COMM 554

Elgazeera High Institute for

Engineering and Technology

Optical Communication Systems

Lecture – 1

Optical fiber waveguides

Dr. Ahmed Abouelmagd

 Course Contents

1- Optical fiber waveguides.

2- Transmission characteristics of optical fibers.
3- Optical fibers and cables.
4- Optical fiber connection: joints, couplers and isolators.
5- Optical sources 1: the laser.
6- Optical sources 2: the light-emitting diode.
7- Optical detectors
8- Mid- Semester Exam
9- Direct detection receiver performance considerations
10- Optical amplification, wavelength conversion and regeneration.
11- Integrated optics and photonics.
12- Optical fiber systems 1: intensity modulation/direct detection.
13- Optical fiber systems 2: coherent and phase-modulated.
14- Optical fiber measurements.
15- Optical networks.
16- Final Exam
Prerequisites:
Course Code/Name:
COMM 450/Analog communication systems ,
COMM 451/Communication Networks
Textbook :
“Optical Fiber Communications: Principles
and Practice”, third Edition, J. Senior, 2009

Reference:
“Fiber-Optic Communication Systems "Third
Edition, GOVIND P. AGRAWAL, 2002
 Student Assessment Methods

Assessment Weight Schedule

Year Work & Quizzes 20% weekly
Mid-Term Exam 20% W8
Practical & Oral Exam 20% W15
Final Exam 40% W16
Total 100% ----
 Introduction

For good communication a system needs to have:

(1) Large Bandwidth (BW)
(2) Good signal to noise ratio (SNR) i.e. low loss
Since the bandwidth of a system is more or less
proportional to the frequency of operation, use of
higher frequency facilitates larger BW.
Electromagnetic spectrum
Optical Communication transmission range
Optical fiber communication
- The input digital signal from the information source is suitably
encoded for optical transmission.
- The laser drive circuit directly modulates the intensity of the
semiconductor laser with the encoded digital signal.
- A digital optical signal is launched into the optical fiber cable.
- The avalanche photodiode (APD) detector is followed by a front-
end amplifier and equalizer or filter to provide gain as well as
linear signal processing and noise bandwidth reduction.
- Finally, the signal obtained is decoded to give the original digital
information.
The frequency bandwidth ∆f is related to the wavelength
bandwidth ∆λ (also called spectral width ) as:

Where c is the velocity of light in vacuum, n is the

refractive index of the medium, and λ is the central
wavelength of the band
Example:
For silica optical fibers n= 1.5, calculate the frequency
bandwidth ∆f at λ = 1550 nm and ∆λ = 100nm

Alternative Communication approaches are in radio and

microwave domain frequencies (1GHz to 100GHz) which has
frequency range orders of magnitude lower than the optical.
(THz = 1012 Hz)

So, the BW at optical frequencies is expected to be 3 to 4 orders

of magnitude higher than that at the microwave frequencies.
Transmission media Alternative to the Optical Communication
- The first two media have a very limited bandwidth.
- Microwave links and Satellite communication has
comparable bandwidths as in principle their mode of
operation is same but the spatial reach of satellite is
far greater.
- Before Fiber optic communication became viable,
satellite communication was the only choice for long
distance communication.
Comparison of Satellite and Optical communication
Optical communication systems use high carrier frequencies
(∼100 THz , 1THz= 1012 Hz) in the visible or near-infrared
region of the electromagnetic spectrum.

Called lightwave systems to distinguish them from

microwave systems, whose carrier frequency is smaller by
five orders of magnitude (∼1 GHz, 1GHz = 109 Hz).

An increase in the information capacity of optical

communication systems by a factor of up to 10,000 is
expected simply because of such high carrier frequencies
used for lightwave systems.

Fiber-optic communication systems are lightwave systems

that employ optical fibers for information transmission.

optical communication systems have the potential of

carrying information at bit rates ∼1 Tb/s.
 Basic Fiber Optic Structure
An optical fiber basically
is a solid glass rod
surrounded by concentric
glass shell
- The rod is called the core and is made of highly purified glass.
Most of the light energy is confined to the core.
- The glass shell called cladding.
The cladding shields optical fields so as not to get interfered by
the outer layers of the fiber. The cladding is an essential part of an
optical fiber.
- The cladding is surrounded by the buffer layers.
These layers have no role in propagation of light. They are
essentially there to provide the mechanical support to the glass
fiber and to protect the fiber from external damage.
 Advantages of optical fiber communication

(a) Enormous potential bandwidth. The optical carrier

frequency in the range 1013 to 1016 Hz

(b) Small size and weight.

(c) Electrical isolation

(d) Immunity to interference . Optical fibers form a dielectric

waveguide and are therefore free from electromagnetic
interference (EMI), radio-frequency interference (RFI)
(e) Signal security. The light from optical fibers does not
radiate significantly

(f) Low transmission loss.

(g) Ruggedness and flexibility: optical fibers (Na2O–B2O3–

SiO2) are manufactured with very high tensile strengths
and also can be bent to quite small radii or twisted without
damage.

(h) System reliability and ease of maintenance.

(g) Potential low cost.

