COURSE MATERIAL

OPTICAL COMMUNICATION

FOR

IV YEAR / VII SEMESTER

ACADEMIC YEAR 2021-22

BY

DR.K. ANITHA

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR

DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRONICS AND COMMUNICATION

SRI CHANDRASEKARENDRA VISWA MAHA VIDYALAYA

(SCSVMV)
(Deemed to be university u/s 3 of the UGC Act 1956)
(Accredited ‘A’ Grade by NAAC)
ENATHUR, KANCHIPURAM – 631 561.
 PCC27 OPTICAL COMMUNICATION VII SEMESTER
OBJECTIVE:
• To learn the basic elements of optical fiber transmission link, fiber modes configurations
and structures.
• To understand the different kind of losses, signal distortion, SM fibers. To learn the
various optical sources, materials and fiber splicing
• To learn the fiber optical receivers and noise performance in photo
detector.
• To explore link budget, WDM, solitons and SONET/SDH network
UNIT I INTRODUCTION TO OPTICAL FIBERS
Evolution of fiber optic system- Element of an Optical Fiber Transmission link-- Total
internal reflection-Acceptance angle –Numerical aperture – Skew rays Ray Optics-
Optical Fiber Modes and Configurations -Mode theory of Circular Wave guides-
Overview of Modes-Key Modal Concepts-Linearly Polarized Modes -Single Mode
Fibers-Graded Index fiber structure
UNIT II SIGNAL DEGRADATION OPTICAL FIBERS
Attenuation - Absorption losses, Scattering losses, Bending Losses, Core and Cladding
losses, Signal Distortion in Optical Waveguides-Information Capacity determination -
Group Delay- Material Dispersion, Wave guide Dispersion, Signal distortion in SM
fibers-Polarization Mode dispersion, Intermodal dispersion, Pulse Broadening in GI
fibers-Mode Coupling -Design Optimization of SM fibers-RI profile and cut-off
wavelength.
UNIT III FIBER OPTICAL SOURCES AND COUPLING
Direct and indirect Band gap Materials -LED structures -Light source materials -
Quantum efficiency and LED power, Modulation of a LED, lasers Diodes-Modes and
Threshold condition – Rate equations-External Quantum efficiency -Resonant
frequencies -Laser Diodes, Temperature effects, Introduction to Quantum laser, Fiber
amplifiers- Power Launching and coupling, Lencing schemes, Fiber -to- Fiber joints,
Fiber splicing-Signal to Noise ratio , Detector response time.
UNIT IV FIBER OPTIC RECEIVER AND MEASUREMENTS
Fundamental receiver operation, Pre-amplifiers, Error sources – Receiver
Configuration– Probability of Error –Quantum limit, Fiber Attenuation measurements-
Dispersion measurements – Fiber Refractive index profile measurements – Fiber cut- off
Wave length Measurements – Fiber Numerical Aperture Measurements – Fiber diameter
measurements
UNIT V OPTICAL NETWORKS AND SYSTEM TRANSMISSION
Basic Networks – SONET / SDH – Broadcast – and –select WDM Networks –Wavelength
Routed Networks – Non linear effects on Network performance –-Link Power budget -
Rise time budget-Noise Effects on System Performance- Operational Principles of WDM
Performance of WDM + EDFA system – Solutions – Optical CDMA – Solitons in Optical
Fiber -Ultra High Capacity Networks.
OUTCOMES:
At the end of the course, the student should be able to:
1. Demonstrate an understanding of optical fiber communication link, structure,
propagation and transmission properties of an optical fiber.
2. Estimate the losses and analyze the propagation characteristics of an optical
signal in different types of fibers.
3. Describe the principles of optical sources and power launching-coupling methods.
4. Compare the characteristics of fiber optic receivers.
5. Design a fiber optic link based on budgets To assess the different techniques to
improve the capacity of the system.
TEXT BOOKS:
1. Gerd Keiser, “Optical Fiber Communication & quot; Mc Graw-Hill
International, 4th Edition. 2010.
2. John M. Senior, “Optical Fiber Communication”, Second Edition, Pearson
Education, 2007.
REFERENCES:
1. Ramaswami, Sivarajan and Sasaki “Optical Networks”, Morgan Kaufmann, 2009.
2. J.Senior, & quot; Optical Communication, Principles and Practice & quot;,
Prentice Hall of India, 3rd Edition, 2008.
3. J.Gower, & quot; Optical Communication System & quot;, Prentice Hall of India,
2001.
UNIT I INTRODUCTION TO OPTICAL FIBERS
• Evolution of fiber optic system
• Element of an Optical Fiber Transmission link
• Total internal reflection-Acceptance angle
• Numerical aperture
• Skew rays Ray Optics
• Optical Fiber Modes and Configurations
• Mode theory of Circular Wave guides
• Overview of Modes
• Key Modal Concepts
• Linearly Polarized Modes
• Single Mode Fibers
• Graded Index fiber structure
 UNIT I INTRODUCTION TO OPTICAL FIBERS
Introduction
• An optical Fiber is a thin, flexible, transparent Fiber that acts as a waveguide, or "light pipe", to
transmit light between the two ends of the Fiber.
• Optical fibers are widely used in Fiber-optic communications, which permits transmission over longer
distances and at higher bandwidths (data rates) than other forms of communication.
• Fibers are used instead of metal wires because signals travel along them with less loss and are also
immune to electromagnetic interference.
Evolution of fiber optic system
First generation
• The first generation of light wave systems uses GaAs semiconductor laser and operating region was
near 0.8 μm. Other specifications of this generation are as under:
• i) Bit rate: 45 Mb/s
• ii) Repeater spacing: 10 km
Second generation
i) Bit rate: 100 Mb/s to 1.7 Gb/s
ii) Repeater spacing: 50 km
iii) Operation wavelength: 1.3 μm
iv) Semiconductor: In GaAsP

Third generation
i) Bit rate: 10 Gb/s
ii) Repeater spacing: 100 km
iii) Operating wavelength: 1.55 μm

Fourth generation
• Fourth generation uses WDM technique.
i) Bit rate: 10 Tb/s
ii) Repeater spacing: > 10,000 km
iii) Operating wavelength: 1.45 to 1.62 μm
Fifth generation
• Fifth generation uses Roman amplification technique
and optical solitiors.
i) Bit rate: 40 - 160 Gb/s
ii) Repeater spacing: 24000 km - 35000 km
iii) Operating wavelength: 1.53 to 1.57 μm
Need of fiber optic communication
i) Fiber optic communication system has emerged as most important communication
ii) system. Compared to traditional system because of following requirements:
iii) 1. In long haul transmission system there is need of low loss transmission medium
iv) 2. There is need of compact and least weight transmitters and receivers.
v) 3. There is need of increase dspan of transmission.
vi) 4. There is need of increased bit rate-distrance product.
vii) A fiber optic communication system fulfills these requirements, hence most widely
viii) accepted
Element of an Optical Fiber Transmission link
An optical fiber communication system is similar in basic concept to any type of communication system.
A block schematic of a general communication system is shown in Figure.

Basic block diagram of optical fiber communication system consists of following important blocks.
1. Transmitter
2. Information channel
3. Receiver.
The basic components are light signal transmitter, the optical fiber, and the photo detecting
receiver. The additional elements such as fiber and cable splicers and connectors, regenerators, beam
splitters, and optical amplifiers are employed to improve the performance of the communication system.
1. Transmitter
Transmitter generates the wave on which the information is transmitted. This wave is called the
carrier. For fiber optic system, a laser diode (LD) or a light emitting diode (LED) is used. They can
be called as optic oscillators; they provide stable, single frequency waves with sufficient power for
long distance propagation.

2. Information channel
 The information channel is the path between the transmitter and receiver. In fiber optic
communications, a glass or plastic fiber is the channel. Desirable characteristics of the information
channel include low attenuation and large light acceptance cone angle. Optical amplifiers boost the
power levels of weak signals. Amplifiers are needed in very long links to provide sufficient power to
the receiver. Repeaters can be used only for digital systems. They convert weak and distorted optical
signals to electrical ones and then regenerate the original digital pulse trains for further transmission.
Another important property of the information channel is the propagation time of the
waves travelling along it. A signal propagating along a fiber normally contains a range of optic
frequencies and divides its power along several ray paths. This results in a distortion of the propagating
signal. In a digital system, this distortion appears as a spreading and deforming of the pulses. The
spreading is so great that adjacent pulses begin to overlap and become unrecognizable as separate bits
of information.
3. Receiver
The information being transmitted is detector. In the fiber system the optic wave is converted into
an electric current by a photo detector. The current developed by the detector is proportional to the
power in the incident optic wave. Detector output current contains the transmitted information. This
detector output is then filtered to remove the constant bias and then amplified. The important properties
of photo detectors are small size, economy, long life, low power consumption, high sensitivity to optic
signals and fast response to quick variations in the optic power.
Signal processing includes filtering, amplification. Proper filtering maximizes the ratio of
signal to unwanted power. For a digital system decision circuit is an additional block. The bit
error rate (BER) should be very small for quality communications.
The electrical forms of the message emerging from the signal processor are transformed
into a sound wave or visual image. Sometimes these signals are directly usable when computers or other
machines are connected through a fiber system.

Functional Advantages

The functional advantages of optical fibers are −

• The transmission bandwidth of the fiber optic cables is higher than the metal cables.
• The amount of data transmission is higher in fiber optic cables.
• The power loss is very low and hence helpful in long-distance transmissions.
• Fiber optic cables provide high security and cannot be tapped.
• Fiber optic cables are the most secure way for data transmission.
• Fiber optic cables are immune to electromagnetic interference.
• These are not affected by electrical noise.

Physical Advantages

The physical advantages of fiber optic cables are −

• The capacity of these cables is much higher than copper wire cables.
• Though the capacity is higher, the size of the cable doesn’t increase like it does in copper wire
cabling system.
• The space occupied by these cables is much less.
• The weight of these FOC cables is much lighter than the copper ones.
• Since these cables are di-electric, no spark hazards are present.
 • These cables are more corrosion resistant than copper cables, as they are bent easily and are
flexible.
• The raw material for the manufacture of fiber optic cables is glass, which is cheaper than copper.
• Fiber optic cables last longer than copper cables.

Disadvantages

Although fiber optics offer many advantages, they have the following drawbacks −
• Though fiber optic cables last longer, the installation cost is high.
• The number of repeaters are to be increased with distance.
• They are fragile if not enclosed in a plastic sheath. Hence, more protection is needed than copper
ones.

Applications of Fiber Optics

The optical fibers have many applications. Some of them are as follows −
• Used in telephone systems
• Used in sub-marine cable networks
• Used in data link for computer networks, CATV Systems
• Used in CCTV surveillance cameras
• Used for connecting fire, police, and other emergency services.
• Used in hospitals, schools, and traffic management systems.
• They have many industrial uses and also used for in heavy duty constructions.
Optical Fiber Waveguides
In free space light travels as its maximum possible speed i.e. 3 x 108 m/s or 186 x 103 miles/sec.
When light travels through a material it exhibits certain behavior explained by laws of eflection,
refraction.
a. Electromagnetic Spectrum
The radio waves and light are electromagnetic waves. The rate at which they alternate in polarity
is called their frequency (f) measured in hertz (Hz). The speed of electromagnetic wave (c) in
free space is approximately 3 x 108 m/sec. The distance travelled during each cycle is called as
wavelength (λ)

𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑒𝑑 𝑜𝑓 𝑙𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡 𝑐
𝑤𝑎𝑣𝑒𝑙𝑒𝑛𝑔𝑡ℎ (𝜆) = =
𝑓𝑟𝑒𝑢𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑦 𝑓
In fiber optics, it is more convenient to use the wavelength of light instead of the frequency with light
frequencies, wavlengfth is often stated in microns or nanometres 1 micron (μ) = 1 Micrometre (1 x 10-
6)1 nano (n) = 10-9 metre
Fig. shows electromagnetic frequency spectrum.
Fiber optics uses visible and infrared light. Infrared light covers a fairly wide range of
wavelengths and is generally used for all fiber optic communications. Visible light is normally used for
very short-range transmission using a plastic fiber.
Ray Transmission Theory
Before studying how the light actually propagates through the fiber, laws governing the
nature of light m ust be studied. These was called as laws of optics (Ray theory). There is
conception that light always travels at the same speed. This fact is simply not true. The speed of light
depends upon the material or medium through which it is moving. In free space light travels at its
maximum possible speed i.e. 3 x 108 m/s or 186 x 103 miles/sec. When light travels through a material
it exhibits certain behavior explained by laws of reflection, refraction.
Reflection
The law of reflection states that, when a light ray is incident upon a reflective surface at some
incident angle 1 from imaginary perpendicular normal, the ray will be reflected from the
surface at some angle 2 from normal which is equal to the angle of incidence. Fig. shows law of
reflection.

Refraction
Refraction occurs when light ray passes from one medium to another i.e. the light ray
changes its direction at interface. Refraction occurs whenever density of medium changes. E.g.
refraction occurs at air and water interface, the straw in a glass of water will appear as it is bent.
The refraction can also observed at air and glass interface.
 • When wave passes through less dense medium to denser medium, the wave is refracted (bent)
towards the normal. Fig. shows the refraction phenomena.
• The refraction (bending) takes place because light travels at different speed in different
mediums. The speed of light in free space is higher than in water or glass.

Refractive Index
• The amount of refraction or bending that occurs at the interface of two materials of different
densities is usually expressed as refractive index of two materials. Refractive index is also
known as index of refraction and is denoted by n.
• Based on material density, the refractive index is expressed as the ratio of the velocity of light
in free space to the velocity of light of the dielectric material (substance).

𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑒𝑑 𝑜𝑓 𝑙𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡 𝑖𝑛 𝑎𝑖𝑟 𝑐

• 𝑅𝑒𝑓𝑟𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑒 𝑖𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑥 𝑛 = 𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑒𝑑 𝑜𝑓 𝑙𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡 𝑖𝑛 𝑚𝑒𝑑𝑖𝑢𝑚 = 𝑣
• The refractive index for vacuum and air os 1.0 for water it is 1.3 and for glass refractive index
is 1.5.
Snell’s Law
• Snell‘s law states how light ray reacts when it meets the interface of two media having different
indexes of refraction.
• Let the two medias have refractive indexes n1 and n2 where n1 >n2.
• 1 and 2 be the angles of incidence and angle of refraction respectively. Then according to
Snell‘s law, a relationship exists between the refractive index of both materials given by,

• A refractive index model for Snell‘s law is shown in Fig.

 • The refracted wave will be towards the normal when n1 < n2 and will away from it then n1 >
n2.
• Equation can be written as,
𝑛1 𝑠𝑖𝑛∅2
=
𝑛2 𝑠𝑖𝑛∅1
Critical Angle
• When the angle of incidence ( 1) is progressively increased, there will be progressive increase
of refractive angle ( 2). At some condition ( 1) the refractive angle ( 2) becomes 90o to the
normal.
• When this happens the refracted light ray travels along the interface. The angle of incidence (
1) at the point at which the refractive angle ( 1) becomes 90 degree is called the critical
angle. It is denoted by c.
• The critical angle is defined as the minimum angle of incidence ( 1) at which the ray strikes
the interface of two media and causes an angle of refraction ( 2) equal to 90o. Fig shows critical
angle refraction
• Hence at critical angle 1 = c and 2 = 90o .Using Snell‘s law: n1 sin 1 = n2 sin 2
The actual value of critical angle is dependent upon combination of materials present on each side of
boundary.
Total Internal Reflection (TIR)
• When the incident angle is increase beyond the critical angle, the light ray does not pass through
the interface into the other medium. This gives the effect of mirror exist at the interface with no
possibility of light escaping outside the medium. In this condition angle of reflection ( 2) is
equal to angle of incidence ( 1). This action is called as Total Internal Reflection (TIR) of the
beam. It is TIR that leads to the propagation of waves within fiber-cable medium. TIR can be
observed only in materials in which the velocity of light is less than in air.
• The two conditions necessary for TIR to occur are:
1. The refractive index of first medium must be greater than the refractive index
of second one.
2. The angle of incidence must be greater than (or equal to) the critical angle.

