between
the ray and the fiber axis varying with wavelength which subsequently leads
to a variation in the transmission times for the rays, and hence dispersion.
 For a single mode whose propagation constant is β, the fiber exhibits
waveguide dispersion when d2β/dλ2 ≠ 0. Multimode fibers, where the
majority of modes propagate far from cutoff, are almost free of waveguide
dispersion and it is generally negligible compared with material dispersion
(≈0.1 to 0.2 ns km−1)
 with single-mode fibers where the effects of the different dispersion
mechanisms are not easy to separate, waveguide dispersion may be
significant
 Intermodal Dispersion
 Pulse broadening due to intermodal dispersion (sometimes
referred to simply as modal or mode dispersion) results from the
propagation delay differences between modes within a
multimode fiber.
 Different modes which constitute a pulse in a multimode fiber
travel along the channel at different group velocities, the pulse
width at the output is dependent upon the transmission times of
the slowest and fastest modes.
 Multimode step index fibers exhibit a large amount of
intermodal dispersion which gives the greatest pulse
broadening.
 Intermodal dispersion in multimode fibers may be reduced by
adoption of an optimum refractive index profile which is
provided by the near-parabolic profile of most graded index
fibers.
 Graded index fibers used with a multimode source give a
tremendous bandwidth advantage over multimode step index
fibers.
 Under purely single-mode operation there is no intermodal
dispersion and therefore pulse broadening is solely due to the
intramodal dispersion mechanisms.
 Hence they exhibit the least pulse broadening and have the
greatest possible bandwidths
 Intermodal Dispersion
in Multimode step index
fiber
 The fastest and slowest modes propagating in the step
index fiber may be represented by the axial ray and the
extreme meridional ray (which is incident at the core–
cladding interface at the critical angle) respectively.
 The delay difference between these two rays when
traveling in the fiber core allows estimation of the pulse
broadening resulting from intermodal dispersion within
the fiber.
 As both rays are traveling at the same velocity within
the constant refractive index fiber core, then the delay
difference is directly related to their respective path
lengths within the fiber.
 The Time taken for the axial ray to travel along a fiber
of length L gives the minimum delay time

 The extreme meridional ray exhibits the maximum

delay time Tmax where:
The delay difference between the extreme meridional ray and the axial
ray may be Obtained. Hence:
s
The relative refractive index difference may also be given approximately by
Again considering the perfect step index fiber, another useful
quantity with regard to intermodal dispersion on an optical
fiber link is the rms pulse broadening resulting from this
dispersion mechanism along the fiber
When the optical input to the fiber is
a pulse pi(t) of unit area
 pi(t) has a constant amplitude over the range

 The rms pulse broadening at the fiber output due to intermodal dispersion
for the multimode step index fiber σs (i.e. the standard deviation) may be
given in terms of the variance σ2s

 where M1 is the first temporal moment which is equivalent to the mean

value of the pulse and M2 , the second temporal moment, is equivalent to
the mean square value of the pulse. Hence
 The mean value M1 for the unit input pulse of Figure 3.12 is zero,
and assuming this is maintained for the output pulse, then

 Integrating over the limits of the input pulse (Figure 3.12) and
substituting f pi(t) over this range gives:
The pulse broadening is directly proportional to the relative
refractive index difference Δ and the length of the fiber L
the pulse broadening is reduced by reduction of the relative
refractive index difference Δ for the fiber.
 Modal noise
 The intermodal dispersion properties of multimode optical
fibers create another phenomenon which affects the transmitted
signals on the optical channel.
 It is exhibited within the speckle patterns observed in
multimode fiber as fluctuations which have characteristic times
longer than the resolution time of the detector, and is known as
modal or speckle noise.
 The speckle patterns are formed by the interference of the
modes from a coherent source when the coherence time of the
source is greater than the intermodal dispersion time δt within
the fiber.
 The coherence time for a source with uncorrelated
source frequency width δf is simply 1/ δ f

