143.332 OF Liyanage2005

Fiber Optic Communications 143.
332 Communication Systems
INTRODUCTION TO FIBER-OPTIC COMMUNICATIONS
A fiber-optic system is similar to the copper wire system in many

respects. The difference is that fiber-optics use light pulses to transmit
information down fiber lines instead of using electronic pulses to
transmit information down copper lines.
The basic elements of any point-to-point communication system are a

transmitter that generates the signal (LEDs or LASERs), a transmission
medium that carries the signal (Fiber-Optic Waveguide) and a receiver
that detects the signal and converts it into a useful form (photo
detector).
Chandratilak De Silva, LIYANAGE (L.desilva@massey.ac.nz) Page 1

Fiber Optic Communications 143.332 Communication Systems
THE OPTICAL SYSTEM AND SPECTRUM
What we call ‘light’ is only a small part of the spectrum of

electromagnetic radiation.

ADVANTAGES OF FOC
1) Enormous potential bandwidth.

14
2) Very high frequency carrier wave. (10 Hz).
3) Low Loss (attenuation as low as 0.2 dB/km for glass)
4) Repeaters can be eliminated => low cost and reliability
5) Secure; cannot be trapped without affecting signal.
6) Electrically neutral;
• no shorts / ground loop required.
• applicable in dangerous environments.
7) Tough but light weight,
• Expensive but tiny.
FIBRE OPTIC CABLES

What is a fiber optic cable? A fiber optic cable is a cylindrical pipe. It
may be made out of glass or plastic or a combination of glass and
plastic. It is fabricated in such a way that this pipe can guide light from
one end of it to the other.
A fiber optic cable is composed of two
concentric layers termed the core and the
cladding.
The core and cladding have different indices
of refraction with the core having n1 and the cladding n2. Light is piped
through the core. A fiber optic cable has an additional coating around
the cladding called the jacket. The jacket usually consists of one or
more layers of polymer. Its role is to protect the core and cladding from
shocks that might affect their optical or physical properties. It acts as a
shock absorber.
SNELL’S LAW
n1 sinφ1 = n2 sinφ2
n1 cosθ1 = n2 cosθ2
Snell’s law indicates that

refraction can’t take place
when the angle of incidence
is too large.
(Let φ1=600, n1=1.5 and
n2=1.0. Can you calculate
φ2?)

TOTAL INTERNAL REFLECTION

LIGHT GUIDING

NUMERICAL APERTURE (NA) CALCULATION
NA = (n12 – n22)1/2

OPTICAL FIBER TYPES
Fiber optic cable can be one of two types, multi-mode or single-mode.

These provide different performance with respect to both attenuation
and time dispersion.

OPTICAL FIBER TYPES
Fiber optic cable that exhibits multi-mode propagation with a step index
profile is characterized as having higher attenuation and more time
dispersion than the other propagation candidates have.
However, it is also the least costly and hence most widely used.
ATTENUATION
When compared with other candidates for the Transmission Medium
commonly employed today, Optical Fibre has comparison when it
comes to attenuation, interference and bandwidth.
Here frequency refers to the data

rate. The attenuation of the fiber
optic cables is much less.
What is more their dependence

upon frequency is even flat over
quite a large range. You need not
be concerned with the change in
attenuation every time you decide
to tweak the data rate.
ATTENUATION
Attenuation is principally caused by two physical effects, absorption
and scattering. Absorption removes signal energy in the interaction
between the propagating light (photons) and molecules in the core.
Scattering redirects light out of the core to the cladding.
The three principal windows of operation,
when propagating through a cable, are
indicated. These correspond to
wavelength regions where attenuation is
low and matched to the ability of a
Transmitter to generate light efficiently
and a Receiver to carry out detection. The
'OH' symbols indicate that at these particular wavelengths the presence
of Hydroxyl radicals in the cable material cause a bump up in
attenuation. These radicals result from the presence of water.
ATTENUATION
Mode Material Index of Refraction Profile λ microns Size (microns) Atten. dB/km Bandwidth MHz/km
Multi-mode Glass Step 800 62.5/125 5.0 6
Multi-mode Glass Step 850 62.5/125 4.0 6
Multi-mode Glass Graded 850 62.5/125 3.3 200
Multi-mode Glass Graded 850 50/125 2.7 600
Multi-mode Glass Graded 1300 62.5/125 0.9 800
Multi-mode Plastic Step 650 485/500 240 5 @ 680
Multi-mode PCS Step 790 200/350 10 20
Single-mode Glass Step 650 3.7/80 or 125 10 600
Single-mode Glass Step 850 5/80 or 125 2.3 1000
Single-mode Glass Step 1300 9.3/125 0.5 *
Single-mode Glass Step 1550 8.1/125 0.2 *
* Too high to measure accurately. Effectively infinite. (As of [4])
NUMBER OF MODES (Nm) FOR A STEP INDEX FIBER
Nm is for a step index fiber is given by,
2
 core diameter × NA × π 
N m = 0.5 
 λ 
eg: NA = 0.29 (a typical value)

D = 100µm
λ = 850nm
N m >> 1000

NUMBER OF MODES (Nm) FOR A STEP INDEX FIBER (cont…)
Each mode has its own characteristic velocity through a step index
optical fiber. This cause pulses to spread out as they travel along the
fiber.
This is called modal dispersion.
The more modes the fiber transmits, the more pulse spread out it has.
The basic requirement for a single mode fiber is that the core be small
enough to resist transmission to a single mode.

