Reg.No.

VIVEKANANDHA COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING FOR WOMEN

[AUTONOMOUS INSTITUTION AFFILIATED TO ANNA UNIVERSITY, CHENNAI]
Elayampalayam – 637 205, Tiruchengode, Namakkal Dt., Tamil Nadu.

Question Paper Code: 7004

B.E. / B.Tech.DEGREE END-SEMESTEREXAMINATIONS –OCT. / NOV. 2017

Seventh Semester
Electronics and Communication Engineering
U14EC734 – OPTICAL COMMUNICATION
(Regulation2014)
Time : Three hours Maximum : 100 marks
PART – A
Answer ALL Questions (20 x 1 = 20 marks)
(Objective type with every wrong answer carrying0.25 Negative Mark)
1. Light is confined within the core of a simple optical fiber by:
a) Refraction
b) Total internal reflection at the outer edge of the cladding
c) Total internal reflection at the core cladding boundary
d) Reflection from the fiber's plastic coating
2. In a laser structure, the existence of standing waves is possible at frequencies
for which the distance between the mirrors is an integral number of :
a) λ / 2
b) λ / 4
c) λ / 6
d) λ / 8
3. Which among the following are the disadvantages of an optical feedback
transimpedance receiver?
a) Increase in receiver input capacitance and dark current
b) Increase in dark current
c) Decrease in receiver input capacitance
d) Decrease in dark current

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4. Which among the following is/are responsible for generating attenuation of an
optical power in fiber?
a) Absorption
b) Scattering
c) Waveguide effect
d) All of the above
5. Which of the following is not a reason to use fiber-optic cables for point to
point data transmission?
a) Need to assure data security
b) Avoidance of ground loops
c) Data-transfer rates too low to use metal cables
d) Elimination of spark hazards
6. In the structure of fiber optic cable, the refractive index of core is always
_______the refractive index of cladding.
a) Less than
b) Equal to
c) Greater than
d) None of the above
7. Which optical devices are adopted or applicable for routing signals from one
waveguide to another?
a) Optical Combiner
b) Optical Splitter
c) Optical Coupler
d) None of the above
8. In an optical network, increase in the number of lasers ________ the bit rate.
a) Increases
b) Stabilizes
c) Decreases
d) None of the above

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9. A pn-junction diode emits light by spontaneous emission is :
a) LED
b) APD
c) PIN
d) Zener diode
10. Photodiodes operate properly with:
a) Forward bias
b) Reverse bias
c) Neither forward nor reverse bias
d) Either forward or reverse bias
11. Which of the following is the fastest light sensor?
a) PIN photodiode
b) Photovoltaic diode
c) Photodiode
d) Avalanche photodiode
12. The term dispersion describes the process of :
a) Separating light into its component frequencies
b) Reflecting light from a smooth surface
c) The process by which light is absorbed by an uneven rough surface
d) Light scattering
13. Modal dispersion is caused by the :
a) Dependence of wavelength on index of refraction
b) Dependence of propagation constant on index of refraction
c) Dependence of the propagation constant on the wavelength
d) Dependence of the propagation constant on the mode number

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14. A coupler which consists of a series of lenses and a partly reflective surface.
a) Beam-splitting coupler
b) Reflective star coupler
c) Fused coupler
d) None of these
15. Which modulation methods are the most widely used in optical systems?
a) Phase and frequency modulations
b) Polarization modulation and phase modulation
c) Intensity modulation and phase modulation
d) Intensity modulation and polarization modulation
16. Which of the following is not part of the optical spectrum?
a) Infrared
b) Ultraviolet
c) Visible color
d) X-rays
17. The core of an optical fiber has a
a) Lower refracted index than air
b) Lower refractive index than the cladding
c) Higher refractive index than the cladding
d) Similar refractive index with the cladding
18. Which type of laser is the simplest to modulate directly by changing its
excitation?
a) Semiconductor
b) Ruby
c) Helium-neon
d) Neodymium-YAG

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19. When would optical fibers be used in an Ethernet-type LAN?
a) Never, the standard calls for coaxial cable
b) To extend transmission distance to reach remote terminals
c) Routinely, the standard allows for optical fiber
d) When transmission speeds exceed 50 Mbit/s
20. Which of the following describes a technique to achieve fault tolerance in
optical networks with minimum costs?
a) Bypassing active elements
b) Avoid the usage of star couplers
c) Duplication of system properties
d) Topological reconfiguration

PART – B
Answer ALL Questions (10 x 2 = 20 marks)
(Objective type with every wrong answer carrying0.5 Negative Mark)
21. Medium 1 is a glass (n1 = 1.5) and medium 2 is an ethyl alcohol (n2 = 1.36).
For an angle of incidence of 30 degrees, determine the angle of refraction.
a) 44.5 degrees
b) 14.56 degrees
c) 33.47 degrees
d) 75 degrees
22. Light rays that are emitted simultaneously from an LED and propagated down
an optical fiber do not arrive at the far end of the fiber at the same time results
to :
a) Intramodal dispersion
b) Pulse length dispersion
c) Modal dispersion
d) Wavelength dispersion