 Disturbances along the fiber such as vibrations,

discontinuities, connectors, splices and
source/detector coupling may cause fluctuations in
the speckle patterns and hence modal noise.
 It is generated when the correlation between two or
more modes which gives the original interference
is differentially delayed by these disturbances.
 The conditions which give rise to modal noise are therefore
specified as:
(a) a coherent source with a narrow spectral width and long
coherence length (propagation velocity multiplied by the
coherence time);
(b) disturbances along the fiber which give differential mode
delay or modal and spatial filtering;
(c) phase correlation between the modes.
Overall fiber dispersion
 Multimode fibers
◦ The overall dispersion in multimode fibers comprises both chromatic
and intermodal terms. The total rms pulse broadening σ T is given by

where σc is the intra-modal or chromatic broadening and σn is the

intermodal broadening caused by delay differences between the modes
(i.e. σg for multimode graded index fiber and σs for multimode step
index fiber).
◦ The chromatic term consists of pulse broadening due to both material
and waveguide dispersion.
◦ waveguide dispersion is generally negligible compared with material
dispersion in multimode fibers σc = σm
 c
Single-mode fibers:
◦The pulse broadening in single-mode fibers results almost entirely from
chromatic or intramodal dispersion as only a single-mode is allowed to
propagate.*
◦Hence the bandwidth is limited by the finite spectral width of the source.
Unlike the situation in multimode fibers, the mechanisms giving chromatic
dispersion in single-mode fibers tend to
◦The rms pulse broadening caused by chromatic dispersion down a fiber of
length L is given by the derivative of the group delay with respect to
wavelength
 The material dispersion parameter

DM =

 The waveguide dispersion parameter DW

A profile dispersion parameter DP which is proportional to dΔ/dλ.

Total first-order dispersion

Figure 3.10. It may be observed that the characteristic goes
through zero at a wavelength of 1.27 μm.
This zero material dispersion (ZMD) point can be shifted
anywhere in the wavelength range 1.2 to 1.4 μm by the
addition of suitable dopants.
 For wavelengths longer than the ZMD point, the material dispersion parameter is positive
whereas the waveguide dispersion parameter is negative, as shown in Figure 3.16.
 However, the total dispersion DT is approximately equal to the sum of the material
dispersion DM and the waveguide dispersion DW following Eq. (3.50)
The total chromatic dispersion at an
arbitrary wavelength can be estimated when
the two parameters λ0 and S0 are specified
according to
 The wavelength at which the first-order dispersion
is zero λ0 may be extended to wavelengths of 1.55
µm and beyond by a combination of three
techniques. These are:
◦ Lowering the normalized frequency (V value) for
the fiber;
◦ Increasing the relative refractive index
difference Δ for the fiber;
◦ suitable doping of the silica with germanium.
 This allows bandwidth–length products for such
single-mode fibers to be in excess of 100 GHz km-1
at the slight disadvantage of increased attenuation
due to Rayleigh scattering within the doped silica.
Dispersion-modified single-mode
fibers
 It is possible to modify the dispersion characteristics of single-
mode fibers by the tailoring of specific fiber parameters.
 The major trade-off which occurs in this process between
material dispersion and waveguide dispersion

 At wavelengths longer than the ZMD point in most common

fiber designs, the components are of opposite sign and can
therefore be made to cancel at some longer wavelength.
 Hence the wavelength of zero first-order chromatic dispersion
can be shifted to the lowest loss wavelength.
 This may be achieved by such mechanisms as a
reduction in the fiber core diameter with an
accompanying increase in the relative or fractional
index difference to create so-called dispersion-shifted
single-mode fibers (DSFs).
 Dispersion-shifted fibers
A wide variety of single-mode fiber refractive index
profiles are capable of modification in order to tune the
zero-dispersion wavelength point λ to a specific
wavelength within a region adjacent to the ZMD point.
 In the simplest case, the step index profile illustrated in
Figure 3.20 gives a shift to longer wavelength by
reducing the core diameter and increasing the fractional
index difference.
 This is normally achieved by substantially increasing
the level of germanium doping in the fiber core.

 It may be observed that higher concentrations of the dopant cause a shift to
longer wavelength which, when coupled with a Reduction in the mode-field
diameter (MFD), giving a larger value (negative of waveguide dispersion),
leads to the shifted fiber characteristic
 Low losses and zero dispersion at a wavelength of 1.55 µm have also been
obtained with a Gaussian refractive index profile.
 The alternative approach for the production of DSF has involved the use of
multiple index designs
 Dispersion-flattened fibers
 DFFs that exhibit low-dispersion slopes in the C-band while also providing
acceptably large effective core areas in order to reduce fiber nonlinear effects.
 It is particularly difficult to realize both near-zero dispersion slopes and large
effective core areas while, in addition, reducing their current bend loss
sensitivity.