Optical Fibers as a Communication Channel

Optical fibers can transmit light with losses as small as 0.2

dB/km. Optical power reduces to only 1% after 100 km.
Design issues for optical communication systems are:
1- Fiber dispersion
Phase velocity of the propagating wave depends on its
frequency Vp= λ/T, which leads to broadening of individual
optical pulses with propagation.
If optical pulses spread significantly outside their allocated
bit slot, the transmitted signal is severely degraded.
Eventually, it becomes impossible to recover the original
signal with high accuracy.
The problem is most severe in the case of multimode
fibers, since pulses spread rapidly (typically at a rate of
∼10 ns/km) because of different speeds associated with
different fiber modes.
It is for this reason that most optical communication
systems use single-mode fibers.
2- Material dispersion

(related to the frequency dependence of the refractive

index) still leads to pulse broadening (typically <0.1
ns/km), but it is small enough to be acceptable for most
applications and can be reduced further by controlling the
spectral width of the optical source.
 Optical transmitter

The role of an optical transmitter is to convert the electrical signal

into optical form and to launch the resulting optical signal into
the optical fiber.

Semiconductor lasers or light-emitting diodes are used as optical

sources because of their compatibility with the optical-fiber
communication channel

The optical signal is generated by modulating the optical carrier

wave.
The coupler is typically a micro lens that focuses the optical
signal onto the entrance plane of an optical fiber with the
maximum possible efficiency

The launched power is often expressed in “dBm” units with 1 mW

as the reference level.
Power (dBm) = 10 log10 (power /1 mW)

The launched power is rather low (< −10 dBm) for light-emitting
diodes but semiconductor lasers can launch powers ∼ 10 dBm.
As light-emitting diodes are also limited in their modulation
capabilities, most lightwave systems use semiconductor lasers
as optical sources.
 Optical Receivers

An optical receiver converts the optical signal received at the

output end of the optical fiber back into original electrical signal.

The coupler focuses the received optical signal onto the

photodetector. Semiconductor photodiodes are used as
photodetectors because of their compatibility with the whole
System.

The design of the demodulator depends on the modulation

format used by the lightwave system. FSK and PSK
 Optical fiber waveguides
- A transparent core with
a refractive index n1
surrounded by a
transparent cladding of
slightly lower refractive
index n2.
- The cladding supports
the waveguide
structure while also,
reduces the radiation
loss into the
surrounding air.
- The light energy travels
in both the core and
the cladding allowing
the associated fields to
decay to a negligible
value at the cladding–
air interface.
 Ray theory transmission
Cladding n2 < n1 Core

Snell's Law

The angles of incidence ϕ1 and

refraction ϕ2 are related by:
Critical angle
when the angle of refraction ϕ2
is 90° , the angle of incidence is
known as the critical angle ϕc

Total internal reflection where ϕ > ϕc

When the angle of incidence of

the ray exceeds the critical
value.
The transmission of a light ray in a perfect optical fiber
a. Meridional rays: the transmitted ray passing through the
fiber axis.

This is the mechanism by which light at a sufficiently shallow

angle (less than 90° − ϕc) may be considered to propagate down
an optical fiber with low loss.
Acceptance angle θa

θa is the maximum angle to the axis at which light may enter

the fiber in order to be propagated, and is often referred to as
the acceptance angle for the fiber.
 Numerical aperture of the fiber NA

NA is a relationship between the acceptance angle and the

refractive indices of the three media involved, namely the
core, cladding and air. So, it is a measure of the light-
collecting ability of a fiber.
At the limiting case for total internal reflection
θ1 = θa
ϕ = ϕc , substitute:
As in air where no is unity , therefore:
NA = sin θa

The relative refractive index difference Δ between the core and

the cladding is defined as:
 The transmission of a light ray in a perfect optical fiber
b. Skew rays: ray is transmitted without passing through the fiber
axis.

The helical path taken by a skew ray in an optical fiber:

(a) skew ray path down the fiber;
(b) cross-sectional view of the fiber
 Electromagnetic mode theory for optical propagation
For a medium with zero conductivity the Maxwell’s
equations become:

µ permeability and ε permittivity

 The wave equations:

The phase velocity vp (dielectric medium) and the light

velocity c (free space):

The solution is:

ψ is a component of the E or H , ω is the angular frequency of

the field, t is the time, k = 2π/λ is the propagation vector which
gives the direction of propagation and the rate of
change of phase with distance.
 Multimode and single mode step index fibers
The considered optical fiber with a core of constant refractive
index n1 and a cladding of a slightly lower refractive index n2 is
known as step index fiber.

The refractive index profile and ray transmission in step index fibers:
(a) multimode step index fiber; (b) single-mode step index fiber
The refractive index profile n(r) in both is defined as:

A single-mode or monomode step index fiber which allows the

propagation of only one transverse electromagnetic mode
(typically HE11), and hence the core diameter must be of the order
of 2 to 10 µm (fiber optic wavelength range).

A multi-mode step index fiber with a core diameter of around 50

μm or greater, which is large enough to allow the propagation of
many modes within the fiber core.
The single-mode step index fiber has the distinct advantage of low
intermodal dispersion (broadening of transmitted light pulses), as
only one mode is transmitted,
whereas with multimode step index fiber considerable dispersion
may occur due to the differing group velocities of the propagating
modes.

This in turn restricts the maximum bandwidth attainable with

multimode step index fibers, especially when compared with single-
mode fibers.
For lower bandwidth applications Multimode fibers have
several advantages over single-mode fibers. These are:
(a) the use of spatially incoherent optical sources (e.g. most light-
emitting diodes)
which cannot be efficiently coupled to single-mode fibers;
(b) larger numerical apertures, as well as core diameters,
facilitating easier coupling to
optical sources;
(c) lower tolerance requirements on fiber connectors.
 As V , the normalized frequency, relates to the thickness of the
fiber optics guide layer guide layer

The total number of guided modes or mode volume Ms for a step

index fiber is related to the V value for the fiber by the approximate
expression: