Signal Degradation

in
Optical Fiber
(Attenuation & Dispersion)
 In this Chapter we are going to see,

1. What are the loss or signal attenuation mechanisms in a fiber?

2. Why and to what degree do optical signals get distorted as they
propagate along a fiber?

 Signal attenuation (also known as fiber loss or signal loss) is one

of the most important properties of an optical fiber, because it
largely determines the maximum unamplified or repeater less
separation between a transmitter and a receiver.

 The distortion mechanisms in a fiber cause optical signal pulses to

broaden as they travel along a fiber. The pulses gets overlapped
with the neighboring pulses, thereby creating errors in the receiver
output.

 The signal distortion mechanisms thus limit the information-

carrying capacity of a fiber.
ATTENUATION:

 Attenuation of a light signal as it propagates along a fiber is an

important consideration in the design of an optical communication
system.

 It plays a main role in determining the maximum transmission

distance between a transmitter and a receiver or an in-line amplifier.

Basic attenuation mechanisms in a fiber:

 Absorption (Intrinsic & Extrinsic)

 Scattering ( Linear & Non linear)
 Bending losses (Micro bending & Macro bending)

 Attenuation is wavelength dependent hence proper selection of

operating wavelength is required.
Attenuation Units:
 As light travels along a fiber, its power decreases exponentially with
distance.
 P(O) is the optical power in a fiber at the origin (at z = 0),then the
power P(z) at distance z further down the fiber is,

 αp is the fiber attenuation coefficient given in units of, km-1.

 Other units for αp can also be designated by nepers .
 For simplicity in calculating optical signal attenuation in a fiber, the
attenuation coefficient is expressed in dB/km.

 This parameter is generally referred to as the fiber loss or

fiber attenuation.
 .
Attenuation as a function of wavelength
The fiber shows an attenuation peak around 1400nm
resulting from absorption by water molecules
(1) Absorption: (Material Absorption)

 Material absorption is a loss mechanism related to the material

composition and fiber fabrication process.
 This results in the dissipation of some of the transmitted optical
power as heat in the waveguide.
 Absorption is classified into two basic categories : Intrinsic and
extrinsic.

Intrinsic Absorption:
 It is caused due to the interaction of free electrons within the fiber
material and the light wavelength. Photon interacts with electron
and excites to higher energy level.
 This wavelength spectrum interacts differently with the atoms of
the fiber material.
Extrinsic Absorption:
 It is mainly due to the impurities injected into the optical fiber
mix during the fabrication process.
 The metal ions are the most undesirable impurity in an optical
fiber mix because the presence of metal ions influence and alter the
transmission properties of the fiber.
 Metallic impurities :It occur during melting process.
(iron , chromium, cobalt and copper) Transition metal
(d-block elements-has at least one ion with partially
filled d-orbital) impurities present in the starting
materials used for direct-melt fibers range between 1
and 10 parts per billion.
OH- particles: It occurs due to water dissolve to the
glass.( use of oxy hydrogen flames for hydrolysis
reaction)

This results the loss of optical power.

(2) SCATTERING LOSS:
 Scattering loss is the loss associated with the interaction of the light with
density fluctuations in the fiber.
 Structural inhomogeneities and defects created during fiber fabrication can
also cause scattering of light out of fiber. These defects may be in the form of
trapped gas bubbles, unreacted starting materials, and crystallized regions in
the glass.
Linear scattering:
 Here the amount of optical power transferred from a wave is proportional to
the power in the wave. There is no frequency change in the scattered wave.
Rayleigh scattering:
 It results from the interaction of the light with the inhomogeneities in the
medium that are one-tenth of the wavelength of the light. Rayleigh scattering
in a fiber can be expressed as :

 It means that a system operating at longer wavelengths have lower intrinsic

loss.
Mie Scattering:
 If the defects in optical fibers are larger than λ/10 the scattering mechanism
is known as 'Mie scattering'.
 These large defect sites are developed by the inhomogeneities in the fiber
and are associated with in complete mixing of waveguide dopants or
defects formed in the fabrication process.
 These defects physically scatter the light out of the fiber core.
 Mie scattering is rarely seen in commercially available silica-based fibers

due to the high level of manufacturing expertise .

Non-linear scattering:

 High electric fields within the fiber leads to the non-linear scattering
mechanism.
 It causes the scattering of significant power in the forward, backward or
sideways depending upon the nature of the interaction.
 This scattering is accomplished by a frequency shift of the scattered light.

Raman scattering: (forward light scattering or SRS)

 It is caused by molecular vibrations of phonons in the glass matrix.
 This scattering is dependent on the temperature of the material.

Brillouin scattering: (backward light scattering or SBS ).

 It is induced by acoustic waves as opposed to thermal phonons.
 Brillouin scattering is a backscatter phenomenon.
 The importance of SRS and SBS is that they can be the limiting factor in high-
power system designs.
 Raman scattering loss is unaffected by spectral source width but requires at
least an order of magnitude more power for onset.
 Brillouin scattering loss can be decreased by using a light source with a broad
spectral width. A broad spectral width reduces the light-material interaction.
(3) RADIATIVE LOSS (BENDING LOSS):

 Radiative losses occur whenever an optical fiber undergoes a bend of finite

radius of curvature.

 Fibers can be subjected to two types of bends : macroscopic bend and the
microscopic bend.

Macro bending losses :

 It occur due to the bends of radii larger than the fiber diameter.

 These losses are also called 'large-curvature radiation losses'.

 For slight bends, the excess loss is extremely small. As the radius of
curvature decreases, the loss increases exponentially until a certain critical
radius occurs. At this point the macro bend losses are significant.

 These losses become extremely large when the bend crosses the
critical/threshold point.

 The macro bend losses occur when optical fibers are packed for
transportation to the field of installation during installation process.
Bending Loss (Macrobending & Microbending)

 The curvature of the bend is

much larger than fiber diameter.
Lightwave suffers sever loss due
to radiation of the evanescent
field in the cladding region. As
the radius of the curvature
decreases, the loss increases
exponentially until it reaches at a
certain critical radius. For any
radius a bit smaller than this
point, the losses suddenly
becomes extremely large. Higher
order modes radiate away faster
than lower order modes.
rd
Optical Fiber communications, 3 ed.,G.Keiser,McGrawHill, 2000
Evanescent Field

 To meet the guiding conditions for an electromagnetic wave

propagating in a dielectric waveguide the field decays exponentially
away from the core -cladding boundary. The evanescent tail is an
integral part of the guided wave and its characteristics are
determined by the guiding parameters of the wave. Therefore
modification of the evanescent field modifies the guided wave.
Micro bend losses:
 These losses are associated with small perturbations of the fiber, induced
by the factors like uneven coating application or cabling induced stresses.
 The results of the perturbations is to cause the coupling of propagating
modes in the fiber by changing the optical path length. This de
stabilisation of the modal distribution causes the lower-order modes to
couple to the higher-order modes which are lossy in nature.
Signal Distortion in Fiber:

 The optical signal that propagates through an optical fiber suffers

from distortion (i.e. Change in shape). This effect of pulse
broadening in fiber is known as Dispersion.

 Types of Dispersion:

 (A) Intermodal dispersion

 (B) Intramodal Dispersion:
◦ (i) Material Dispersion
◦ (ii) Waveguide Dispersion

 This distortion effects are due to intramodal dispersion and

intermodal delay effects, which can be explained by the group
velocities of the guided modes.

 'Group velocity' is the speed at which the energy in a particular

mode travels along the fiber.
Information Capacity determination:
Inter-modal (or) Modal dispersion (or) Group delay:

 Pulse broadening due to intermodal dispersion results from the

propagation delay differences between the modes within a
mu1timode fiber.
 The pulse in different modes travel along the channel with different
group velocities.
 The pulse width at the output depends on the transmission times of the
slowest and the fastest modes.
 This dispersion creates the fundamental difference in the overall
dispersion for the different fiber types.
 Hence multimode SI fibers exhibit a large amount of intermodal
dispersion giving the greatest pulse broadening.
 The intermodal dispersion in multimode fibers can be minimised by
adopting optimum refractive index profile provided by the near
parabolic profile of most GI fibers.
 So, the overall pulse broadening in multimode GI fibers is less than that
of the SI fibers.
 Thus GI fibers used with a multimode source gives a tremendous
bandwidth advantage over multimode SI fibers.
 To eliminate the Intermodal Dispersion SMF is the best solution.
Intramodal dispersion:

 It is pulse spreading that occurs within a single mode of light

source. It is due to the group velocity which is a function of the
wavelength.
 As the intramodal dispersion is dependent on the wavelength, its
effect on signal distortion increases with the spectral width of the
optical source. It is normally characterized by the RMS spectral
width.
 The LEDs have an RMS spectral width of about 5% of the central
wavelength, whereas the LASER diodes have much narrower spectral
widths of 1 to 2 nm.
 The main causes of intramodal dispersion are : Material &
Waveguide dispersion.

Material (or) Chromatic (or) Spectral Dispersion:

 This dispersion arises due to the variation of the refractive index of

the core material as a function of optical wavelength.
 This causes a wavelength dependence of the group velocity of any
given mode; that is, pulse spreading occurs even when different
optical wavelengths follow the same optical path.
Pure silica has zero dispersion at about 1280nm and typical SM fibers with index difference of 0.3%

to 0.4% have zero chromatic dispersion at 1310 nm.

Waveguide Dispersion:

 Waveguide dispersion occurs since the propagation of light in the

core and cladding layers differ.
 Considering the ray theory approach, it is equivalent to the angle
between the ray and the fiber axis vary with wavelength.
 This leads to variation in the transmission time of the rays and hence
the dispersion.
 If β is the propagation constant for a SM fiber, then the fiber exhibits
the waveguide dispersion if

 In multimode fibers, the majority of modes propagate far from the

cut-off.
 They are almost free of waveguide dispersion and is negligible when
compared to the material dispersion.