Nonzero-dispersion-shifted fibers
 Nonzero-dispersion-shifted fiber (NZ-DSF) is sometimes simply called
nonzero dispersion fiber (NZDF) and a variant of this fiber type is negative-
dispersion fiber (NDF).
 which can also be referred to as dispersion compensating fiber (DCF)
Polarization
 Cylindrical optical fibers do not generally maintain the
polarization state of the light input for more than a few
meters.
 fibers have been designed for maintaining the polarisation.
 These fibers are single mode and the maintenance of the
polarization state is described in terms of a phenomenon
known as Fiber Birefringence.
 Fiber birefringence
 Single-mode fibers with nominal circular symmetry about the
core axis allow the propagation of two nearly degenerate modes
with orthogonal polarizations.
 In an optical fiber with an ideal optically circularly symmetric
core both polarization modes propagate with identical
velocities.
 Manufactured optical fibers, however, exhibit some
birefringence resulting from differences in the core geometry
(i.e. ellipticity) resulting from variations in the internal and
external stresses, and fiber bending.
 Fiber therefore behaves as a birefringent medium due to the
difference in the effective refractive indices, and hence phase
velocities, for these two orthogonally polarized modes.
 The modes therefore have different propagation
constants ßx and ßy
 In this case ßx and ßy are the propagation constants
for the slow mode and the fast mode respectively.
 When the fiber cross-section is independent of the
fiber length L in the z direction, then the modal
birefringence BF for the fiber is given by
 The difference in phase velocities causes the fiber to exhibit a
linear retardation ф(z) which depends on the fiber length L in the
z direction and is given by

 Assuming that the phase coherence of the two mode components

is maintained.
 Birefringent coherence is maintained over a length of fiber L (i.e.
bc
coherence length) when

 The characteristic length L for this process corresponding to the

propagation distance for which a 2pie phase difference
accumulates between the two modes is known as beat length. It is
given by
 In a non-perfect fiber various perturbations along the fiber length such as
strain or variations in the fiber geometry and composition lead to
coupling of energy from one polarization to the other.
 The energy transfer is at a maximum when the perturbations have a
period Λ, corresponding to the beat length, and defined by

 The cross-polarizing effect may be minimized when the period of the

perturbations is less than a cutoff period Λ(around 1 mm)
 Hence polarization-maintaining fibers may be
designed by either:
◦ (a) high (large) birefringence: the maximization
of the fiber birefringence, may be achieved by
reducing the beat length LB to around 1 mm or
less; or
◦ (b) low (small) birefringence: the minimization
of the polarization coupling perturbations with a
period of ΛC. This may be achieved by
increasing Λ giving a large beat length of
around 50 m or more.
Polarisation Mode Dispersion
Polarization mode dispersion (PMD) is a source of pulse
broadening which results from fiber birefringence and
it can become a limiting factor for optical fiber
communications at high transmission rates.
It is a random effect due to both intrinsic (caused by
noncircular fiber core geometry and residual stresses
in the glass material near the core region) and
extrinsic (caused by stress from mechanical loading,
bending or twisting of the fiber) factors which in actual
manufactured fibers result in group velocity variation
with polarization state.
In this case the fiber becomes bimodal due to a loss of
degeneracy for the two HE11 modes. As these two modes have
different phase propagation constants βx and βy they exhibit
different specific group delays
where δτg, the differential group delay per unit length, is
referred to as the polarization mode dispersion (PMD) of the
fiber and is usually expressed in units of picoseconds per
kilometer of fiber
For conventional single-mode fibers, however, the axis of the
birefringence (and its magnitude) varies randomly along the fiber.
This phenomenon causes polarization mode coupling such that
the fast and slow polarization modes of one segment of a long
fiber migrate into both fast and slow modes in the next span.
The polarization mode coupling which results from localized
stress during cabling, from splices and connectors, and from
variations in the fiber drawing process therefore tends to reduce
the overall dispersion because the PMD effects do not
accumulate linearly in very long fiber spans
Polarization-maintaining fibers
It may be desirable to use fibers that will permit light to
pass through while retaining its state of polarization.
Such polarization-maintaining (PM) fibers can be classified
into two major groups: namely, high-birefringence (HB)
and low-birefringence (LB) fibers.
The birefringence of conventional single-mode fibers is in
the range BF = 10−6 to 10−5. An HB fiber requires BF >
10−5 and a value better than 10−4 is a minimum for
polarization maintenance.
HB fibers can be separated into two types which are
generally referred to as two-polarization fibers and single-
polarization fibers.
 Non-Linear Effects
 There are arising from the interactions between light
waves and the material transmitting them, which can
affect optical signals.
 These processes are normally referred to as nonlinear
effects or phenomena because their strength typically
depends on the square (or some higher power) of the
optical intensity.
 Nonlinear effects are weak at low powers but they can
become much stronger at high optical intensities.
 There are two broad categories of nonlinear effects that
can be separated based on their characteristics: namely,
scattering and Kerr effects.
 Scattering effects
 when an optical wave is within a fiber medium
incident photons may be scattered, producing a
phonon emitted at acoustic frequencies by exciting
molecular vibrations, together with another photon at
a shifted frequency.
 The molecule absorbing the photon at the original
frequency while emitting a photon at the shifted
frequency and simultaneously making a transition
between vibrational states.
 The incident optical frequency is also known as the
pump frequency ωp, which gives the Stokes (ωs ) and
anti-Stokes (ωa) components of the scattered radiation.
 Stimulated Brillouin Scattering
(SBS)
 The scattering interaction occurs with acoustic phonons.
 stokes and pump waves propagate in opposite directions

