OPTICAL FIBER

Lect_1
Optical Fiber
4th year, Elect. Eng. Dept., ECE
Lecturer: Dr. Emad Tammam
 Textbook

• John M. Senior, Optical Fiber Communications,

Principles and Practice, Third edition, Prentice
Hall, 2009.
 Course outline
• Ch. 1: Introduction
• Ch. 2: Optical fiber waveguides
 Ray theory, electromagnetic mode theory, cylindrical fiber, single-
mode fibers, photonic crystal fibers

• Ch. 3: Transmission characteristics of optical fibers

 Attenuation, material absorption losses, linear and nonlinear
scattering losses, fiber bend loss, mid-infrared and far-infrared
transmission, dispersion.

• Ch. 4: Optical fibers and cables

 Preparation of optical fibers, liquid-phase (melting) techniques,
vapor-phase deposition techniques, optical fibers, cable design.
 Course outline, cont.
• Ch. 5: Optical fiber connections: joints, couplers
and isolators
 Fiber alignment and joint loss, fiber splices, fiber connectors, fiber
couplers, optical isolators and circulators
• Ch. 6: Optical sources 1: the laser
 Basic concepts, optical emission from semiconductors, the
semiconductor injection laser, some laser structures, laser
characteristics, laser to fiber coupling, nonsemiconductor lasers,
mid-infrared and far-infrared lasers.
• Ch. 7: Optical sources 2: the light-emitting diode
 LED power and efficiency, LED structures, LED characteristics
• Ch. 8: Optical detectors
 Device types, optical detection principles, Absorption, quantum
efficiency, responsivity, photodiodes, phototransistors.
 Introduction

• Historical development

• The general system

• Advantages of optical fiber communication

 Communications system model

The successful transmission of data depends on two

factors:

• The quality of the signal being transmitted.

• The characteristics of the transmission medium.
 Communication system
• Communication may be broadly defined as the
transfer of information from one point to another.
• Modulating the information onto an electromagnetic
wave which acts as a carrier for the information
signal.
• The modulated carrier is transmitted to the
destination where it is received and the original
information signal is obtained by demodulation.
• The electromagnetic carrier waves operating at radio
frequencies as well as microwave and millimeter
wave frequencies.
• Communication may be achieved using an
electromagnetic carrier which is selected from the
optical range of frequencies.
 Why do we move to high frequencies?
• The information-carrying capacity is directly related
to the bandwidth of the modulated carrier.
• For this reason radio communication was developed
to higher frequencies (i.e. VHF and UHF) leading to
the introduction of the even higher frequency
microwave and millimeter wave transmission.
• Optical frequencies offers an increase in the potential
usable bandwidth by a factor of around 104 over
high-frequency microwave transmission.
• The use of high carrier frequencies provides the
ability of the communication system to concentrate
the available power within the transmitted
electromagnetic wave.
The electromagnetic spectrum
 Historical development
• Simple systems such as signal fires, reflecting mirrors and,
signaling lamps have provided successful, if limited,
information transfer.
• In 1880 Alexander Graham Bell reported the transmission
of speech using a light beam.
• Use of light was limited due to:
 The lack of suitable light sources
 The problem that light transmission in the atmosphere is
restricted to LOS and is severely affected by disturbances
such as rain, snow, fog, dust and atmospheric turbulence.
• Lower frequency EM waves (i.e. radio and microwave)
proved suitable carriers in the atmosphere, being far less
affected by these atmospheric conditions.
 Historical development, cont.
• In the early 1960s, a renewed interest in optical
communication was stimulated with the
invention of the laser.
• The constraints of light transmission in the
atmosphere tended to restrict these systems to
short-distance applications.
• In 1966, The proposals for optical communication
via dielectric waveguides or optical fibers
fabricated from glass were made.
 Problems of the early optical fiber
• Initially the optical fibers exhibited very high
attenuation (i.e. 1000 dB km−1) and were not
comparable with the coaxial cables they were to
replace (i.e. 5 to 10 dB km−1).

• There were serious problems involved in jointing

the fiber cables in a satisfactory manner to
achieve low loss and to enable the process to be
performed relatively easily and repeatedly.
 Progresses of optical fiber
• Within 10 years optical fiber losses were reduced to
below 5 dB km−1 and suitable low-loss jointing
techniques were perfected.
• In parallel with the development of the fiber
waveguide, attention was also focused on the
other optical components which would constitute
the optical fiber communication system.
• Due to the extremely small wavelengths, the
development of all optical components essentially
required a new technology.
• Semiconductor optical sources (i.e. injection lasers
and light-emitting diodes) and detectors (i.e.
photodiodes) compatible in size with optical fibers
were designed and fabricated.
 Progresses of optical fiber, cont.
• Direct modulation of commercial semiconductor
lasers at 2.5 Gbit s−1 over single-mode fiber
transmission distances up to 200 km at a
wavelength of 1.55 μm can be achieved and this
may be extended up to 10 Gbit s−1 over shorter
unrepeated fiber links.
• More recent research and development has
focused on 40 Gbit s−1 transmission.

• The lowest silica glass fiber losses to date of 0.1484

dB km−1 were reported in 2002 for the other
longer wavelength window at 1.57 μm,
• The chromatic dispersion is greater at this
wavelength, thus limiting the maximum bandwidth
achievable
 Progresses of optical fiber, cont.
• Advanced single-mode fiber structures have been
commercially realized: namely, low-water-peak
fiber and nonzero dispersion-shifted fiber to
obtain low loss at wavelength from 1.3 to 1.6
μm, or very low loss and low dispersion at
wavelength of 1.55 μm,.
• The application of fluoride fibers for even
longer wavelength operation in the mid-infrared
(2 to 5 μm) and far-infrared (8 to 12 μm) regions
have declined due to their failure to demonstrate
practically the theoretically predicted, extremely
low fiber losses
 LASER progresses
• LASER devices were fabricated from alloys of gallium
arsenide (AlGaAs) which emitted in the near infrared
between 0.8 and 0.9 μm.
• The above wavelength range was extended to
include the 1.1 to 1.6 μm region by the use of other
semiconductor alloys.
• For the longer wavelength region around 1.3 μm and
1.55 μm, semiconductor lasers and the simpler
structured LEDs based on have been available since
the late 1980s.
• The materials growth and fabrication technology
has been developed for telecommunication
applications and it is now mature.
 Photonic bandgaps
• An important development concerns the discovery of
the phenomenon of photonic bandgaps such as crystals
or optical fibers.
• One particular form of photonic crystal fiber, for example,
comprises a microstructured regular lattice of air holes
running along its length.
• Such ‘holey’ fibers have the unusual property that they
only transmit a single mode of light which can carry
more optical power than a conventional one.
• A further class of photonic bandgap fiber is defined by a
large hollow core in which the light is guided. Such hollow-
core optical fibers could find application in photonic
bandgap devices to provide dispersion compensation on
long-haul fiber links or for high-resolution, tunable spectral
filters.
 The general system
• Function of communication system is to convey the
signal from the information source over the
transmission medium to the destination.
• A transmitter comprising electrical and electronic
components which converts the signal into a suitable
form for propagation over the transmission medium.
• In any communication system there is a maximum
permitted distance between the transmitter and the
receiver beyond which the system effectively ceases to
give intelligible communication.
• For long-haul applications these factors necessitate the
installation of repeaters or line amplifiers.
Communication system
 Optical sources and detectors

• The electrical–optical conversion may be either a

semiconductor laser or light-emitting diode (LED).

• Photodiodes, phototransistors and photocon-

ductors are utilized for the detection of the
optical signal and the optical–electrical
conversion.
 Analog & digital optical modulation
• The optical carrier may be modulated using
either an analog or digital information signal.
• Although simpler to implement, analog
modulation with an optical fiber is less efficient.
• The linearity needed for analog modulation is
not always provided by semiconductor optical
sources, especially at high frequencies.
• Analog optical fiber communication links are
limited to shorter distances and lower bandwidth
operation than digital links.
 A digital optical fiber link

• The laser drive circuit directly modulates the intensity of

the semiconductor laser with the encoded digital signal.
• 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.
 Advantages of optical fiber communication
• Enormous potential bandwidth.
 Optical carrier frequency in the range 1013 to 1016
Hz.
 Coaxial cable bandwidth typically around 20 MHz
over distances up to a maximum of 10 km.
 Millimeter wave systems currently operating with
modulation bandwidths of 700 MHz over a few
hundreds of meters.
 By the year 2000 the typical bandwidth multiplied by
length product for an optical fiber link incorporating
fiber amplifiers was 5000 GHz km in comparison with
the typical bandwidth–length product for coaxial
cable of around 100 MHz km.
 Advantages of optical fiber communication, cont.
• Small size and weight
Very small diameters which are often no
greater than the diameter of a human hair.

• Electrical isolation
Suited for communication in electrically
hazardous environments as the fibers create no
arcing or spark hazard at abrasions or short
circuits.
 Advantages of optical fiber communication, cont.
• Immunity to interference and crosstalk
 As a dielectric waveguide, it is free from
electromagnetic interference (EMI), radio-frequency
interference (RFI), or switching transients giving
electromagnetic pulses (EMPs).
 Unaffected by transmission through an electrically
noisy environment and the fiber cable requires no
shielding from EMI.
 not susceptible to lightning strikes if used overhead
rather than underground.
 unlike communication using electrical conductors,
crosstalk is negligible, even when many fibers are
cabled together.
 Advantages of optical fiber communication, cont.
• Signal security
 Does not radiate significantly and therefore they provide a
high degree of signal security.
 Any attempt to acquire a message signal transmitted
optically may be detected.

• Low transmission loss

 Fabricated with losses as low as 0.15 dB km −1.
 Links with extremely wide optical repeater or amplifier
spacings reducing both system cost and complexity.
 Modulation bandwidth capability of fiber cables.
 Replacing not only copper cables, but also satellite
communications, as a consequence of the very noticeable
delay incurred for voice transmission when using this latter
approach
Advantages of optical fiber communication, cont.
• Ruggedness and flexibility
Manufactured with very high tensile strengths
The fibers may also be bent to quite small radii or
twisted without damage.
Cable structures have been developed which have
proved flexible, compact and extremely rugged.
Taking the size and weight advantage into
account, these optical fiber cables are
generally superior in terms of storage,
transportation, handling and installation to
corresponding copper cables, while exhibiting
at least comparable strength and durability.
Advantages of optical fiber communication, cont.
• System reliability and ease of maintenance
With fewer optical repeaters or amplifiers,
system reliability is generally enhanced in
comparison with conventional electrical
conductor systems.
Reliability of the optical components is no longer
a problem with predicted lifetimes of 20 to 30
years being quite common.
• Potential low cost
The optical fiber transmission medium is made
from sand – not a scarce resource.
 Wavelength division multiplexed
• A much enhanced bandwidth utilization for an
optical fiber can be achieved by transmitting
several optical signals, each at different center
wavelengths, in parallel on the same fiber. This
wavelength division multiplexed operation.
 Despite of the low cost of the optical fiber
transmission medium, it has not been achieved in
all the other component areas associated with
optical fiber communications such as the costs of
high-performance semi-conductor lasers and
detector photodiodes are still relatively high, as well
as some of those concerned with the connection
technology (demountable connectors, couplers, etc.).
 Overall system costs when utilizing optical fiber
communication on long-haul links are substantially
less than those for equivalent electrical line systems
because of the low-loss and wideband properties.
 Although this cost benefit gives a net gain for
long-haul links, it is not always the case in short-
haul applications where the additional cost
incurred.
There are other possible cost advantages in
relation to shipping, handling, installation and
maintenance.