NUMBER OF MODES (Nm) FOR A GRADED INDEX FIBER

1
 α 2
r
n 1 − 2 ∆   for 0 ≤ r ≤ a
n(r ) = 1   a  

1
n1 (1 − 2∆ ) 2 ≈ n1 (1 − ∆ ) = n2 for r ≥ a
where
r = radial distance from the fiber axis,
a = the core radius,
n1 = refractive index of core axis
n2 = refractive index of cladding.
α = the shape of the index profile
n12 − n22 n1 − n2
∆= ≈
2n12 n1
NUMBER OF MODES (Nm) FOR A GRADED INDEX FIBER (cont…)

For α → ∞ n(r ) → n1 (step index)
 2
[ 1
2 2
NA( r ) =  n (r ) − n2 ≈ NA(0) 1 − ]
r
a
α
( ) for r ≤ a
0 for r > a
where axial NA is defined as:
NA(0) = n [ 2
(0) − n22 ] 2 =(
1
n12 − n22 ) 2 ≈ n1
1
2∆
The number of modes for this case is given by,

α 2 2 2
Nm = a k n1 ∆ where, k = 2π .
α +2 λ
ELECTROMAGNETIC WAVE THEORY
To analyze optical waveguides it is required to consider Maxwell’s

equations that give the relationship between electrical and magnetic
fields.

CIRCULAR WAVEGUIDES
TE (Transverse Electric) Mode

The lower cutoff frequency (or wavelength) for a
particular TE mode in circular waveguide is determined
by the following equation:
2π r
λc,mn = (m)
p′mn ’
where p'mn is
m p'm1 p'm2 p'm3
0 3.832 7.016 10.174
1 1.841 5.331 8.536
2 3.054 6.706 9.970

TM (Transverse Magnetic) Mode

The lower cutoff frequency (or wavelength) for a
particular TM mode in circular waveguide is
determined by the following equation:
2π r
λc,mn = (m)
p mn ’
where pmn is
m pm1 pm2 pm3
0 2.405 5.520 8.654
1 3.832 7.016 10.174
2 5.135 8.417 11.620
However detailed analysis of this will not be carried out here.
CIRCULAR WAVEGUIDE MODES

LEAKY MODES
Some modes can propagate short distances in the optical fiber. Hence
there are guided and unguided modes with respect to a given optical
fiber.
Modes that are just beyond the threshold for propagating in a
multimode fiber can travel for short distances in the fiber cladding.
The difference between the highest-order modes guided in a multimode
fiber and the lowest order modes that are not guided is quite small.
Hence slight changes in conditions may allow light in a normally guided
mode to leak out of the core.
Slight bends of a multimode fiber are enough to allow escape of these
leaky modes. Likewise some light in the cladding mode may be
recaptured due to the bends.

TRANSMITTERS IN OPTICAL FIBER SYSTEMS
The Transmitter component of an OF system serves two functions.

First, it must be a source of the light coupled into the fiber optic cable.
Secondly, it must modulate this light so as to represent the binary data
that it is receiving from the Source.
With the first of these functions it is merely a light emitter or a source of
light. With the second of these functions it is a valve, generally
operating by varying the intensity of the light that it is emitting and
coupling into the fiber.
The Transmitter can be thought of as Electro-Optical (EO) transducer.
An LED or a LD (Laser Diode) generates an optical beam with such
dimensions that it can be coupled into a fiber optic cable. However, the
LD produces an output beam with much less spatial width than an LED.
This gives it greater coupling efficiency. Each can be modulated with a
digital electrical signal.
TRANSMITTERS IN OPTICAL FIBER SYSTEMS
Two methods for modulating LEDs or LDs are shown above. More on
LED and LD will be studied separately.

RECEIVERS IN OPTICAL FIBER SYSTEMS
The Receiver component of of an OF system serves two functions.

First, it must sense or detect the light coupled out of the fiber optic
cable then convert the light into an electrical signal.
Secondly, it must demodulate this light to determine the identity of the
binary data that it represents. In total, it must detect light and then
measure the relevant Information bearing light wave parameters in the
fiber optic data link context intensity in order to retrieve the Source's
binary data.
The very heart of the Receiver is the means for sensing the light output
of the fiber optic cable. Light is detected and then converted to an
electrical signal.

The demodulation decision process is carried out on the resulting

electrical signal. The light detection is carried out by a photodiode. This
senses light and converts it into an electrical current. However, the
optical signal from the fiber optic cable and the resulting electrical
current will have small amplitudes. Consequently, the photodiode
circuitry must be followed by one or more amplification stages.