Ps(0) Pp(L)

SBS

pumping
Stimulated Roman Scattering (SRS)
 SRSwill deplete short wave power and amplifier long wave.
 Raman amplification will occur for light propagating in either direction
Kerr effects
Nonlinear effects which can be described by the
intensity-dependent refractive index of the fiber
are commonly referred to as Kerr nonlinearities.
 At higher optical intensities the perturbations do
not remain linear functions of the applied field
and Kerr nonlinear effects may be observed.
There are primarily, however, three processes
which produce Kerr effects: self-phase
modulation (SPM), cross-phase modulation (XPM)
and four-wave mixing (FWM).
SPM
 The intensity-dependent refractive index causes an
intensity-dependent phase shift in the fiber.
 Hence, for a light pulse propagating in the fiber, Kerr
nonlinearities result in a different transmission phase for
the peak of the pulse compared with the leading and
trailing pulse edges. This effect, which is known as self-
phase modulation (SPM), causes modifications to the pulse
spectrum.
 Thus SPM can alter and broaden the frequency spectrum of
the pulse. The spectral broadening caused by SPM produces
dispersion-like effects which can limit transmission rates in
some long-haul optical communication systems, depending
on the fiber type and its
Cont..
Because n is intensity – dependent
=>induces phase shift proportional to the intensity
=>creates chirping => pulse broadening
It is significant for high power systems.
CPM
 In WDM systems, the intensity-dependent nonlinear effects (phase
shift) are enhanced by other signals, this effect is referred to as
cross-phase modulation (CPM).
 In this case variations in intensity of one pulse will modulate the
refractive index of the fiber which causes phase modulation of the
overlapping pulse(s).
 As with SPM, this phase modulation translates into frequency
modulation which broadens the pulse spectrum. Thus XPM is
exhibited as a crosstalk mechanism between channels when either
intensity modulation is used in dispersive optical fiber transmission
 when phase encoding is employed, the strength of XPM increases
with the number of channels and it also becomes stronger as the
channel spacing is made smaller.
 There is no energy transfer, however, between channels, which
distinguishes the effect from other crosstalk processes in which
the increase in signal power in a channel takes place only by a
reduction in power in another one.
FWM
The beating between light at different frequencies or
wavelengths in multichannel fiber transmission
causes phase modulation of the channels and hence
the generation of modulation sidebands at new
frequencies which are termed four-wave mixing
(FWM).
When Three wave components propagate at angular
frequencies ω1 , ω2 and ω3 , then a new wave is
generated at frequency ω4 where ω4 = ω1 + ω2 –ω3 .
This frequency combination can be problematic for
multichannel optical communications.