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23. For an optical fiber 10 km long with a pulse spreading constant of 5 ns/km,
determine the maximum digital transmission rates using Return to Zero (RZ)
and Nonreturn to Zero (NRZ).
a) 5 Mbps and 10 Mbps
b) 10 Mbps and 5 Mbps
c) 10 Mbps and 20 Mbps
d) 20 Mbps and 10 Mbps
24. For a photo-diode with responsivity of 0.50 A/W & optical power of about
12μW, what would be the value of generated photocurrent?
a) 3 μA
b) 6 μA
c) 9 μA
d) 12 μA
25. Which among the following is provided by an optical receiver for the
regeneration of data signal with minimum error?
a) Photodiode
b) Signal Processing Circuits
c) Linear Circuitry
d) None of the above
26. Consider a crystal of ruby laser whose length is 6 cm and the refractive index
is 1.8, emits the wavelength of about 0.55 μm. What will be the value of
number of longitudinal modes?
a) 3.9 x 105
b) 4.9 x 105
c) 5.6 x 105
d) 7.7 x 105

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27. If a noisy channel has a bandwidth of 4 MHz with signal to noise ratio of
about 1, what would be the maximum capacity of the channel?
a) 2 Mb/sec
b) 4 Mb/sec
c) 6 Mb/sec
d) 8 Mb/sec
28. Which category/ies of wavelength division multiplexer comprise/s two 3dB
couplers where the splitting of an incident beam takes place into two fiber
paths, followed by the recombination with second 3-dB coupler?
a) Interference filter based devices
b) Angular dispersion based devices
c) Mach-Zehnder Interferometers
d) Angular dispersion based devices
29. Which among the following represents the lateral shift of a light beam on
reflection at a dielectric interface?
a) Doppler’s Shift
b) Goos-Haenchen’s Shift
c) Frequency Shift
d) Phase Shift
30. In an optical fiber, the concept of Numerical aperture is applicable in
describing the ability of :
a) Light Collection
b) Light Scattering
c) Light Dispersion
d) Light Polarization

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 PART – C

Answer ALL Questions (6 x 10 = 60 marks)

31. a) Explain the optical fiber communication system with the help of
diagram.
(OR)
b) List any six advantages of optical fiber communication.

32. a) Define and explain acceptance angle and numerical aperture (NA)
along with diagram. Express NAin terms of the relative refractive index
difference Δ between the core and the cladding of optical fiber.
(OR)
b) A typical relative refractive index difference for an optical fiber
designed for long distance transmission is 1%. Estimate the NA and the
solid acceptance angle in air for the fiber when the core index is 1.46.
Further, calculate the critical angle at the core–cladding interface
within the fiber. It may be assumed that the concepts of geometric
optics hold for the fiber.

33. a) Describe briefly intrinsic and extrinsic absorption losses in silica glass
fibers.
(OR)
b) A multimode graded index fiber exhibits total pulse broadening of
0.1μs over a distance of 15 km. Estimate:
i. The maximum possible bandwidth on the link assuming no
intersymbolinterference.
ii. The pulse dispersion per unit length.
iii. The bandwidth–length product for the fiber.

34. a) An SOA has facet reflectivities of 23% and a single-pass gain of 6 dB.
The device has an active region with a refractive index of 3.6, a peak
gain wavelength of 1.55 μm with a spectral bandwidth of 5 GHz.
Determine the length of the active region for the SOA and also its
mode spacing.
(OR)

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 b) Explain the modularity and scalability features of an optical network.
Briefly discuss the evolution of optical networks.

35. a) Briefly outline the advantages and drawbacks of the LED in

comparison with the injection laser for use as a source in optical fiber
communications. Describe the structure of planar and dome LED with
neat diagrams.
(OR)
b) A GaAs planar LED emitting at a wavelength of 0.85 μm has an
internal quantum efficiency of 60% when passing a forward current of
20 mA s−1. Estimate the optical power emitted by the device into air,
and hence determine the external power efficiency if the potential
difference across the device is 1 V. It may be assumed that the
transmission factor at the GaAs–air interface is 0.68 and that the
refractive index of GaAs is 3.6.

36. a) Define the quantum efficiency and the responsivity of a photodetector.

Explain the detection process in the p–n photodiode.
(OR)
b) An APD has a quantum efficiency of 45% at 0.85 μm. When
illuminated with radiation of this wavelength it produces an output
photocurrent of 10μA after avalanche gain with a multiplication factor
of 250. Calculate the received optical power to the device. How many
photons per second does this correspond to?

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