A complete Receiver must have high detectability, high bandwidth and

low noise. It must have high detectability so that it can detect low level
optical signals coming out of the fiber optic cable.
The higher the sensitivity, the
more attenuated signals it can
detect. It must have high
bandwidth or fast rise time so that
it can respond fast enough and
demodulate, high speed, digital
data.
It must have low noise so that it
does not significantly impact the
BER of the link and counter the interference resistance of the fiber optic
cable Transmission Medium.
WAVELENGTH DIVISION MULTIPLEXING (WDM)

MULTILAYER THINFILM REFLECTOR USED FOR WDM

REFERENCES
[1] Gerd Keiser, “Optical Fiber Communications”, McGraw-Hill.

[2] Jeff Hecht, “Understanding Fiber Optics”, Prentice Hall.
[3] “Fiber Optic Cable Tutorial”, http://www.arcelect.com/fibercable.htm.
[4] K S Schnelder, “Fiber Optic Data Communications for the Premises
Environment”, http://www.telebyteusa.com/foprimer/foch1.htm.

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Fiber Optic Communications 143.

332 Communication Systems

INTRODUCTION TO FIBER-OPTIC COMMUNICATIONS

A fiber-optic system is similar to the copper wire system in many

The basic elements of any point-to-point communication system are a

Chandratilak De Silva, LIYANAGE (L.desilva@massey.ac.nz) Page 1

THE OPTICAL SYSTEM AND SPECTRUM

What we call ‘light’ is only a small part of the spectrum of

Chandratilak De Silva, LIYANAGE (L.desilva@massey.ac.nz) Page 2

1) Enormous potential bandwidth.

FIBRE OPTIC CABLES

Snell’s law indicates that

Chandratilak De Silva, LIYANAGE (L.desilva@massey.ac.nz) Page 5

TOTAL INTERNAL REFLECTION

Chandratilak De Silva, LIYANAGE (L.desilva@massey.ac.nz) Page 6

Chandratilak De Silva, LIYANAGE (L.desilva@massey.ac.nz) Page 7

NUMERICAL APERTURE (NA) CALCULATION

Chandratilak De Silva, LIYANAGE (L.desilva@massey.ac.nz) Page 8

OPTICAL FIBER TYPES

Fiber optic cable can be one of two types, multi-mode or single-mode.

Chandratilak De Silva, LIYANAGE (L.desilva@massey.ac.nz) Page 9

OPTICAL FIBER TYPES

Here frequency refers to the data

What is more their dependence

NUMBER OF MODES (Nm) FOR A STEP INDEX FIBER

Nm is for a step index fiber is given by,

eg: NA = 0.29 (a typical value)

Chandratilak De Silva, LIYANAGE (L.desilva@massey.ac.nz) Page 14

NUMBER OF MODES (Nm) FOR A STEP INDEX FIBER (cont…)

This is called modal dispersion.

Chandratilak De Silva, LIYANAGE (L.desilva@massey.ac.nz) Page 15

NUMBER OF MODES (Nm) FOR A GRADED INDEX FIBER

NUMBER OF MODES (Nm) FOR A GRADED INDEX FIBER (cont…)

The number of modes for this case is given by,

ELECTROMAGNETIC WAVE THEORY

To analyze optical waveguides it is required to consider Maxwell’s

Chandratilak De Silva, LIYANAGE (L.desilva@massey.ac.nz) Page 18

TE (Transverse Electric) Mode

Chandratilak De Silva, LIYANAGE (L.desilva@massey.ac.nz) Page 19

TM (Transverse Magnetic) Mode

CIRCULAR WAVEGUIDE MODES

Chandratilak De Silva, LIYANAGE (L.desilva@massey.ac.nz) Page 21

Chandratilak De Silva, LIYANAGE (L.desilva@massey.ac.nz) Page 22

TRANSMITTERS IN OPTICAL FIBER SYSTEMS

The Transmitter component of an OF system serves two functions.

TRANSMITTERS IN OPTICAL FIBER SYSTEMS

Chandratilak De Silva, LIYANAGE (L.desilva@massey.ac.nz) Page 24

RECEIVERS IN OPTICAL FIBER SYSTEMS

The Receiver component of of an OF system serves two functions.

Chandratilak De Silva, LIYANAGE (L.desilva@massey.ac.nz) Page 25

RECEIVERS IN OPTICAL FIBER SYSTEMS

The demodulation decision process is carried out on the resulting

Chandratilak De Silva, LIYANAGE (L.desilva@massey.ac.nz) Page 26

RECEIVERS IN OPTICAL FIBER SYSTEMS

A complete Receiver must have high detectability, high bandwidth and

WAVELENGTH DIVISION MULTIPLEXING (WDM)

Chandratilak De Silva, LIYANAGE (L.desilva@massey.ac.nz) Page 28

MULTILAYER THINFILM REFLECTOR USED FOR WDM

Chandratilak De Silva, LIYANAGE (L.desilva@massey.ac.nz) Page 29

[1] Gerd Keiser, “Optical Fiber Communications”, McGraw-Hill.

Chandratilak De Silva, LIYANAGE (L.desilva@massey.ac.nz) Page 30

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