Acceptance Angle
 Acceptance angle is the maximum angle with the axis of the Optical Fiber at which the
light can enter into the optical fiber in order to be propagated through it.

Applying Snell‘s law to external incidence angle.

𝑛0 𝑠𝑖𝑛𝜃𝑎 = 𝑛1 𝑠𝑖𝑛𝜃2 … … . . (1)
The Cone of acceptance is the angle within which the light is accepted into the core and is able to travel
along the fiber. The launching of light wave becomes easier for large acceptance cone. The angle is
measured from the axis of the positive cone so the total angle of convergence is actually twice the stated
value.

Numerical Aperture (NA)

The numerical aperture (NA) of a fiber is a figure of merit which represents its light gathering capability.
Larger the numerical aperture, the greater the amount of light accepted by fiber. The acceptance angle
also determines how much light is able to be enter the fiber and hence there is relation between the
numerical aperture and the cone of acceptance.

Skew Rays: Skew rays are the rays which does not follow the fiber axis. These rays are not easy to
visualize, only the direction can be predicted in helical path of direction change of 2γ at each reflection.
γ is the angle between the projection of the ray in the two dimension and the radii of the fiber core at
the point of reflection. When the light input to the fiber is non uniform, rays will therefore tend to have
a smoothing effect on the distribution of light as it is transmitted, giving more information output. NA
in case of skew rays,
Optical Fiver as Waveguide
An optical fiber is a cylindrical dielectric waveguide capable of conveying electromagnetic waves at
optical frequencies. The electromagnetic energy is in the form of the light and propagates along the axis
of the fiber. The structural of the fiver determines the transmission characteristics.
The propagation of light along the waveguide is decided by the modes of the waveguides, here mode
means path. Each mode has distict pattern of electric and magnetic field distributions along the fiber
length. Only few modes can satisfy the homogeneous wave equation in the fiver also the boundary
condition a waveguide surfaces. When there is only one path for light to follow then it is called as single
mode propagation. When there is more than one path then it is called as multimode propagation. Single
fiber structure.
A single fiber structure is shown in Fig. It consists of a solid dielectric cylinder with radius ‗a ‘. This
cylinder is called as core of fiber. The core is surrounded by dielectric, called cladding. The index of
refraction of core (glass fiber) is slightly greater than the index of refraction of cladding. If refractive
index of core (glass fiver) = n1 and refractive index of cladding = n2 then n1 > n2.

Modes of Fiber
Fiber cables cal also be classified as per their mode. Light rays propagate as an electromagnetic wave
along the fiber. The two components, the electric field and the magnetic field form patterns across the
fiber. These patterns are called modes of transmission. The mode of a fiber refers to the number of paths
for the light rays within the cable. According to modes optic fibers can be classified into two types.
1. Single mode fiber
2. Multimode fiber.

• Multimode fiber was the first fiber type to be manufactured and commercialized. The term
multimode simply refers to the fact that numerous modes (light rays) are carried simultaneously
through the waveguide. Multimode fiber has a much larger diameter, compared to single mode
fiber, this allows large number of modes.

• Single mode fiber allows propagation to light ray by only one path. Single mode fibers are best
at retaining the fidelity of each light pulse over longer distance also they do not exhibit dispersion
caused by multiple modes. Thus more information can be transmitted per unit of time. This gives
single mode fiber higher bandwidth compared to multimode fiber.
• Some disadvantages of single mode fiber are smaller core diameter makes coupling light into
the core more difficult. Precision required for single mode connectors and splices are more
demanding.

Fiber Profiles
• A fiber is characterized by its profile and by its core and cladding diameters.
• One way of classifying the fiber cables is according to the index profile at fiber. The index
profile is a graphical representation of value of refractive index across the core
diameter.
There are two basic types of index profiles.
1. Step index fiber.
2. Graded index fiber.
Step Index (SI) Fiber
The step index (SI) fiber is a cylindrical waveguide core with central or inner core has a uniform
refractive index of n1 and the core is surrounded by outer cladding with uniform refractive index of n2.
The cladding refractive index (n2) is less than the core refractive index
(n1). But there is an abrupt change in the refractive index at the core cladding interface. Refractive index
profile of step indexed optical fiber is shown in Fig. The refractive index is plotted on horizontal axis
and radial distance from the core is plotted on vertical axis.

The propagation of light wave within the core of step index fiber takes the path of
meridional ray i.e. ray follows a zig-zag path of straight line segments. The core typically has
diameter of 50-80 μm and the cladding has a diameter of 125 μm.
The refractive index profile is defined as –

Graded Index (GRIN) Fiber

The graded index fiber has a core made from many layers of glass.
In the graded index (GRIN) fiber the refractive index is not uniform within the core, it is highest at the
center and decreases smoothly and continuously with distance towards the cladding. The refractive
index profile across the core takes the parabolic nature. Fig. shows refractive index profile of graded
index fiber .

In graded index fiber the light waves are bent by refraction towards the core axis and they follow
the curved path down the fiber length. This results because of change in refractive index as moved away
from the center of the core.
A graded index fiber has lower coupling efficiency and higher bandwidth than the step index
fiber. It is available in 50/125 and 62.5/125 sizes. The 50/125 fiber has been optimized for long haul
applications and has a smaller NA and higher bandwidth. 62.5/125 fiber is optimized for LAN
applications which is costing 25% more than the 50/125 fiber cable.
The refractive index variation in the core is giver by relationship
Where,
r = Radial distance from fiber axis
a = Core radius
n1 = Refractive index of core
n2 = Refractive index of cladding
α = Shape of index profile.

Comparison of Step Index and Graded Index Fiber

Optic Fiber Configurations

Depending on the refractive index profile of fiber and modes of fiber there exist three
types of optical fiber configurations. These optic-fiber configurations are -
• Single mode step index fiber.
• Multimode step index fiber.
• Multimode graded index fiber.

Single mode Step index Fiber

In single mode step index fiber has a central core that is sufficiently small so that there is
essentially only one path for light ray through the cable. The light ray is propagated in the fiber
through reflection. Typical core sizes are 2 to 15 μm. Single mode fiber is also known as fundamental
 or mono mode fiber. Fig. shows single mode fiber.

Single mode fiber will permit only one mode to propagate and does not suffer from mode delay
differences. These are primarily developed for the 1300 nm window but they can be also be used
effectively with time division multiple (TDM) and wavelength division multiplex (WDM) systems
operating in 1550 nm wavelength region.
The core fiber of a single mode fiber is very narrow compared to the wavelength of light being
used. Therefore, only a single path exists through the cable core through. Which light can travel.
Usually, 20 percent of the light in a single mode cable actually travels down the cladding and the
effective diameter of the cable is a blend of single mode core and degree to which the cladding carries
light. This is referred to as the ‗mode field diameter‘, which is larger than physical diameter of the core
depending on the refractive indices of the core and cladding.
The disadvantage of this type of cable is that because of extremely small size interconnection of
cables and interfacing with source is difficult. Another disadvantage of single mode fibers is that as the
refractive index of glass decreases with optical wavelength, the light velocity will also be wavelength
dependent. Thus the light from an optical transmitter will have definite spectral width.
Multimode step index fiber is more widely used type. It is easy to manufacture. Its core diameter
is 50 to 1000 μm i.e. large aperture and allows more light to enter the cable. The light rays are propagated
down the core in zig-zag manner. There are many paths that a light ray may follow during the
propagation.
The light ray is propagated using the principle of total internal reflection (TIR). Since the core
index of refraction is higher than the cladding index of refraction, the light enters at less than critical
angle is guided along the fiber.

Light rays passing through the fiber are continuously reflected off the glass cladding towards the centre
of the core at different angles and lengths, limiting overall bandwidth. The disadvantage of multimode
step index fibers is that the different optical lengths caused by various angles at which light is propagated
relative to the core, causes the transmission bandwidth to be fairly small. Because of these limitations,
multimode step index fiber is typically only used in applications requiring distances of less than 1 km.
Multimode Graded Index Fiber
The core size of multimode graded index fiber cable is varying from 50 to 100 μm range. The light ray
is propagated through the refraction. The light ray enters the fiber at many different angles. As the light
propagates across the core toward the center it is intersecting a less dense to denser medium. Therefore,
the light rays are being constantly being refracted and ray is bending continuously. This cable is mostly
used for long distance communication. Fig shows multimode graded index fiber.

The light rays no longer follow straight lines, they follow a serpentine path being gradually bent
back towards the center by the continuously declining refractive index. The modes travelling in a
straight line are in a higher refractive index so they travel slower than the serpentine modes. This reduces
the arrival time disparity because all modes arrive at about the same time.
Fig. shows the light trajectory in detail. It is seen that light rays running close to the fiber axis with
shorter path length, will have a lower velocity because they pass through a region with a high refractive
index.

Rays on core edges offers reduced refractive index, hence travel more faster than axial rays and
cause the light components to take same amount of time to travel the length of fiber, thus, minimizing
dispersion losses. Each path at a different angle is termed as ‘transmission mode’ and the NA of graded
index fiber is defined as the maximum value of acceptance angle at the fiber axis.
Typical attenuation coefficients of graded index fibers at 850 nm are 2.5 to 3 dB/km, while at 1300 nm
they are 1.0 to 1.5 dB/km.
The main advantages of graded index fiber are:
1. Reduced refractive index at the centre of core.
2. Comparatively cheap to produce.

Comparison of single mode and multimode fiber:

Mode Theory for Cylindrical Waveguide
To analyse the optical fiber propagation mechanism within a fiber, Maxwell equations are to
solve subject to the cylindrical boundary conditions at core-cladding interface. The core-cladding
boundary conditions lead to coupling of electric and magnetic field components resulting in hybrid
modes. Hence the analysis of optical waveguide is more complex than metallic hollow waveguide
analysis.
Depending on the large E-field, the hybrid modes are HE or EH modes. The two
lowest order does are HE11 and TE01.
Linearly Polarized Mode:
• The exact solution of Maxwell’s equations for a cylindrical homogeneous core dielectric
waveguide involves much algebra and yields a complex result.
• In common with the planar guide, TE (where Ez = 0) and TM (where Hz = 0) modes are obtained
within the dielectric cylinder.
• The cylindrical waveguide, however, is bounded in two dimensions rather than one. Thus two
integers, l and m, are necessary in order to specify the modes, in contrast to the single integer
(m) required for the planar guide.
• For the cylindrical waveguide we therefore refer to TElm and TMlm modes.
• These modes correspond to meridional rays traveling within the fiber.
• However, hybrid modes where Ez and Hz are nonzero also occur within the cylindrical
waveguide.
• These modes, which result from skew ray propagation within the fiber, are designated HElm and
EHlm depending upon whether the components of H or E make the larger contribution to the
transverse (to the fiber axis) field.
• Thus an exact description of the modal fields in a step index fiber proves somewhat complicated.
• The relationship between the traditional HE, EH, TE and TM mode designations and the
LPlm mode designations is shown in Table
Summary of Key Modal Concepts
Normalized frequency variable, V is defined as

Where, a = Core radius

λ = Free space wavelength

The total number of modes in a multimode fiber is given by

Example 1: Calculate the number of modes of an optical fiber having diameter of 50 μm, n1
= 1.48, n2 = 1.46 and λ = 0.82 μm.
Solution: d = 50 μm
n1 = 1.48
n2 = 1.46
λ = 0.82 μm

Number of modes is given by,

 UNIT-II SIGNAL DEGRADATION OPTICAL FIBERS

• Attenuation
• Absorption losses
• scattering losses
• Bending Losses
• Core and Cladding losses
• Signal Distortion in Optical Waveguides
• Information Capacity determination
• Group Delay
• Material Dispersion
• Wave guide Dispersion,
• Signal distortion in SM fibers
• Polarization Mode dispersion
• Intermodal dispersion
• Pulse Broadening in GI fibers
• Mode Coupling
• Design Optimization of SM fibers
• RI profile and cut-off wavelength.
Attenuation

The attenuation or transmission loss of optical fibers has proved to be one of the most
important factors in bringing about their wide acceptance in telecommunications. As channel
attenuation largely determined the maximum transmission distance prior to signal restoration, optical
fiber communications became especially attractive when the transmission losses of fibers were
reduced below those of the competing metallic conductors (le

Signal attenuation within optical fibers, as with metallic conductors, is usually expressed in
the logarithmic unit of the decibel. The decibel, which is used for comparing two power levels, may
be defined for a particular optical wavelength as the ratio of the input (transmitted) optical power Pi
into a fiber to the output (received) optical power Po from the fiber as:

(2.1)

This logarithmic unit has the advantage that the operations of multiplication and division
reduce to addition and subtraction, while powers and roots reduce to multiplication and division.
However, addition and subtraction require a conversion to numerical values which may be obtained
using the relationship:

(2.2)

In optical fiber communications the attenuation is usually expressed in decibels per unit length

(2.3)

dB is the signal attenuation per unit length in decibels which is also referred to as the
fiber loss parameter and L is the fiber length. A number of mechanisms are responsible for the signal
attenuation within optical fibers. These mechanisms are influenced by the material composition, the
preparation and purification technique, and the waveguide structure. They may be categorized within
several major areas which include material absorption, material scattering (linear and nonlinear
scattering), curve and microbending losses, mode coupling radiation losses and losses due to leaky
modes.

Material absorption losses in silica glass fibers

Material absorption is a loss mechanism related to the material composition and the
fabrication process for the fiber, which results in the dissipation of some of the transmitted optical
power as heat in the waveguide. The absorption of the light may be intrinsic (caused by the interaction
with one or more of the major components of the glass) or extrinsic (caused by impurities within the
glass).

Intrinsic absorption

An absolutely pure silicate glass has little intrinsic absorption due to its basic material
structure in the near-infrared region. However, it does have two major intrinsic absorption
mechanisms at optical wavelengths which leave a low intrinsic absorption window over the 0.8 to 1.7
µm wavelength range, as illustrated in Figure 2.1, which shows a possible optical attenuation against
wavelength characteristic for absolutely pure glass.

Figure 2.1 The attenuation spectra for the intrinsic loss mechanisms in pure GeO2 SiO2 glass

It may be observed that there is a fundamental absorption edge, the peaks of which are
centered in the ultraviolet wavelength region. This is due to the stimulation of electron transitions
within the glass by higher energy excitations.

The tail of this peak may extend into the window region at the shorter wavelengths, as
illustrated in Figure 2.1. Also in the infrared and far infrared, normally at wavelengths above 7 µm,
fundamentals of absorption bands from the interaction of photons with molecular vibrations within
the glass occur.

These give absorption peaks which again extend into the window region. The strong
absorption bands occur due to oscillations of structural units such as Si O (9.2 µm), P O (8.1 µm),
B O (7.2 µm) and Ge O (11.0µm) within the glass. Hence, above 1.5 µm the tails of these largely far-
infrared absorption peaks tend to cause most of the pure glass losses.

However, the effects of both these processes may be minimized by suitable choice of both
core and cladding compositions. For instance, in some non oxide glasses such as fluorides and
chlorides, the infrared absorption peaks occur at much longer wavelengths which are well into the far
infrared (up to 50 µm), giving less attenuation to longer wavelength transmission compared with
oxide glasses.
Extrinsic absorption

In practical optical fibers prepared by conventional melting techniques, a major source of

signal attenuation is extrinsic absorption from transition metal element impurities.

Some of the more common metallic impurities found in glasses are shown in the Table 2.1,
together with the absorption losses caused by one part in 109

Table 2.1 Absorption losses caused by some of the more common metallic ionimpurities in glasses,
together with the absorption peak wavelength

It may be noted that certain of these impurities, namely chromium and copper, in their worst
-infrared region. Transition
element contamination may be reduced to acceptable levels (i.e. one part in 1010) by glass refining
techniques such as vapor-phase oxidation, which largely eliminates the effects of these metallic
impurities.

However, another major extrinsic loss mechanism is caused by absorption due to water (as
the hydroxyl or OH ion) dissolved in the glass. These hydroxyl groups are bonded into the glass
structure and have fundamental stretching vibrations which occur at wavelengths between 2.7 and
4.2µm depending on group position in the glass network. The fundamental vibrations give rise to
overtones appearing almost harmonically at 1.38, 0.95 and 0.72 µm, as illustrated in Figure 2.2. This
shows the absorption spectrum for the hydroxyl group in silica.

Figure 2.2 The absorption spectrum for the hydroxyl (OH) group in silica.
 Furthermore, combinations between the overtones and the fundamental SiO2 vibration occur
pleting the absorption spectrum shown in Figure 2.2.It may also be
observed in Figure 3.2 that the only significant absorption band in the region below a wavelength of
m which causes
per million (ppm) of hydroxyl.

Figure 2.3 The measured attenuation spectrum for an ultra-low-loss single-mode fiber (solid line)
with the calculated attenuation spectra for some of the loss mechanisms contributing to the overall
fiber attenuation

At longer m are strong

absorbers ppm respectively. Since most
resonances are sharply peaked, narrow windows exist in the longer wavelength region around 1.31
ected by OH absorption once the impurity level has been
reduced below one part in 107. This situation is illustrated in Figure 2.3, which shows the attenuation
spectrum of a low-loss single-mode fiber produced in 1979. It may be observed that the lowest
attenuation for this fiber occurs s value
approaching the minimum m wavelength,
it should be noted that the transmission loss of an ultra-low-loss pure silica core fiber was more
ghtly longer wavelength of 1.57 m.

Although in standard, modern single-mode fibers the loss caused by the primary OH peak at
it still limits operation over significant distances
to
the lower loss windows at 1.31 and 1.55

Linear scattering losses

Linear scattering mechanisms cause the transfer of some or all of the optical power contained
within one propagating mode to be transferred linearly (proportionally to the mode power) into a
different mode. This process tends to result in attenuation of the transmitted light as the transfer may
be to a leaky or radiation mode which does not continue to propagate within the fiber core, but is
radiated from the fiber. It must be noted that as with all linear processes, there is no change of
frequency on scattering.
 Linear scattering may be categorized into two major types: Rayleigh and Mie scattering. Both
result from the nonideal physical properties of the manufactured fiber which are difficult and, in
certain cases, impossible to eradicate at present.

Rayleigh scattering

Rayleigh scattering is the dominant intrinsic loss mechanism in the low-absorption window
between the ultraviolet and infrared absorption tails. It results from inhomogeneities of a random
nature occurring on a small scale compared with the wavelength of the light.

These inhomogeneities manifest themselves as refractive index fluctuations and arise from
density and compositional variations which are frozen into the glass lattice on cooling. The
compositional variations may be reduced by improved fabrication, but the index fluctuations caused
by the freezing-in of density inhomogeneities are fundamental and cannot be avoided.

The subsequent scattering due to the density fluctuations, which is in almost all directions,
produces an attenuation proportional to 1 . For a single-
component glass this is given by:

(2.4)

th, n is the refractive index

of the medium, p is the isothermal compressibility at a
fictive temperature TF, and K is Bo temperature is defined as the
temperature at which the glass can reach a state of thermal equilibrium and is closely related to the
anneal temperature. Furthermore, the Rayleigh scattering coefficient is related to the transmission
loss factor (transmissivity) of the fiber following the relation:

(2.5)

where L is the length of the fiber. It is apparent from Eq. (2.4) that the fundamental component of
Rayleigh scattering is strongly reduced by operating at the longest possible wavelength.

Mie scattering

Linear scattering may also occur at inhomogeneities which are comparable in size with the
guided wavelength. These result from the nonperfect cylindrical structure of the waveguide and may
be caused by fiber imperfections such as irregularities in the core cladding interface, core cladding
refractive index differences along the fiber length, diameter fluctuations, strains and bubbles. When
the scattering inhomogeneity size is greater than
dependence can be very large.

The scattering created by such inhomogeneities is mainly in the forward direction and is called
Mie scattering. Depending upon the fiber material, design and manufacture, Mie scattering can cause
significant losses. The inhomogeneities may be reduced by:

removing imperfections due to the glass manufacturing process;

carefully controlled extrusion and coating of the fiber;
increasing the fiber guidance by increasing the relative refractive index difference.

By these means it is possible to reduce Mie scattering to insignificant levels.

Nonlinear scattering losses

Optical waveguides do not always behave as completely linear channels whose increase in
output optical power is directly proportional to the input optical power. Several nonlinear effects
occur, which in the case of scattering cause disproportionate attenuation, usually at high optical power
levels.

This nonlinear scattering causes the optical power from one mode to be transferred in either
the forward or backward direction to the same, or other modes, at a different frequency. It depends
critically upon the optical power density within the fiber and hence only becomes significant above
threshold power levels.

The most important types of nonlinear scattering within optical fibers are stimulated Brillouin
and Raman scattering, both of which are usually only observed at high optical power densities in long
single-mode fibers. These scattering mechanisms in fact give optical gain but with a shift infrequency,
thus contributing to attenuation for light transmission at a specific wavelength. However, it may be
noted that such nonlinear phenomena can also be used to give optical amplification in the context of
integrated optical techniques

Stimulated Brillouin scattering

Stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) may be regarded as the modulation of light through
thermal molecular vibrations within the fiber. The scattered light appears as upper and lower
sidebands which are separated from the incident light by the modulation frequency. The incident
photon in this scattering process produces a phonon* of acoustic frequency as well as a scattered
photon. This produces an optical frequency shift which varies with the scattering angle because the
frequency of the sound wave varies with acoustic wavelength.

The frequency shift is a maximum in the backward direction, reducing to zero in the forward
direction, making SBS a mainly backward process. As indicated previously, Brillouin scattering is
only significant above a threshold power density. Assuming that the polarization state of the
transmitted light is not maintained, it may be shown that the threshold power PB is given by:

(2.6)

where d wavelength, respectively, both measured

is the source bandwidth
(i.e. injection laser) in gigahertz. The expression given in Eq. (2.6) allows the determination of the
threshold optical power which must be launched into a single-mode optical fiber before SBS occurs

Stimulated Raman scattering

Stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) is similar to SBS except that a high-frequency optical
phonon rather than an acoustic phonon is generated in the scattering process. Also, SRS can occur in
both the forward and backward directions in an optical fiber, and may have an optical power threshold
of up to three orders of magnitude higher than the Brillouin threshold in a particular fiber.

Using the same criteria as those specified for the Brillouin scattering threshold given in Eq.
(2.6), it may be shown that the threshold optical power for SRS PR in a long single-mode fiber is
given by:

(2.7)
Fiber bend loss

Optical fibers suffer radiation losses at bends or curves on their paths. This is due to the energy
in the evanescent field at the bend exceeding the velocity of light in the cladding and hence the
guidance mechanism is inhibited, which causes light energy to be radiated from the fiber. An
illustration of this situation is shown in Figure 2.5. The part of the mode which is on the outside of
the bend is required to travel faster than that on the inside so that a wavefront perpendicular to the
direction of propagation is maintained.

Hence, part of the mode in the cladding needs to travel faster than the velocity of light in that
medium. As this is not possible, the energy associated with this part of the mode is lost through
radiation. The loss can generally be represented by a radiation attenuation coefficient which has the
form:

where R is the radius of curvature of the fiber bend and c1, c2 are constants which are independent of
R. Furthermore, large bending losses tend to occur in multimode fibers at a critical radius of curvature
Rc which may be estimated from:

(2.8)

It may be observed from the expression given in Eq. (2.8) that potential macrobending losses may
be reduced by:

designing fibers with large relative refractive index differences;

operating at the shortest wavelength possible.

Figure 2.5 An illustration of the radiation loss at a fiber bend.

The above criteria for the reduction of bend losses also apply to single-mode fibers. One theory, based
on the concept of a single quasi-guided mode, provides an expression from which the critical radius
of curvature for a single-mode fiber Rcs can be estimated as:
 (2.9)

-mode fiber. Hence again, for a specific single-mode

fiber (i.e. a fixed relative index difference and cutoff wavelength), the critical wavelength of the
radiated light becomes progressively shorter as the bend radius is decreased.

Mid-infrared and far-infrared transmission

In the near-infrared region of the optical spectrum, fundamental silica fiber attenuation is
dominated by Rayleigh scattering and multiphonon absorption from the infrared absorption edge (see
Figure 2.2). Therefore, the total loss decreases as the operational transmission wavelength increases
until a crossover point is reached around a wavelength of
increases because at longer wavelengths the loss is dominated by the phonon absorption edge. Since
the near fundamental attenuation limits for near-infrared silicate class fibers have been achieved, more
recently researchers have turned their attention to the mid- d the far-
optical wavelengths.

In order to obtain lower loss fibers it is necessary to produce glasses exhibiting longer infrared
cutoff wavelengths. Potentially, much lower losses can be achieved if the transmission window of the
material can be extended further into the infrared by utilizing constituent atoms of higher atomic mass
and if it can be drawn into fiber exhibiting suitable strength and chemical durability. The reason for
this possible loss reduction is due to d hence
becomes much reduced as the wavelength is increased. For example, the scattering loss is reduced by
a factor of 16 when the optical wavelength is doubled.

Thus it may be possible to obtain losses of the

ven lower losses at wavelengths m. Candidate glass-forming systems
for mid-infrared transmission are fluoride, fluoride chloride, chalcogenide and oxide.

Figure 2.6 Attenuation spectra for some common mid- and far-infrared fibers
In particular, oxide glasses such as Al2O3 (i.e. sapphire) offer a near equivalent transmittance
 range to many of the fluoride glasses and have benefits of high melting points, chemical inertness,
and the ability to be readily melted and grown in air. Chalcogenide glasses, which generally comprise
one or more elements Ge, Si, As and Sb, are capable of optical transmission in both the mid-infrared
and far-infrared regions.

A typical chalcogenide fiber glass is therefore arsenide trisulfide (As2S3). However, research
activities into far-infrared transmission using chalcogenide glasses, halide glasses, polycrystalline
halide fibers (e.g. silver and thallium) and hollow glass waveguides are primarily concerned with
radiometry, infrared imaging, optical wireless, optical sensing and optical power transmission rather
than telecommunications

The loss spectrum for a single-crystal sapphire fiber which also transmits in the midinfrared
is also shown in Figure 2.6. Although they have robust physical properties,
modulus six times greater as well as a thermal expansion some ten times higher than that of silica,
these fibers lend themselves to optical power delivery applications [Ref. 27], not specifically optical
communications. Chalcogenide glasses which have their lowest losses over both the mid- and far-
infrared ranges are very stable, durable and insensitive to moisture. Arsenic trisulfide fiber, being one
of the simplest, has a spectral range from 0.7 to around 6 µm. Hence it has a cut off at long wavelength
significantly before the chalcogenide fibers containing heavier elements such as Te, Ge and Se, an
attenuation spectrum for the latter being incorporated in Figure 2.6. In general, chalcogenide glass
fibers have proved to be useful in areas such as optical sensing, infrared imaging and for the
production of fiber infrared lasers and amplifiers.

Dispersion

Dispersion of the transmitted optical signal causes distortion for both digital and analog
transmission along optical fibers. When considering the major implementation of optical fiber
transmission which involves some form of digital modulation, then dispersion mechanisms within the
fiber cause broadening of the transmitted light pulses as they travel along the channel. The
phenomenon is illustrated in Figure 2.7, where it may be observed that each pulse broadens and
overlaps with its neighbors, eventually becoming indistinguishable at the receiver input. The effect is
known as intersymbol interference (ISI). Thus an increasing number of errors may be encountered on
the digital optical channel as the ISI becomes more pronounced. The error rate is also a function of
the signal attenuation on the link and the subsequent signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) at the receiver.

For no overlapping of light pulses down on an optical fiber link the digital bit rate BT must
be less than the reciprocal of the broadened (through dispersion) pulse duration (2 ).

Hence:

(2.10)

The conversion of bit rate to bandwidth in hertz depends on the digital coding format used.
For metallic conductors when a nonreturn-to-zero code is employed, the binary 1 level is held for the
o bit periods in one wavelength (i.e. 2 bits per second per
hertz), as illustrated in Figure 2.8(a). Hence the maximum bandwidth B is one-half the maximum data
rate or:

(2.12)
However, when a return-to-zero code is considered, as shown in Figure 2.8(b), the binary 1 level is
held for only part (usually half ) of the bit period. For this signaling scheme the data rate is equal to
the bandwidth in hertz (i.e. 1 bit per second per hertz) and thus BT = B.

Figure 2.7 An illustration using the digital bit pattern 1011 of the broadening of light pulses as they
are transmitted along a fiber: (a) fiber input; (b) fiber output at a distance L1; (c) fiber output at a
distance L2 > L1

Figure 2.8 Schematic illustration of the relationships of the bit rate to wavelength for digital codes:
 (a) nonreturn-to-zero (NRZ); (b) return-to-zero (RZ)
The bandwidth B for metallic conductors is also usually defined by the electrical 3 Db points(i.e. the
frequencies at which the electric power has dropped to one-half of its constant maximum value).
However, when the 3 dB optical bandwidth of a fiber is considered it is significantly larger than the
corresponding 3 dB electrical bandwidth. Hence, when the limitations in the bandwidth of a fiber due
to dispersion are stated (i.e. optical bandwidth Bopt), it is usually with regard to a return tozero code
where the bandwidth in hertz is considered equal to the digital bit rate. Within the contextof dispersion
the bandwidths expressed in this chapter will follow this general criterion unless otherwise stated.

when electro-optic devices and optical fiber systems are considered it is more usual to statethe
electrical 3 dB bandwidth, this being the more useful measurement when interfacing an optical fiber
link to electrical terminal equipment.

Intramodal Dispersion

Chromatic or intramodal dispersion may occur in all types of optical fiber and results from
the finite spectral linewidth of the optical source. Since optical sources do not emit just a single
frequency but a band of frequencies (in the case of the injection laser corresponding to only a fraction
of a percent of the center frequency, whereas for the LED it is likely to be a significant percentage),
then there may be propagation delay differences between the different spectral components of the
transmitted signal. This causes broadening of each transmitted mode and hence intramodal dispersion.
The delay differences may be caused by the dispersive properties of the waveguide material (material
dispersion) and also guidance effects within the fiber structure (waveguide dispersion).

Material dispersion

Pulse broadening due to material dispersion results from the different group velocities of the
various spectral components launched into the fiber from the optical source. It occurs when the phase
velocity of a plane wave propagating in the dielectric medium varies nonlinearly with wavelength,
and a material is said to exhibit material dispersion when the second differential of the refractive
index with respect to wavelength is not zero.

Hence the group delay is given by:

(2.13)

where n1 is the refractive index of the core material. The pulse delay m due to material dispersion
in a fiber of length L is therefore:

(2.14)

For a source with rms spectral width and a mean wavelength , the rms pulse broadening due to
material dispersion m may be obtained from the expansion of Eq. (2.14) in a

Taylor series about where:

(2.15)
 As the first term in Eq. (2.15) usually dominates, especially for sources operating over the 0.8 to 0.9
range, then:

(2.16)

Hence the pulse spread may be evaluated by considering the dependence of m on , where from Eq.
(2.14):

(2.17)

Therefore, substituting the expression obtained in Eq. (2.17) into Eq. (2.16), the rms pulse broadening
due to material dispersion is given by:

(2.18)

The material dispersion for optical fibers is sometimes quoted as a value for or simply

However, it may be given in terms of a material dispersion parameter M which is defined as:

(2.19)

Waveguide dispersion

The waveguiding of the fiber may also create chromatic dispersion. This results from the
variation in group velocity with wavelength for a particular mode. Considering the ray theory
approach, it is equivalent to the angle between the ray and the fiber axis varying with wavelength
which subsequently leads to a variation in the transmission times for the rays, and hence dispersion.
For a sing , the fiber exhibits waveguide dispersion when
. Multimode fibers, where the majority of modes propagate far from cutoff, are almost free
of waveguide dispersion and it is generally negligible compared with material
ns/ km).

However, with single-mode fibers where the effects of the different dispersion mechanisms are not
easy to separate, waveguide dispersion may be significant.

Intermodal dispersion

Pulse broadening due to intermodal dispersion (sometimes referred to simply as modal or

mode dispersion) results from the propagation delay differences between modes within a multimode
fiber. As the different modes which constitute a pulse in a multimode fiber travel along the channel
at different group velocities, the pulse width at the output is dependent upon the transmission times
 of the slowest and fastest modes. This dispersion mechanism creates the fundamental
difference in the overall dispersion for the three types of fiber. Thus multimode step index
fibers exhibit a large amount of intermodal dispersion which gives the greatest pulse
broadening. However, intermodal dispersion in multimode fibers may be reduced by
adoption of an optimum refractive index profile which is provided by the near-parabolic
profile of most graded index fibers.

Hence, the overall pulse broadening in multimode graded index fibers is far less than
that obtained in multimode step index fibers (typically by a factor of 100). Thus graded index
fibers usedwith a multimode source give a tremendous bandwidth advantage over multimode
step index fibers.Under purely single-mode operation there is no intermodal dispersion and
therefore pulse broadeningis solely due to the intramodal dispersion mechanisms. In theory,
this is the case with single-mode step index fibers where only a single mode is allowed to
propagate. Hence they exhibit the least pulse broadening and have the greatest possible
bandwidths, but in general are only usefully operated withsingle-mode sources.

In order to obtain a simple comparison for intermodal pulse broadening between

multimode step index and multimode graded index fibers, it is useful to consider the
geometric optics picture forthe two types of fiber.

Group Delay
Consider a fiber cable carrying optical signal equally with various modes and
each mode contains all the spectral components in the wavelength band. All
the spectral components travel independently and they observe different
time delay and group delay in the direction of propagation. The velocity
at which the energy in a pulse travel along the fiber is known as group
velocity. Group velocity is given by,

Thus, different frequency components in a signal will travel at different group velocities
and so will arrive at their destination at different times, for digital modulation of carrier,
this results in dispersion of pulse, which affects the maximum rate of modulation. Let the
difference in propagation times for two side bands is δτ.
Information Capacity Determination
Dispersion and attenuation of pulse travelling along the fiber is shown in Fig. 2.6.1. Fig.
2.6.1 shows, after travelling some distance, pulse starts broadening and overlap with the
neighbouring pulses. At certain distance the pulses are not even distinguishable and error
will occur at receiver. Therefore the information capacity is specified by bandwidth-
distance product (MHz . km). For step index bandwidth distance product is 20 MHz . km
and for graded index it is 2.5 MHz . km.
 Polarization Mode Dispersion
• As the name suggests, the polarization mode dispersion is due unequal velocities of
two orthogonal states of polarization.
• The difference in the propagation time between two orthogonal polarization mode will
result in pulse spreading.
• The PMD puts the ultimate restriction on the data rate on the long haul single mode
optical fiber.
• A linearly polarized field can be resolved into two orthogonally polarized fields The
pulse energy gets divided into two polarization states as shown in Fig.
•

• Due non-uniformity of the core-radius the effective modal index is different for the
two polarizations.
• The difference in modal indices for two polarization is called the birefringence of the
fiber.
• The polarizations consequently travel with different velocities, splitting optical pulse
in to two.
• This phenomenon is called Polarization Mode Dispersion .
• No one polarization systematically sees the same modal index.
• The optical pulse therefore has statistical fluctuation of the polarization.
• The pulse slowly broadens due to the statistical fluctuation of the velocities of the two
orthogonal polarizations.
Modal Birefringence:
• Birefringence is a term used to describe a phenomenon that occurs in certain types of
materials, in which light is split into two different paths. This phenomenon occurs
because these materials have different indices of refraction, depending on the
polarization direction of light.
• Birefringence is also observed in an optical fiber, due to the slight asymmetry in the
fiber core cross-section along the length and due to external stresses applied on the
fiber such as bending.
Fiber Beat Length:
• A characteristic of optical fiber used to calculate the fiber's ability to maintain
polarization.
• The beat length describes the length required for the polarization to rotate 360
degrees.
• For a given wavelength, it is inversely proportional to the fiber's birefringence.
Mode Coupling:
• After a certain initial length, the pulse distortion increases less rapidly because of
mode coupling and differential mode loss
• waveguide perturbations such as deviations of the fiber axis from straightness,
variations in the core diameter, irregularities at the core–cladding interface and
refractive index variations may change the propagation characteristics of the fiber.
• These will have the effect of coupling energy traveling in one mode to another
depending on the specific perturbation.
• Ray theory aids the understanding of this phenomenon, as shown in Figure
Cut off Wavelength:
• One of the important transmission parameter for single mode fiber is cut off
wavelength for the higher order mode (LP11)
• It separates the single mode and multimode regions
• a theoretical cutoff wavelength λc given by:
•
2𝜋𝑎𝑛1 1
𝜆𝑐 = (2∆)2
𝑣𝑐

• Where Vc is the cut off normalized frequency. Hence λc is the wavelength above
which a particular fiber becomes single-moded.
• Vc=2.405 for step index fiber
• The relationship between cut off wavelength and cut off normalized frequency is
given as
𝜆𝑐 𝑉
=
𝜆 𝑉𝑐
Thus for the step index fiber Vc =2.405, the cut off wavelength is given by

𝑉𝜆
𝜆𝑐 =
2.405

Single-Mode Fiber Design Considerations:

• The parameters that are important for the design of a single-mode fiber are
• (i) cutoff wavelength,
• (ii) fiber loss,
• (iii) dispersion,
• (iv) dispersion slope,
• (v) polarization mode dispersion, and
• (vi) spot size
• Using a step-index optical fiber, it is not possible to optimize all these parameters.
• Therefore, the refractive index profile n(r) is chosen so that the design parameters
listed above are optimum for a specific application.
 UNIT III FIBER OPTICAL SOURCES AND COUPLING

• Direct and indirect Band gap Materials

• LED structures -Light source materials
• Quantum efficiency and LED power
• Modulation of a LED
• lasers Diodes-Modes and Threshold condition
• Rate equations-
• External Quantum efficiency
• Resonant frequencies
• Laser Diodes
• Temperature effects
• Introduction to Quantum laser
• Fiber amplifiers
• Power Launching and coupling
• Lencing schemes,
• Fiber -to- Fiber joints
• Fiber splicing-Signal to Noise ratio
• Detector response time.
Introduction
➢ Emission of light, (in the form of a photon) can take place either spontaneously or it
can be stimulated by the presence of another photon of the right energy level.
➢ For spontaneous or stimulated emission to occur, energy must be supplied to boost
the electron from its low energy state to a higher energy state.
➢ The energy can come from many sources: Heat (Incandescent light), Electrical
Discharge (D2, Hg, Na lamps), Electrical Current (LED, LD), Bioluminescence (Fire
fly- luciferase enzyme)
Optical Source Requirement for Performance (For Fiber Optics)
• Physical dimensions to suit the optical fiber
• Narrow radiation pattern (beam width)
• Linearity (output light power proportional to driving current)
• Ability to be directly modulated by varying driving current
• Fast response time
• Adequate output power into the fiber
• Narrow spectral width (or line width)
• Stability and efficiency
• Driving circuit issues
• Reliability and cost
• Almost all these requirements are satisfied by LED and Laser diodes. Both are
working in forward biased mode
Semiconductor Materials
• Two energy bands
• Conduction band (CB)
• Valence band (VB)
• Fundamental processes
• Absorbed photon creates an electron-hole pair
• Recombination of an electron and hole can emit a photon
• Types of photon emission
• Spontaneous emission
• Random recombination of an electron-hole pair
• Dominant emission for light emitting diodes (LED)
• Stimulated emission
• A photon excites another electron and hole to recombine
• Emitted photon has similar wavelength, direction, and phase
• Dominant emission for laser diodes
Basic Light Emission Processes

• Pumping (creating more electron-hole pairs)

• Electrically create electron-hole pairs
• Optically create electron-hole pairs
• Emission (recombination of electron-hole pairs)
 • Spontaneous emission
• Simulated emission
Direct and Indirect Materials

• Relationship between energy and momentum for electrons and holes

• Depends on the material
• Electrons in the CB combine with holes in the VB
• Photons have no momentum
• Photon emission requires no momentum change
• CB minimum needs to be directly over the VB maximum
• Direct bandgap transition required
• Only specific materials have a direct bandgap
• The emission wavelength depends on the energy band gap
E g = E2 − E1

=
hc
=
1.24
( m)
Eg Eg (eV )
• Semiconductor compounds have different
• Energy band gaps
• Atomic spacing (called lattice constants)
• Combine semiconductor compounds
• Adjust the bandgap
• Lattice constants (atomic spacing) must be matched
• Compound must be matched to a substrate
• Usually GaAs or InP
• Only specific materials have a direct bandgap
• Material determines the bandgap
Material Element Group Bandgap Energy Bandgap wavelength Type
Eg (eV) lg (mm)
Ge IV 0.66 1.88 I
Si IV 1.11 1.15 I
AlP III-V 2.45 0.52 I

AlAs III-V 2.16 0.57 I

AlSb III-V 1.58 0.75 I

GaP III-V 2.26 0.55 I

GaAs III-V 1.42 0.87 D

GaSb III-V 0.73 1.70 D

InP III-V 1.35 0.92 D

InAs III-V 0.36 3.5 D

AnSb III-V 0.17 7.3 D

Common Semiconductor Compounds
• GaAs and AlAs have the same lattice constants
• These compounds are used to grow a ternary compound that is lattice matched
to a GaAs substrate (Al1-xGaxAs)
• 0.87 < l < 0.63 (mm)
• Quaternary compound GaxIn1-xAsyP1-y is lattice matched to InP if y=2.2x
• 1.0 < l < 1.65 (mm)
• Optical telecommunication laser compounds
• In0.72Ga0.28As0.62P0.38 (l=1300nm)
In0.58Ga0.42As0.9P0.1 (l=1550nm)
Optical Sources
• Two main types of optical sources
• Light emitting diode (LED)
• Large wavelength content
• Incoherent
• Limited directionality
• Laser diode (LD)
• Small wavelength content
• Highly coherent
• Directional
Light Emitting Diodes (LED)
• Spontaneous emission dominates
• Random photon emission
• Implications of random emission
• Broad spectrum (Dl~30nm)
• Broad far field emission pattern
• Dome used to extract more of the light
• Critical angle is between semiconductor and plastic
• Angle between plastic and air is near normal
• Normal reflection is reduced
• Dome makes LED more directional

Basic LED operation

• A PN junction acts as the active or recombination region.
• When the PN junction is forward biased, electrons and holes recombine either
radiatively (emitting photons) or non-radiatively (emitting heat). This is simple LED
operation.
 • Emitted wavelength depends on bandgap energy Transitions can take place from any
energy state in either band to any state in the other band. This results in a range of
different wavelengths produced in this spontaneous emission. This accounts for the
fact that LEDs produce a range of wavelengths. Typically, the range is about 80 nm or
so.

LED-Principle of Operation
• LED can be used in fiber transmission applications, it must have
• High radiance output or brightness:
• Measure of optical power radiated into a unit solid angle per unit area of the emitting
surface
• Fast emission response time:
 • It is a time delay between the application of a current pulse and respective optical
emission
• High quantum efficiency
• it is related to the fraction of the electron hole pairs that recombine radiatively
• LED structure should provide a high radiance and a high quantum efficiency.
• It must achieve carrier and optical confinement
• Types:
• Homojunctions structure
• Heterojunctions structure

Homojunctions: P- type and N-type from same material

Structure and index of refraction n in gallium arsenide with a junction width d

▪ Carriers are not confined
▪ Light is not confined
▪ LED should have a high radiance (light intensity), fast response time and a high
quantum efficiency for FO system
Heterojunctions: Different p- and n- materials
• Carriers are confined
• Light is also confined
• Single Heterojunction, Double Heterojunction.
➢ A heterojunction is a junction between semiconductors with different bandgap
energies.
The double-heterojunction LED

The principle of operation of the DH LED is illustrated in Figure. The device shown consists
of a p-type GaAs layer sandwiched between a p-type AlGaAs and an n-typebAlGaAs layer.
When a forward bias is applied electrons from the n-type layer are injected through the p–n
junction into the p-type GaAs layer where they become minority carriers.
 These minority carriers diffuse away from the junction recombining with majority carriers
(holes) as they do so. Photons are therefore produced with energy corresponding to the band
gap energyof the p-type GaAs layer. The injected electrons are inhibited from diffusing into
the p-type AlGaAs layer because of the potential barrier presented by the p–p heterojunction,
Hence, electroluminescence only occurs in the GaAs junction layer, providing both good
internal quantum efficiency and high-radiance emission.

Types of LED Configurations

• Surface Emitting LED’s (SLED)

• Edge Emitting LED’s (EELED)
• Super luminescent LED’s (SLD)
Confining and Guiding the Light within the Device
In both types of LED (SLED and ELED) a combination of insulating materials and
junctions is used to:
1. Guide the current flow to a small “active region” and
2. Guide the light produced out of the device and into an easy position for coupling to a
fiber.
Surface Emitter LED

Surface emitter LED (SLED) has been widely employed within optical fiber
communications in which A method for obtaining high radiance is to restrict the emission
to a small active region within the device. These structures have low thermal impedance in
the active region allowing high current densities and giving high- radiance emission into the
optical fiber. The structure of a high-radiance etched well DH surface emitter* for the 0.8
to 0.9 μm wavelength band is shown in Figure. The internal absorption in this device is very
low due to the larger band-gap-confining layers, and the reflection coefficient at the back
crystal face is high giving good forward radiance. The emission from the active layer is
essentially isotropic, although the external emission distribution may be considered
Lambertian with a beam width of 120° due to refraction from a high to a low refractive index
 at the GaAs–fiber interface. The power coupled Pc into a multimode step index fiber may
be estimated from the relationship:
Pc = π (1 − r)ARD(NA)2
Where r is the Fresnel reflection coefficient at the fiber surface, A is the smaller of the
fiber core cross-sectionor the emission area of the source and RD is the radiance of the
source.
Edge emitter LED

Edge emitter LED (ELED) has a similar geometry to a conventional contact stripe injection
laser

It takes advantage of transparent guiding layers with a very thin active layer (50 to 100 μm)
in order that the light produced in the active layer spreads into the transparent guiding layers,
reducing self-absorption in the active layer. The consequent wave guiding narrows the beam
divergence to a half-power width of around 30° in the plane perpendicular to the junction.
However, the lack of wave guiding in the plane of the junction gives a Lambertian output
with a half-power width of around 120°.The ELED active layer was heavily doped with
Zn to reduce the minority carrier lifetime and thus improve the device modulation
bandwidth. In this way a 3 dB modulation bandwidth of 600 MHz was obtained. Very high
coupled optical power levels into single-mode fiber in excess of 100 μW have been obtained
with In GaAsP ELEDs at drive currents as low as 50 mA.
Super luminescent LED

Another device geometry which is providing significant benefits over both SLEDs and
ELEDs forcommunication applications is the Super luminescent diode or SLD. This device
offers advantages of:
(a) A high output power;
(b) A directional output beam; and
(c) A narrow spectral line width.
All of which prove useful for coupling significant optical power levels into optical fiber.
The super radiant emission process within the SLD tends to increase the device modulation
bandwidth over that of more conventional LEDs.

A Super luminescent light emitting diode is, similar to a laser diode, based on an
electrically driven pn-junction that, when biased in forward direction becomes optically
active and generates amplified spontaneous emission over a wide range of wavelengths. The
peak wavelength and the intensity of the SLED depend on the active material composition
and on the injection current level. SLEDs are designed to have high single pass
amplification for the spontaneous emission generated along the waveguide but, unlike laser
diodes, insufficient feedback to achieve lasing action. This is obtained very successfully
through the joint action of a tilted waveguide and anti-reflection coated (ARC) facets.
LED power and efficiency

The power generated internally by an LED may be determined by consideration of the

excess electrons and holes in the p- and n-type material respectively. When it is forward
biased and carrier injection takes place at the device contacts. The excess density of
electrons Δn and holes Δp is equal since the injected carriers are created and recombined in
pairs such that charge neutrality is maintained within the structure. In extrinsic materials one
carrier type will have a much higher concentration than the other and hence in the p-type
region, for example, the hole concentration will be much greater than the electron
concentration. Generally, the excess minority carrier density decays exponentially with time
t according to the relation:
Δn = Δn(0) exp(−t/τ) (1)

where Δn(0) is the initial injected excess electron density and τ represents the total
carrier recombinationlifetime.
When there is a constant current flow into the junction diode, an equilibrium
conditionis established. In thiscase, the total rate at which carriers are generated will be
the sum of the externally supplied and the thermal generation rates. Hence a rateequation
for carrier recombination in theLED can be expressed in the form

.......(2)
The condition for equilibrium is obtained by setting the derivative in Eq. (2) to zero. Hence:

....... (3)
Equation (3) therefore gives the steady-state electron density when a constant current
isflowing into the junctionregion.
It is also apparent from Eq. (2) that in the steady state the total number of carrierrecombi-
nations per second orthe recombination rate rt will be:

(5)
whererr is the radiative recombination rate per unit volume and rnr is the non-
radiativerecombination rate per unit volume. Moreover, when the forward-biased current
into thedevice is i, then from Eq. (7.4) the total number of recombinations per second Rt
becomes:
(6)

The LED internal quantum efficiency* ηint, which can be defined as the ratio of
theradiative recombination rateto the total recombination rate,

(8)
 Where Rr is the total number of radiative recombination per second. Rearranging Eq.
(8) and substituting fromEq. (6) gives:

(9)
Since Rr is also equivalent to the total number of photons generated per second each
photon has an energy equalto hfjoules, then the optical power generated internally by the
LED, Pint, is:

the internally generated power in terms of wavelength ratherthan frequency gives:

For the exponential decay of excess carriers depicted by Eq. (1) the radiative minority
carrier lifetime is τr =Δn/rr and the non-radiative minority carrier lifetime is τnr =
Δn/rnr.Therefore, from Eq. (7.7) the internal quantum efficiency is:

Furthermore, the total recombination lifetime τ can be written as τ = Δn/rtgives:

Hence,

LED Characteristics
Optical output power

LED is a very linear device in comparison with the majority of injection lasers and hence it
tends to be more suitable for analog transmission where severe constraints are put on the
linearity of the optical source. However, in practice LEDs do exhibit significant
nonlinearities which depend upon the configuration utilized. It is therefore often necessary
to use some form of linear circuit technique in order to ensure the linear performance of the
device to allow its use in high-quality analog transmission systems.

(a) Ideal LED characteristics

 (b) Surface emitter with a 50 μm diameter dot (c) Edge emitter with a 65 μm
wide stripe and 100 μm lengthContact
Light output temperature dependence for three important LED structures emitting at a wavelength of
1.3 μm

Output spectrum
The spectral line width of an LED operating at room temperature in the 0.8 to 0.9 μm
wavelength band is usually between 25 and 40 nm at the half maximum intensity points. For
materials with smaller band gap energies operating in the 1.1 to 1.7 μm wavelength region
the line width tend to increase to around50 to 160 nm.Examples of these two output spectra
are shown in Figure. The increases in line width are due to increased doping levels and the
formation of band tail states. This becomes apparent in the differences in the output spectra
between surface- and edge-emitting LEDs where the devices have generally heavily doped
and lightly doped.

Modulation bandwidth

The modulation bandwidth in optical communications may be defined in either electrical or

optical terms. When the associated electrical circuitry in an optical fiber communication
system to use the electrical definition wherethe electrical signal power has dropped to half
its constant value due to the modulated portion of the optical signal. This corresponds to the
electrical 3 dB point or the frequency at which the output electric power is reduced by 3 dB
with respect to the input electric power. Alternatively, if the 3 dB bandwidth of the
modulated optical carrier (optical bandwidth)is considered, we obtain an increased value for
the modulation bandwidth.
OPTICAL SOURCE: LASER
In optical Communication three main types of optical light source are available. These are:
(a) Wideband ‘continuous spectra’ sources (incandescent lamps);
(b) Monochromatic incoherent sources (light-emitting diodes, LEDs);
(c) Monochromatic coherent sources (lasers).
The major requirements for an optical fiber emitter which are outlined below:

1. A size and configuration compatible with launching light into an optical fiber. Ideally,
the light output shouldbe highly directional.

2. Must accurately track the electrical input signal to minimize distortion and noise.
Ideally, the source shouldbe linear.

3. Should emit light at wavelengths where the fiber has low losses and low dispersion
and where the detectorsare efficient.

4. Preferably capable of simple signal modulation over a wide bandwidth extending from
audio frequencies tobeyond the gigahertz range.

5. Must couple sufficient optical power to overcome attenuation in the fiber plus additional
connector losses andleave adequate power to drive the detector.

6. Should have a very narrow spectral bandwidth in order to minimize dispersion in the
fiber.

7. Must be capable of maintaining a stable optical output which is largely unaffected

by changes in ambientconditions (e.g. temperature).

8. It is essential that the source is comparatively cheap and highly reliable in order to
compete withconventional transmission techniques.

A laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on
the stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation. The term "laser" originated as an
 acronym for "light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation”. A laser differs
from other sources of light because it emits light coherently. Lasers have many important
applications. They are used in common consumer devices such as optical disk drives, laser
printers, and barcode scanners. Lasers are used for both fiber-optic and free-space optical
communication.
Basic Concepts
Absorption and emission of radiation

The interaction of light with matter takes place in discrete packets of energy or quanta, called
photons. Furthermore, the quantum theory suggests that atoms exist only in certain discrete
energy states such that absorption and emission of light causes them to make a transition
from one discrete energy state to another. Thefrequency of the absorbed or emitted radiation
f is related to the difference in energy E between the higher energy stateE2 and the lower
energy state E1 by the expression:
E = E2 − E1 = hf

Where h = 6.626 × 10−34 J s is Planck’s constant. These discrete energy states for the atom
may be considered to correspond to electrons occurring in particular energy levels relative
to the nucleus. Hence, different energy states for the atom correspond to different electron
configurations, and a single electron transition between two energy levels within the atom
will provide a change in energy suitable for the absorption or emission of a photon.

This emission process can occur in two ways:

(a) By spontaneous emission in which the atom returns to the lower energy state in an entirely
random manner;
(b) By stimulated emission when a photon having an energy equal to the energy difference
 between the two states (E2 − E1) interacts with the atom in the upper energy state causing
it to return to the lower state with the creation of a second photon.

It is the stimulated emission process which gives the laser its special properties as an optical
source. The photonproduced by stimulated emission is generally of an identical energy to
the one which caused it and hence the light associated with them is of the same frequency.
The light associated with the stimulating and stimulated photon is in phase and has the same
polarization. Therefore, in contrast to spontaneous emission, coherent radiation is obtained.

The Einstein relations

In 1917 Einstein demonstrated that the rates of the three transition processes of
absorption, spontaneousemission and stimulated emission were related mathematically. He
achieved this by considering the atomic system to be in thermal equilibrium such that the
rate of the upward transitions must equal the rate of the downward transitions. The
population of the two energy levels of such a system is described by Boltzmann statistics
which give:

Where N1 and N2 represent the density of atoms in energy levels E1 and E2, respectively,
with g1 and g2 being the corresponding degeneracy of the levels, K is Boltzmann’s constant
and T is the absolute temperature.

As the density of atoms in the lower or ground energy state E1 is N1, the rate of upward
transition or absorptionis proportional to both N1 and the spectral density ρf of the radiation
energy at the transition frequency f. Hence,the upward transition rate R12 may be written
as:

R12 = N1ρf B12

where the constant of proportionality B12 is known as the Einstein coefficient of absorption.

For spontaneous emission the average time that an electron exists in the excited state before
a transition occursis known as the spontaneous lifetime τ21. If the density of atoms within
the system with energy E2 is N2, then the spontaneous emission rate is given by the product
of N2 and 1/τ2. This may be written as N2A21 where A21, the Einstein coefficient of
spontaneous emission, is equal to the reciprocal of the spontaneous lifetime.

The rate of stimulated downward transition of an electron from level 2 to level 1 may be
obtained in a similar manner to the rate of stimulated upward transition. Hence the rate of
stimulated emission is given by
R21 = N2A21 + N2ρf B21
For a system in thermal equilibrium, the upward and downward transition rates must be
equal and therefore R12 = R21, or:
 N1ρf B12 = N2A21 + N2ρfB21
It follows that:

Substituting values from equations

Planck showed thatthe radiation spectral density for a black body radiating within a
frequency range f to f + dfisgiven by

After comparing equations,

&

The ratio of the stimulated emission rate to the spontaneous emission rate is given by:

2.1.1 Population inversion

Under the conditions of thermal equilibrium given by the Boltzmann distribution, the lower
energy level E1 of the two-level atomic system contains more atoms than the upper energy
levelE2, which is normal for structures at room temperature. However, to achieve optical
amplification it is necessary to create a non-equilibrium distribution of atoms such that the
population of the upper energy level is greater than that of the lower energy level (i.e. N2
>N1). This condition is known as population inversion.
In order to achieve population inversion it is necessary to excite atoms into the upper
energy level E2 and hence obtain a non-equilibrium distribution. This process is achieved
using an external energy source and isreferred to as ‘pumping’. When the two levels are
equally degenerate (or not degenerate), then B12 = B21. Thusthe probabilities of absorption
and stimulated emission are equal, providing at best equal populations in the two levels.
Population inversion may be obtained in systems with three or four energy levels.
To achieve population
inversion both systems display a central metastable state in which the atoms spend an
unusually long time. It isfrom this metastable level that the stimulated emission or lasing
takes place.

2.1.1 Optical feedback and laser oscillation

Light amplification in the laser occurs when a photon colliding with an atom in the excited
energy state causes the stimulated emission of a second photon and then both these photons
release two more. Continuation of this process effectively creates avalanche multiplication,
and when the electromagnetic waves associated with these photons are in phase, amplified
coherent emission is obtained. To achieve this laser action it is necessary to contain photons
within the laser medium and maintain the conditions for coherence. This is accomplished
by placing or forming mirrors (plane or curved) at either end of the amplifying medium. The
optical cavity formed is more analogous to an oscillator than an amplifier as it provides
positive feedback of the photons by reflection at the mirrors at either end of the cavity.
Hence the optical signal is fed back many times while receiving amplification as it passes
through the medium.
 Since the structure forms a resonant cavity, when sufficient population inversion exists in
the amplifying medium the radiation builds up and becomes established as standing waves
between the mirrors. Thus when the optical spacing between the mirrors is L, the resonance
condition along the axis of the cavity is given by:

where λ is the emission wavelength, n is the refractive index of the

amplifying mediumandq is an integer. Alternatively, discrete
emission frequencies f is defined by:

The different frequencies of oscillation within the laser cavity are determined by the various
integer values of q
and each constitutes a resonance or mode. These modes are separated by a frequency
interval δf where:

The mode separation in terms of the free space wavelength, assuming δf_ f and asf = c/λ, is
given by:

Hence,

Threshold condition for laser oscillation

The steady-state conditions for laser oscillation are achieved when the gain in the
amplifying medium exactly balances the total losses. Hence, although population inversion
between the energy levels providing the laser transition is necessary for oscillation to be
 established, it is not alone sufficient for lasing to occur. We assume the amplifying
medium occupies a length L completely filling the region between the two mirrors which
have reflectivity’s r1 and r2. On each round trip the beam passes through the medium
twice. Hence the fractional lossincurred by the light beam is:
Fractional loss = r1r2exp (−2AL)
It is found that the increase in beam intensity resulting from stimulated emission is
exponential

Therefore if the gain coefficient per unit length produced by stimulated emission is
C cm−1, the fractionalround trip gain is given by:
Fractional gain = exp(2CL)
Hence: exp (2CL) × r1r2 exp(−2AL) = 1

And r1r2 exp[2(C − A)L] = 1

The threshold gain per unit length may be obtained by rearranging the above expression to
give:

The second term on the right-hand side represents the transmission loss through the mirrors.

Laser Diode Rate Equation

The relationship between optical output power and the diode drive current can be
determined by examined bythe rate equations that govern the interaction of photons and
electrons in the active region. For a p-n junction with a carrier confinement region of
depth d, the rate of equation are given by

=Cnφ+Rsp-...(1)
= stimulated emission+ spontaneous emission+ photon loss; which governs the number of
photons φ and

=--Cnφ .... (2)

= injection+ spontaneous recombination+ stimulated emission; which governs the number
of electrons n

Where; C= coefficient describing the strength of

the optical absorptionRsp=rate of
spontaneous emission into lasing mode
τph= photon life time
τs= spontaneous recombination lifetime
on solving equation 1 and 2 for a steady state condition will yield an expression
for the output power.In first equation assuming Rsp is negligible and nothing
that dφ/dt must be positive is small, we have;

Cn-1/ τph≥0
 This shows that n must exceed a threshold value nth in order for φ to increase. So from eq
1, this threshold value can be expressed in terms of the threshold current Jth needed to
maintain an inversion level n=nth in steadystate when no. Of photons φ=0
This expression defines the current requirement to sustain an excess electron
density in the laser whenspontaneous emission is the only decay mechanism,
Now consider the photon and electron rate equations in the steady state condition at the lasing
threshold

0=Cnthφs+Rsp-φs/τph (4)

0=--Cnthφs ....... (5)

After adding these two equations, the no of photons per unit volume

φs=(J-Jth)+ τphRsp

The Semiconductor Injection Laser

Stimulated emission by the recombination of the injected carriers is encouraged in the

semiconductor injectionlaser (also called the injection laser diode (ILD) or simply the
injection laser) by the provision of an optical cavity in the crystal structure in order to
provide the feedback of photons. This gives the injection laser severalmajor advantages
over other semiconductor sources (e.g. LEDs) that may be used for optical
communications.These are as follows:

1. High radiance due to the amplifying effect of stimulated emission. Injection lasers will
generally supply millwatts of optical output power.
2. Narrow line width on the order of 1 nm (10 Å) or less which is useful in minimizing
the effects of materialdispersion.
3. Modulation capabilities which at present extend up into the gigahertz range
and will undoubtedly beimproved upon.
4. Relative temporal coherence which is considered essential to allow heterodyne
(coherent) detection in high-capacity systems, but at present is primarily of use in single-
mode systems.
5. Good spatial coherence which allows the output to be focused by a lens into a
spot which has a greaterintensity than the dispersed unfocused emission.

Schematic diagram of a GaAs homojunction injection laser with a Fabry–Pérot

cavity The DH injection laser fabricated from lattice-matched III– V alloys provided both
 carrier and optical confinement on both sides of the p–n junction, giving the injection laser a

greatly enhanced performance. Thisenabled these devices with the appropriate heat sinking

to be operated in a CW mode at 300 K with obvious advantages for optical communications

Efficiency

It is the differential external quantum efficiency which is the ratio of the increase in
photon output rate for a given increase in the number of injected electrons. If Pe is the
optical power emitted from the device, I is thecurrent, e is the charge on an electron
and hfis the photon energy, then:

Where Eg is the band gap energy expressed in eV. It may be noted that efficiency gives a
measure of the rate ofchange of the optical output power with current and hence defines the
slope of the output characteristic. The internal quantum efficiency of the semiconductor
laser ηi,

It is related to the differential external quantum efficiency by the expression

Where A is the loss coefficient of the laser cavity, L is the length of the laser cavity
and r1,r2 is the cleavedmirror reflectivity.
Another parameter is the total efficiency (external quantum efficiency) ηT which is
efficiency defined as:

As the power emitted Pe changes linearly when the injection current I is greater than the
threshold current Ith,then:

For high injection current (e.g. I = 5Ith) then ηT≈ηD, whereas for lower currents (I ≈2Ith)
the total efficiency islower and around 15 to 25%.
The external power efficiency of the device (or device efficiency) ηep in converting
electrical input to opticaloutput is given by:
 For the total efficiency we find:

Stripe geometry

The DH laser structure provides optical confinement in the vertical direction through the
refractive index step atthe heterojunction interfaces, but lasing takes place across the whole
width of the device.

Figure shows the broad-area DH laser where the sides of the cavity are simply formed by
roughening the edges of the device in order to reduce unwanted emission in these directions
and limit the number of horizontal transverse modes. However, the broad emission area
creates several problems including difficult heat sinking, lasing from multiple filaments in
the relatively wide active area and unsuitable light output geometry for efficient coupling to
the cylindrical fibers.
To overcome these problems while also reducing the required threshold current, laser
structures in which the active region does not extend to the edges of the device were
developed. A common technique involved the introduction of stripe geometry to the
structure to provide optical containment in the horizontal plane.

External quantum efficiency gth

The external quantum efficiency ηext is defined as the number of photons emitted per
radiative electron – holepair recombination above threshold.
Experimentally, ηextis calculated from the straight-line portion of the curve for the emitted
optical power P versusdrive current I, which gives
ηext== 0.806 λ
Fiber Splicing:

A permanent joint formed between two individual optical fibers in the field or factory is
 known as a fiber splice.Fiber splicing is frequently used to establish long-haul optical fiber
links where smaller fiber lengths need to be joined, and there is no requirement for repeated
connection and disconnection. Splices may be divided into two broad categories depending
upon the splicing technique
1) Fusion splicing or welding: Fusion splicing is accomplished by applying localized
heating (e.g. by a flame or an electric arc) at the interface between two butted,
pre-aligned fiber ends causing them to soften and fuse.
Mechanical splicing: Mechanical splicing, in which the fibers are held in alignment by
some mechanical means, may be achieved by various methods including the use of tubes
around the fiber ends (tube splices) or V-groovesinto which the butted fibers are placed.

Fusion splicing

Fusion splicing is the act of joining two optical fibers end-to-end using heat. The goal is to
fuse the two fibers together in such a way that light passing through the fibers is not
scattered or reflected back by the splice, and so that the splice and the region surrounding
it are almost as strong as the virgin fiber itself. The source of heatis usually an electric arc,
but can also be a laser, or a gas flame, or a tungsten filament through which current is
passed.

Fusion splicing of single-mode fibers with typical core diameters between 5 and 10 μm
presents problems of more critical fiber alignment (i.e. lateral offsets of less than 1 μm are
required for low-loss joints). However, splice insertion losses below 0.3 dB may be
achieved due to a self-alignment phenomenon which partially compensates for any lateral
offset.
Mechanical splicing

The most common mechanical splicing technique is V-groove method. V-groove splices formed by
sandwiching the butted fiber ends between a V-groove glass substrate and a flat glass retainer plate
have also proved very successful in the laboratory. Splice insertion losses of less than 0.01 dB when
coupling single-modefibers have been reported using this technique.
Fiber connectors

ptical fiber connectors are used to join optical fibers where a connect/disconnect capability
is required. This is because they must maintain similar tolerance requirements to splices in
order to couple light between fibers efficiently, but they must accomplish it in a removable
fashion.
Hence optical fiber connectors may be considered in three major areas, which are:
(a) the fiber termination, which protects and locates the fiber ends;

(b) the fiber end alignment to provide optimum optical coupling;

(c) The outer shell, which maintains the connection and the fiber alignment, protects
the fiber ends from theenvironment and provides adequate strength at the joint.
Cylindrical ferrule connectors

The basic ferrule connector which is perhaps the simplest optical fiber connector design, is
illustrated in Figure: The two fibers to be connected are permanently bonded (with epoxy
resin) in metal plugs known as ferrules which have an accurately drilled central hole in their
end faces where the stripped (of buffer coating) fiber is located. Within the connector the
two ferrules are placed in an alignment sleeve which, using accurately machined
components, allows the fiber ends to be butt jointed.
Expanded beam connectors

An alternative to connection via direct butt joints between optical fibers is offered by the principle of
the expanded beam. It shows a connector consisting of two lenses for collimating and refocusing the
light from one fiber into the other. The use of this interposed optics makes the achievement of
lateral alignment much less critical than with a butt-jointed fiber connector. Expanded beam
connectors are useful for multi-fiber connection and edge connection for printed circuit boards
where lateral and longitudinal alignment are frequently difficult to achieve

Fiber couplers

An optical fiber coupler is a device that distributes light from a main fiber into one or more
branch fibers. The latter case is more normal and such devices are known as multiport fiber
couplers. Requirements are increasing for the use of these devices to divide or combine
optical signals for application within optical fiber information distribution systems
including data buses, LANs, computer networks and telecommunication access networks.
Optical fiber couplers are often passive devices in which the power transfer takes place either:

(a) Through the fiber core cross-section by butt jointing the fibers or by using some
form of imaging opticsbetween the fibers (core interaction type); or

(b) Through the fiber surface and normal to its axis by converting the guided core
modes to both cladding andrefracted modes which then enable the power-sharing
mechanism.

Multiport optical fiber couplers can also be subdivided into the following three main groups
1. Three- and four-port couplers, which are used for signal splitting, distribution and
combining.
2. Star couplers, which are generally used for distributing a single input signal to multiple
outputs.
3. Wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) devices, which are a specialized form of
coupler designed topermit a number of different peak wavelength optical signals to be
transmitted in parallel on a single fiber.

Ideal fiber couplers should distribute light among the branch fibers with no scattering loss
or the generation of noise, and they should function with complete insensitivity to factors
including the distribution of light between the fiber modes, as well as the state of
polarization of the light.
Three- and four-port couplers

Figure shows the structure of a parallel surface type of GRIN-rod lens three port coupler
which comprises two quarter pitch lenses with a semitransparent mirror in between. Light
rays from the input fiber F1 collimate in the first lens before they are incident on the mirror.
A portion of the incident beam is reflected back and is coupled to fiber F2, while the
transmitted light is focused in the second lens and then coupled to fiber F3.
 The various loss parameters associated with four-port couplers may be written down
with reference to Figure.Hence, the excess loss which is defined as the ratio of power
input to power output is given by:

The insertion loss, however, is generally defined as the loss obtained for a particular port-
to-port optical path

Star couplers

In an ideal star coupler the optical power from any input fiber is evenly distributed among
the output fibers. Thetotal loss associated with the star coupler comprises its theoretical
splitting loss together with the excess loss.
The splitting loss is related to the number of output ports N following:
Splitting loss (star coupler) = 10 log10 N (dB)
For a single input port and multiple output ports where j = 1, N, then the excess loss is
given by:
 UNIT IV FIBER OPTIC RECEIVER AND MEASUREMENTS
• Fundamental receiver operation
• Pre-amplifiers
• Error sources
• Receiver Configuration
• Probability of Error
• Quantum limit
• Fiber Attenuation measurements
• Dispersion measurements
• Fiber Refractive index profile measurements
• Fiber cut- off Wave length Measurements
• Fiber Numerical Aperture Measurements
• Fiber diameter measurements
OPTICAL RECEIVER OPERATION:

The design of an optical receiver is much more complicated than that of an optical
transmitter because the receiver must be able to detect weak signals, distorted signals and
make decisions on what type of data was send based on an amplified and reshaped version
of this distorted signal.

DIGITAL SIGNAL TRANSMISSION:

The transmitted signal is a two level binary data stream consisting of either a 0 or a 1 in a
time slot of duration Tb. This time slot is referred to as a bit period. One technique for
sending binary data is amplitude shift keying (ASK) or on-off key (OOK). The resultant
signal wave thus consists of a voltage pulse of amplitude V relative to the zero voltage level
when a binary 1 occurs and a zero voltage level space when a binary 0 occurs. Depending
on the coding scheme to be used a binary 1 may or may not fill the time slot Tb.
The function of the optical transmitter is to convert the electric signal to an optical signal,
thus in the optical signal emerging from the LED or laser transmitter 1 is represented by a
pulse of optical power (light) of duration Tb, whereas 0 is the absence of any light.
The optical signal that is coupled from the light source to the fiber becomes attenuated and
distorted as it propagates along the fiber waveguide. Upon arriving at the end of the fiber, a
receiver converts the optical signal back to an electrical format
 As per the diagram, the first element is either a pin or an avalanche photodiode, which
produces an electric current that is proportional to the received power level. Since this
electric current is typically very weak, a front end amplifier boosts it to a level that can be
used by the following electronics. After amplification, it is passed through a low pass filter
to reduce the noise that is outside of the signal bandwidth. To minimize the effect of ISI, the
filter can reshape the pulses that have become distorted as they travelled through the fiber.
This function is called equalization, because it equalizes or cancels pulse spreading effect.
Now a decision circuit samples the signal level with a certain reference voltage known as
the threshold level.
If received signal level is > Threshold level → 1 received
If received signal level is < Threshold level → 0 received
To accomplish this bit interpretation, the receiver must know where the bit boundaries are.
This is done with the assistance of a periodic waveform called a ‘clock’, which has a
periodically equal to the bit interval. Thus, this function is called ‘clock recovery’ or ‘timing
recovery’.
ERROR SOURCES:

Errors in the detection mechanism can arise from various noises and disturbance
associated with the signal distortion system. The noise sources can be either external
to system or internal to the system.
The internal noise is caused by the spontaneous fluctuations of current or voltage in electric
circuits. Shot noise arises in electronic devices because of the discrete nature of current flow
in the device . Thermal noise arises from the random motion of electrons in a conductor.
When using an APD, an additional shot noise arises from the statistical nature of the
multiplication process. The noise level increases with larger avalanche gain M. additional
photo detector noises come from the dark current and leakage current.
If the detector is illuminated by an optical signal P(t), then the average number of E-H pair N
generated in a time τ is :

The actual number of E-H pairs n that are generated from the average according to the
poission distribution:

where 𝑃𝑟(𝑛) is the probability that n electrons are emitted in an interval τ. So, the express
noise factor due to avalanche multiplication,

PROBABILITY OF ERROR: There are several ways of measuring the rate of error
occurrences in a digital data stream. A simple approach for this is bit error rate (BER).

In telecommunication, the error rate depends upon the SNR (Range 10-9 to 10-12). The system
error rate requirement and the receiver
noise levels set a lower limit on the optical signal power level that is required at the photo
detector.
To compute the BER at the receiver, the probability distribution is required at the equalizer
output. The signal is digital so it can be either 0 or 1.

QUANTUM LIMIT: In designing an optical system, the fundamental physical bounds must
be known for the system performance. Suppose that we have an ideal photo detector which
has unity quantum efficiency and which produces no dark current, no E-H pair generated in
the absence of an optical pulse. Given this condition, it is possible to find the minimum
received optical power required for a specific BER performance in a digital system. This
minimum received power level is known as Quantum limit.
Assume that an optical pulse of energy E falls on the photo detector in a time interval τ, this
can only be interpreted by the receiver as a 0 pulse if no E-H pairs are generated, the
probability, n=0.
𝑷𝒓 (𝟎) = 𝒆−𝑵̅
OPTICAL FIBER MEASUREMENTS
• Three main areas:
• Transmission characteristics
• Geometrical and optical characteristics
• Mechanical characteristics
STANDARD MEASUREMENT TECHNIQUES
• Reference Test Method :where measurement of characteristic is strictly done
according to definitions which gives highest degree of accuracy and reproducibility
• Alternate Test Method :where measurement is done deviating from strict
definitions which is suitable for practical use.
FIBER ATTENUATION MEASUREMENT

• Fiber attenuation also called as transmission loss.

• Attenuation = optical power input/optical power at the fiber end
• = (10/L )log(Pi/Po) dB/km
• L – length of the fiber
• A commonly used technique for determining the total fiber attenuation per unit length
is the cut-back or differential method.
• The above Figure shows a schematic diagram of the typical experimental setup for
measurement of the spectral loss to obtain the overall attenuation spectrum for the fiber.
• It consists of a ‘white’ light source, usually a tungsten halogen or xenon arc lamp.
• The focused light is mechanically chopped at a low frequency of a few hundred hertz.
• This enables the lock-in amplifier at the receiver to perform phase-sensitive detection.
• The chopped light is then fed through a monochromator which utilizes a prism or
diffraction grating arrangement to select the required wavelength at which the
attenuation is to be measured.
• Hence the light is filtered before being focused onto the fiber by means of a microscope
objective lens.
• A beam splitter may be incorporated before the fiber to provide light for viewing optics
and a reference signal used to compensate for out- put power fluctuations.
• The measurement is performed on multimode fibers it is very dependent on the optical
launch conditions.
• Therefore unless the launch optics are arranged to give the steady-state mode
distribution at the fiber input, or a dummy fiber is used, then a mode scrambling device
is attached to the fiber within the first meter.
• The fiber is also usually put through a cladding mode stripper, which may consist of an
S-shaped groove cut in the Teflon and filled with glycerine.
• This device removes light launched into the fiber cladding through radiation into the
index-matched (or slightly higher refractive index) glycerine.
• A mode stripper can also be included at the fiber output end to remove any optical
power which is scattered from the core into the cladding down the fiber length.
• This tends to be pronounced when the fiber cladding consists of a low-refractive-index
silicone resin.
• The optical power at the receiving end of the fiber is detected using a p–i–n or avalanche
photodiode.
• In order to obtain reproducible results the photodetector surface is usually index
matched to the fiber output end face using epoxy resin or an index-matching gell .
• Finally, the electrical output from the photodetector is fed to a lock-in amplifier, the
output of which is recorded.
• The cut-back method involves taking a set of optical output power measurements over
the required spectrum using a long length of fiber (usually at least a kilometer).
• αdB =(10/L1-L2)log10V2/V1
• Where V1and V2correspond to output voltage readings from the cut-back fiber length
respectively.
• The electrical voltage substituted for the optical powers P01and P02 of above Eq. as to
these optical powers.
 • The accuracy of using this method is largely dependent on constant optical achievement
of the equilibrium mode distribution within the fiber to detector power coupling
changes between measureme made less than 0.01dB .
• Hence the cut-back technic for attenuation measurements by the EIA as well as the ITU.
FIBER DISPERSION MEASUREMENT
• Dispersion measurements give an indication of the distortion to optical signals.
• Delay distortion leads to broadening of transmitted light pulses limits the information
carrying capacity of fiber.
• Three major mechanisms which produce dispersion in optical fibers are material,
waveguide and intermodal dispersion.
• In multimode fibers intermodal dispersion tends to be dominant mechanisms, in single
mode fibers intermodal dispersion is non existent as only a single mode is allowed to
propagate.
• Dispersion measurement is of two types
• Frequency domain measurement.
• Time domain measurement
FREQUENCY DOMAIN MEASUREMENT

• Frequency domain measurement is preferred method for obtaining baseband frequency

and bandwidth of multimode optical fibers.
• The sampling oscilloscope is replaced by a spectrum analyser which takes the fourier
transform of the pulse in the time domain and hence display its frequency components
SWEPT FREQUENCY MEASUREMENT METHOD

• The signal energy is very narrow frequency band in the baseband region unlike the
pulse measurement method where the signal energy is spread over the entire baseband
region.
• A Optical source is an injection laser which may be directly modulated from sweep
oscillator.
• A spectrum analyser may be used in order to obtain a continuous display of the swept
frequency signal.
• Network analyser can be employed to give phase and frequency information.
• An electrical or optical reference channel is connected between the oscillator and the
meter.
• When an optical signal which is sinusoidally modulated in power with frequency fm is
transmitted through single mode fiber length .
• A delay of one modulation period Tm of 1/ fm corresponds to a phase shift of 2π then
the sinusoidal modulation is phase shifted in the fiber by an angle θm .
• The specific group delay = θm / 2πfmL
Time domain measurement of fiber dispersion

• The most common method for time domain measurement of pulse dispersion in
multimode optical fibers is illustrated with Short optical pulses (100 to 400 ps) are
launched into the fiber from a suitable source (e.g. A1GaAs injection laser) using fast
driving electronics.
• The pulses travel down the length of fiber under test (around 1 km) and are broadened
due to the various dispersion mechanisms.
• Using a laser with a narrow spectral width when testing a multimode fiber.
• The chromatic dispersion is negligible and the measurement reflects only intermodal
dispersion.
• The pulses are received by a high-speed photodetector (i.e. avalanche photodiode) and
are displayed on a fast sampling oscilloscope.
• A beam splitter is utilized for triggering the oscilloscope and for input pulse
measurement.
• After the initial measurement of output pulse width, the long fiber length may be cut
back to a short length and the measurement repeated in order to obtain the effective
input pulse width.
• The fiber is generally cut back to the lesser of 10 m or 1% of its original length.
• As an alternative to this cut-back technique, the insertion or substitution method similar
to that used in fiber loss measurement can be employed.
• This method has the benefit of being nondestructive and only slightly less accurate than
the cut-back technique.
 • The fiber dispersion is obtained from the two pulse width measurements which are
taken at any convenient fraction of their amplitude.
• The considerations of dispersion are normally made on pulses using the half maximum
amplitude or 3 dB points.

• where τ(3 dB) and τi(3 dB) are the 3 dB pulse widths at the fiber input and output,
respectively, and τ (3 dB) is the width of the fiber impulse response again measured
at half the maximum amplitude.
• Hence the pulse dispersion in the fiber (commonly referred to as the pulse broadening
when considering the 3 dB pulse width) in ns km−1 is given by

• where τ(3 dB), τi(3 dB) and τo(3 dB) are measured in ns and L is the fiber length in km.
• If a long length of fiber is cut back to a short length in order to take the input pulse
width measurement, then L corresponds to the difference between the two fiber lengths
in km.
• When the launched optical pulses and the fiber impulse response are Gaussian, the 3
dB optical bandwidth for the fiber Bopt may be calculated using

Fiber cutoff wavelength measurements

• A multimode fiber has many cutoff wavelengths because the number of bound
propagating modes is usually large.
• For example, considering a parabolic refractive index graded fiber, following equation
the number of guided modes Mg is

• where a is the core radius and n1 and n2 are the core peak and cladding indices
respectively.
• The cutoff wavelength of the LP11 is the shortest wavelength above which the fiber
exhibits single-mode operation and it is therefore an important parameter to measure.
• Because of the large attenuation of the LP11 mode near cutoff, the parameter which is
experimentally determined is called the effective cutoff wavelength, which is always
smaller than the theoretical cutoff wavelength by as much as 100 to 200 nm.
• It is this effective cutoff wavelength which limits the wavelength region for which the
fiber is ‘effectively’ single-mode.
• The effective cutoff wavelength is normally measured by increasing the signal
wavelength in a fixed length of fiber until the LP11 mode is undetectable.
• Since the attenuation of the LP11 mode is dependent on the fiber length and its radius
of curvature, the effective cutoff wavelength tends to vary with the method of
measurement
• The other test apparatus is the same as that employed for the measurement of fiber
attenuation by the cut-back method.
• The launch conditions used must be sufficient to excite both the fundamental and the
LP11 modes, and it is important that cladding modes are stripped from the fiber.
• In the bending-reference technique the power Ps() transmitted through the fiber
sample in the configurations shown in figure is measured as a function of wavelength.
• Thus the quantity Ps() corresponds to the total power, including launched higher order
modes, of the cutoff wavelength.

• Then keeping the launch conditions fixed, at least one additional loop of sufficiently
small radius (60 mm or less) is introduced into the test sample to act as a mode filter to
suppress the secondary LP11 mode without attenuating the fundamental mode at the
effective cutoff wavelength.
• The smaller transmitted spectral power Pb() is measured which corresponds to the
fundamental mode power referred to in the definition.
• The bend attenuation ab() comprising the level difference between the total power and
the fundamental power is calculated as:
• ab()=10log10(Ps()/Pb())
 • The bend attenuation characteristic exhibits a peak in the wavelength region where the
radiation losses resulting from the small loop are much higher for the LP11 mode than
for the LP01 fundamental mode, as illustrated in following figure.

• It should be noted that the shorter wavelength side of the attenuation maximum
corresponds to the LP11 mode, being well confined in the fiber core, and hence
negligible loss is induced by the 60 mm diameter loop, whereas on the longer
wavelength side the LP11 mode is not guided in the fiber and therefore, assuming that
the loop diameter is large enough to avoid any curvature loss to the fundamental mode,
there is also no increase in loss.
• The effective cutoff wavelength λce it may be determined as the longest wavelength at
which the bend attenuation or level difference ab(λ) equals 0.1 dB, as shown in
following figure .
POWER STEP TECHNIQUE
• The 2m length of single-mode fiber is replaced by a short (1 to 2 m) length of multimode
fiber and the spectral power Pm(λ) emerging from the end of the multimode fiber is
measured.
• The relative attenuation am(λ) or level difference between the powers launched into the
multimode and single-mode fibers may be computed as:
• am()=10log10(Ps()/Pm())
SPOT SIZE
• A third method for determination of the effective cutoff wavelength is the measurement
of the change in spot size with wavelength.
• The spot size is measured as a function of wavelength by the transverse offset method
using a 2m length of fiber on each side of the joint with a single loop of radius 140 mm
formed in each 2m length.
• When the fiber is operating in the single-mode region, the spot size increases almost
linearly with increasing wavelength as may be observed in following figure.
Fiber numerical aperture measurements
• The numerical aperture is an important optical fiber parameter as it affects
characteristics such as the light-gathering efficiency and the normalized frequency of
the fiber (V).
• This in turn dictates the number of modes propagating within the fiber (also defining
the single mode region) which has consequent effects on both the fiber dispersion (i.e.
intermodal) and possibly, the fiber attenuation (i.e. differential attenuation of modes).
• The numerical aperture (NA) is defined for a step index fiber in air given by
• NA=sinθa= (n12-n22)1/2
• where a is the maximum acceptance angle, n1 is the core refractive index and n2 is the
cladding refractive index.
• It is assumed in that the light is incident on the fiber end face from air with a refractive
index (n0) of unity.
• numerical aperture thus defined represents only the local NA of the fiber on its core axis
(the numerical aperture for light incident at the fiber core axis).
• The graded profile creates a multitude of local NAs as the refractive index changes
radially from the core axis.
• For the general case of a graded index fiber these local numerical apertures NA(r) at
different radial distances r from the core axis may be defined by:
• NA ( r ) = sinθa( r )= (n12 (r )-n22)1/2
• Therefore, calculations of numerical aperture from refractive index data are likely to be
less accurate for graded index fibers than for step index fibers unless the complete
refractive index profile is considered.
• However, if refractive index data is available on either fiber type from the
measurements described the numerical aperture may be determined by calculation.
• Alternatively, a simple commonly used technique for the determination of the fiber
numerical aperture is involves measurement of the far-field radiation pattern from the
fiber.
• This measurement may be performed by directly measuring the far-field angle from
the fiber using a rotating stage, or by calculating the far-field angle using trigonometry.
• An example of an experimental arrangement with a rotating stage is shown in figure.
• A 2m length of the graded index fiber has its faces prepared in order to ensure square
smooth terminations.
• The fiber output end is then positioned on the rotating stage with its end face parallel
to the plane of the photodetector input, and so that its output is perpendicular to the axis
of rotation.
• Light at a wavelength of 0.85 μm is launched into the fiber at all possible angles
(overfilling the fiber) using an optical system similar to that used in the spot attenuation
measurements

• The photodetector, which may be either a small-area device or an apertured large-area

device, is placed 10 to 20 cm from the fiber and positioned in order to obtain a
maximum signal with no rotation (0°).
• Hence when the rotating stage is turned the limits of the far-field pattern may be
recorded.
• The output power is monitored and plotted as a function of angle, the maximum
acceptance angle being obtained when the power drops to 5% of the maximum
intensity.
 • Thus the numerical aperture of the fiber can be obtained from Eq. This far-field
scanning measurement may also be performed with the photodetector located on a
rotational stage and the fiber positioned at the center of rotation.
• A less precise measurement of the numerical aperture can be obtained from the far-field
pattern by trigonometric means. The experimental apparatus is shown in following
figure.

• where the end prepared fiber is located on an optical base plate or slab. Again light is
launched into the fiber under test over the full range of its numerical aperture, and the
far-field pattern from the fiber is displayed on a screen which is positioned a known
distance D from the fiber output end face
• The test fiber is then aligned so that the optical intensity on the screen is maximized.
• Finally, the pattern size on the screen A is measured using a calibrated vernier caliper.
• The numerical aperture can be obtained from simple trigonometrical relationships
where:
• NA=Sina = (A/2) / [(A/2)2+D2]1/2 =A / (A2+4D2)1/2
Fiber diameter measurements
• Outer diameter
• It is essential during the fiber manufacturing process (at the fiber drawing stage) that
the fiber outer diameter (cladding diameter) is maintained constant to within 1%.
• Any diameter variations may cause excessive radiation losses and make accurate fiber–
fiber connection difficult.
• Hence on-line diameter measurement systems are required which provide accuracy
better than 0.3% at a measurement rate greater than 100 Hz (i.e. a typical fiber drawing
velocity is 1 m s−1).
• Use is therefore made of noncontacting optical methods such as fiber image projection
and scattering pattern analysis.
• The most common on-line measurement technique uses fiber image projection (shadow
method) and is illustrated in following Figure.
• In this method a laser beam is swept at a constant velocity transversely across the fiber
and a measurement is made of the time interval during which the fiber intercepts the
beam and casts a shadow on a photodetector.
• In the apparatus shown in Figure the beam from a laser operating at a wavelength of
0.6328 μm is collimated using two lenses (G1 and G2).
• It is then reflected off two mirrors (M1 and M2), the second of which (M2) is driven
by a galvanometer which makes it rotate through a small angle at a constant angular
velocity before returning to its original starting position.
• Therefore, the laser beam which is focused in the plane of the fiber by a lens (G3) is
swept across the fiber by the oscillating mirror, and is incident on the photodetector
unless it is blocked by the fiber.
• The velocity ds/dt of the fiber shadow thus created at the photodetector is directly
proportional to the mirror velocity dφ/dt following
• The shadow method for the on-line measurement of the fiber outer diameter

• where l is the distance between the mirror and the photodetector. Furthermore, the
shadow is registered by the photodetector as an electrical pulse of width We which is
related to the fiber outer diameter do as:

•
• Thus the fiber outer diameter may be quickly determined and recorded on the printer.
The measurement speed is largely dictated by the inertia of the mirror rotation and its
accuracy by the rise time of the shadow pulse.
• Core diameter
• The core diameter for step index fibers is defined by the step change in the refractive
index profile at the core–cladding interface.
• Therefore the techniques employed for determining the refractive index profile
(interferometric, near-field scanning, refracted ray, etc.) may be utilized to measure the
core diameter.
• Graded index fibers present a more difficult problem as, in general, there is a continuous
transition between the core and the cladding.
• In this case it is necessary to define the core as an area with a refractive index above a
certain predetermined value if refractive index profile measurements are used to obtain
the core diameter.
• Core diameter measurement is also possible from the near-field pattern of a suitably
illuminated (all guided modes excited) fiber.
• The measurements may be taken using a microscope equipped with a micrometer
eyepiece similar to that employed for off-line outer diameter measurements.
• However, the core–cladding interface for graded index fibers is again difficult to
identify due to fading of the light distribution towards the cladding, rather than the sharp
boundary which is exhibited in the step index case.
FIBER REFRACTIVE INDEX PROFILE MEASUREMENTS
• The refractive index profile determines fiber’s numerical aperture and the number of
modes propagating within the fiber core.
• Hence a detailed knowledge of the refractive index profile enables the impulse response
of the fiber to be predicted.
• Also, as the impulse response and consequently the information-carrying capacity of
the fiber is strongly dependent on the refractive index profile, it is essential that the
fiber manufacturer is able to produce particular profiles with great accuracy, especially
in the case of graded index fibers (i.e. optimum profile).
• There is therefore a requirement for accurate measurement of the refractive index
profile.
• These measurements may be performed using a number of different techniques each of
which exhibit certain advantages and drawbacks.
• Inter ferometric methods
• Near-field scanning method
Refracted Near-Field method
Interferometric methods
• Interference microscopes (e.g. Mach–Zehnder, Michelson) have been widely used to
determine the refractive index profiles of optical fibers.
• The technique usually involves the preparation of a thin slice of fiber (slab method)
which has both ends accurately polished to obtain square (to the fiber axes) and
optically flat surfaces.
• The slab is often immersed in an index-matching fluid, and the assembly is examined
with an interference microscope.
• Two major methods are then employed, using either a transmitted light interferometer
(Mach–Zehnder) or a reflected light interferometer (Michelson).
• In both cases light from the microscope travels normal to the prepared fiber slice faces
(parallel to the fiber axis), and differences in refractive index result in different optical
path lengths.
• When the phase of the incident light is compared with the phase of the emerging light,
a field of parallel interference fringes is observed. A photograph of the fringe pattern
may then be taken
• The fringe displacements for the points within the fiber core are then measured using
as reference the parallel fringes outside the fiber core (in the fiber cladding).
• The refractive index difference between a point in the fiber core (e.g. the core axis) and
the cladding can be obtained from corresponds to a number of fringe displacements.
This difference in refractive index δn is given by

• where x is the thickness of the fiber slab and λ is the incident optical wavelength.
• The slab method gives an accurate measurement of the refractive index profile.
• A limitation of this method is the time required to prepare the fiber slab.
Near-field scanning method
• The near-field scanning or transmitted near-field method utilizes the close resemblance
that exists between the near-field intensity distribution and the refractive index profile,
for a fiber with all the guided modes equally illuminated.
• It provides a reasonably straightforward and rapid method for acquiring the refractive
index profile.
• When a diffuse Lambertian source (e.g. tungsten filament lamp or LED) is used to
excite all the guided modes then the near-field optical power density at a radius r from
the core axis PD(r) may be expressed as a fraction of the core axis near-field optical
power density PD(0) following
where n1(0) and n1(r) are the refractive indices at the core axis and at a distance r from the
core axis

• n2 is the cladding refractive index and C(r, z) is a correction factor.

• The correction factor which is incorporated to compensate for any leaky modes present
in the short test fiber may be determined analytically.
• A set of normalized correction curves is given.
• The transmitted near-field approach is, not similarly recommended for single-mode
fiber.
• An experimental configuration is shown in above figure.
• The output from a Lambertian source is focused onto the end of the fiber using a
microscope objective lens.
• A magnified image of the fiber output end is displayed in the plane of a small active
area photodetector (e.g. silicon p–i–n photodiode).
• The photodetector which scans the field transversely receives amplification from the
phase-sensitive combination of the optical chopper and lock-in amplifier.
• Hence the profile may be plotted directly on an X–Y recorder.
• However, the profile must be corrected with regard to C(r, z) which is very time
consuming.
• Both the scanning and data acquisition can be automated with the inclusion of a
minicomputer.
• The test fiber is generally 2 m in length to eliminate any differential mode attenuation
and mode coupling.
• A typical refractive index profile for a practical step index fiber measured by the near-
field scanning method is shown in figure.
• It may be observed that the profile dips in the center at the fiber core axis.
• This dip was originally thought to result from the collapse of the fiber preform before
the fiber is drawn in the manufacturing process but has been shown to be due to the
layer structure inherent at the deposition stage.

Refracted Near-Field

• The Refracted Near-Field (RNF) or refracted ray method is complementary to the

transmitted near-field technique.
• But has the advantage that it does not require a leaky mode correction factor or equal
mode excitation.
• Moreover, it provides the relative refractive index differences directly without recourse
to external calibration or reference samples.
• The RNF method is the most commonly used technique for the determination of the
fiber refractive index profile and it is the reference test method for both multimode and
single-mode fibers.
• A schematic of an experimental setup for the RNF method is shown in figure.
• A short length of fiber is immersed in a cell containing a fluid of slightly higher
refractive index.
• A small spot of light typically emitted from a 633 nm He–Ne laser for best resolution
is scanned across the cross-sectional diameter of the fiber.
• The measurement technique utilizes that light which is not guided by the fiber but
escapes from the core into the cladding.
• Light escaping from the fiber core partly results from the power leakage from the leaky
modes which is an unknown quantity.
• The effect of this radiated power reaching the detector is undesirable and therefore it is
blocked using an opaque circular screen, as shown in Figure a.
• The refracted ray trajectories are illustrated in figure (b) where θ ′ is the angle of
incidence in the fiber core, θ is the angle of refraction in the fiber core and θ ″ constitutes
the angle of the refracted inbound rays external to the fiber core.
• Any light leaving the fiber core below a minimum angle θ ″min is prevented from
reaching the detector by the opaque screen figure (a).
• Moreover, it may be observed from figure (b) that this minimum angle corresponds to
a minimum angle
• However, all light at an angle of incidence θ′ > θ ′min must be allowed to reach the
detector.
• To ensure this process it is advisable that input apertures are used to limit the
convergence angle of the input beam to a suitable maximum angle θ ′max
corresponding to a refracted angle θ ″max.
• In addition, the immersion of the fiber in an index matching fluid prevents reflection at
the outer cladding boundary.
• Hence all the refracted light emitted from the fiber at angles over the range θ ″min to
θ ″max may be detected.
• The detected optical power as a function of the radial position of the input beam P(r) is
measured and a value P(a) corresponding to the input beam being focused into the
cladding is also obtained.
• The refractive index profile n(r) for the fiber core is then given
• n( r ) = k1-k2P(r)
• n ( r ) = n2+n2cosθ”min (cos θ”min – cosθ’max ){P(a)-P( r )}/P(a)
• It is clear that n(r) is proportional to P(r) and hence the measurement system can be
calibrated to obtain the constants k1 and k2.
PREAMPLIFIERS
• The receiver amplifiers are the front-end amplifier.
• Types of preamplifiers:
• 1.Low impedance preamplifiers.
• 2.High impedance preamplifiers.
• 3.Trans impedance preamplifiers
• A preamplifier should satisfy the following requirements:
• Low Noise level
• High Bandwidth
• High Dynamic range
• High Sensitivity
• High Gain
LOW IMPEDANCE PREAMPLIFIER
• A photodiode operates into a low impedance amplifier.
• Bias or load resistor Rb is used to match the amplifier impedance.
• The value of Rb in conjunction with the amplifier input capacitance is such that the
preamplifier, bandwidth is equal or greater than that the signal bandwidth.
• This limits their use to special short distance applications.
HIGH IMPEDANCE PREAMPLIFIER
• The goal is to reduce all sources of noise to the absolute minimum
• This is accomplished by decreasing the input capacitance through the selection of low
capacitance high frequency devices by selecting a detector with low dark currents and
by minimizing the thermal noise contributed by the biasing resistors.
• The thermal noise can be reduced by using a high impedance amplifier with large
photodetector resistor hence called high impedance preamplifier.
HIGH IMPEDANCE FET AMPLIFIERS
• The principal noise sources are thermal noise associated with FET channel
conductance thermal noise from the load or feedback resistor and shot noise arising
from gate leakage current and fourth noise source is FET 1/f noise.
• The input current noise spectral density S1 is

• The thermal noise two characteristics W at the equalizer output is then,

 • The 1/f noise corner frequency fc is defined as the frequency at which 1/f noise, which
dominates the FET noise at low frequency has a 1/f power spectrum becomes equal to
the high frequency channel noise.

HIGH IMPEDANCE BIPOLAR TRANSISTOR AMPLIFIERS

• LIMITATIONS:
• 1.For broadband application equalization is required.
• 2.It has limited dynamic range.
TRANS IMPEDANCE AMPLIFIER
• This is basically a higher gain high impedance amplifier with feedback provided to
the amplifier through Rf .This designer yields both low noise and large dynamic
range.
 UNIT V OPTICAL NETWORKS AND SYSTEM TRANSMISSION
Basic Networks
SONET / SDH
Broadcast and select WDM Networks
Wavelength Routed Networks
Non linear effects on Network performance
Link Power budget
Rise time budget
Noise Effects on System Performance
Operational Principles of WDM Performance of WDM + EDFA system
Solutions – Optical CDMA – Solitons in Optical Fiber
Ultra-High-Capacity Networks.
 SONET/SDH
• SONET is the TDM optical network standard for North America
• SONET is called Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH) in the rest of the world
• SONET is the basic phycal layer standard
• Other data types such as ATM and IP can be transmitted over SONET
• OC-1 consists of 810 bytes over 125 us; OC-n consists of 810n bytes over 125 us
• Linear multiplexing and de-multiplexing is possible with Add-Drop-Multiplexers
• The SONET/SDH standards enable the interconnection of fiber optic transmission
equipment from various vendors through multiple-owner trunk networks.
• The basic transmission bit rate of the basic SONET signal is
• In SDH the basic rate is 155.52 Mb/s.

Common values of OC-N and STM-N:

• OC stands for optical carrier. It has become common to refer to SONET links as OC-N
links.
• The basic SDH rate is 155.52 Mb/s and is called the synchronous transport module—
level 1 (STM 1).
 SONET Add Drop Multiplexers:

SONET ADM is a fully synchronous, byte oriented device, that can be used add/drop OC sub-
channels within an OC-N signal
Ex: OC-3 and OC-12 signals can be individually added/dropped from an OC-48 carrier
SONET/SDH Rings:
• SONET and SDH can be configured as either a ring or mesh architecture
• SONET/SDH rings are self-healing rings because the traffic flowing along a certain
path can be switched automatically to an alternate or standby path following failure or
degradation of the link segment
• Two popular SONET and SDH networks:
• 2-fiber, unidirectional, path-switched ring (2-fiber UPSR)
• 2-fiber or 4-fiber, bidirectional, line-switched ring (2-fiber or 4-fiber BLSR)
 Ex: Total capacity OC-12 may be divided to four OC-3 streams, the OC-3 is called a
path here

2-Fiber UPSR Protection:

Rx compares the signals received via the primary and protection paths and picks the best one
Constant protection and automatic switching

BLSR Recovery from Failure Modes:

If a primary-ring device fails in either node 3 or 4, the affected nodes detect a loss-of-signal
condition and switch both primary fibers connecting these nodes to the secondary protection
pair
If an entire node fails or both the primary and protection fibers in a given span are severed,
the adjacent nodes switch the primary-path connections to the protection fibers, in order to loop
traffic back to the previous node.
Broadcast and Select WDM Networks
All-optical WDM networks have full potential of optical transmission capacity and versatility
of communication networks beyond SONET architectures.
· These networks can be classified as
(1) Broadcast-and-select techniques
(2) Wavelength-routing networks.
· Broadcast-and select techniques employing passive optical stars, buses and wavelength
routers are used for local networks can be classified as
(1) Single-hop networks
(2) Multi-hop networks
· Single hop refers to network where information transmitted in the form of light reaches
its destination without being converted to an electrical form at any intermediate point. In a
multi hop network, intermediate electro-optical conversion can occurred.
Broadcast and Select Signal Hop Network
· Two alternate physical architectures for a WDM-based local network have n
sets of transmitters and receivers are attached to either a star coupler or a passive bus.

Each transmitter sends its information at a fixed wavelength.

· All the transmissions from the various nodes are combined in a pasive star. Coupler or
coupled onto a bus and sent out to all receivers.
· An interesting point to note is that the WDM setup is protocol transparent.

Protocol transparent means that different sets of communicating nodes can use different
information exchange rules (protocols) without affecting the other nodes in the network.
· The architectures of single-hop broadcast-and-select networks are fairly simple, there
needs to be careful dynamic coordination between the nodes.
· A transmitter sends its selective filter to that wavelength.
· Two sending stations need to coordinate their transmission so tha collisions of
information streams at the some wavelength do not occur.

Broadcast and Select Multihop Network

· Drawback of single-hop networks is the need for rapidlyt unable lasers or
receiver optical fibers.
· This drawback can be overcome by the designs of multihop networks.
· Multihop networks do not have direct paths between each node pair.
· Each node has a small number of fixed tuned optical transmitter and receivers.
An example, a four node broadcast and select multihop network where each node transmits on
one set of two fixed wavelengths and receives on another set of two fixed wavelengths.
· Information destined for other nodes will have to be routed through intermediate
stations.
· Considering the operation, a simplified transmission shceme in which message are sent
as packets with a data field and an address header containing source and destination identifiers
(i.e,. routing information) with control bits.

At intermediate node, the optical signal is converted to an electrical format.

· The address header is decoded to examine the routing information field, which will
indicate where the packet should go.
· Routing information is used to send the electronic packets from optical transmitter to
the next node in the logical path toward its final destination.
· Advantage: There are no destination conflicts or packet collisions in the network.
· For H hops between nodes, there is a network throughput penalty of at least 1/H.
The Shuffle Net Multihop Network
· Various topologies for multihop lighwave networks are
(1) The shuffle net graph
(2) The de Bruijin graph
(3) He toroidal Manhattan street network
· A scheme called the perfect shuffle is widely used to form processor interconnect
patterns in multiprocessors.
· For optical networks, the logical configuration consists of a cylindrical arrangement of
k column, each having p nodes. Where P is the number of fixed transceiver pairs per node.
· The total number of nodes is then

· a (p,k)=(2,2) shuffle net, where the (k+1)th column represents the completion of a trip
around the cylinder back to the first column.
· Performance parameter for the shuffle net is the average number of hops between any
randomly chosen nodes.
· Since, all nodes have p output wavelength, p nodes can be reached from any node in
one hop, p2 additional nodes can be reached in two hope, until all the (pk-1) other nodes are
visited.
· The maximum number of hops is

· Consider figure above, the connections between nodes 1 and 5 and nodes 1 and 7. In
first case, the hop number is one.
· In second case three hops are needed with routes 1- 6 – 7 or 1 – 5 – 2 -7.?
· The average of hops Bar H of a shuffle net is
· In multiphopping, part of the capacity of a particular link directly connecting two nodes
is actually utilized for carrying between them.
· The rest of thelink capacity is used to forward messages from other nodes.
· The system has Np=kpK+1 links, the total network capacity C is

· The per-user throughput δ is

· Different (p,k) combination result in different throughputs, to get a better network

performance.
Wavelength Routed Networks
· Two problems arise in broadcast and select networks,
· More wavelengths are needs as the number of nodes in the network grows.
· Without the widespread are use of optical booster amplifier, due to this splitting
losses is high.
· Wavelength routed networks overcome these limitations through wavelength
reuse, wavelength conversion, and optical switching.
· The physical topology of a wavelength routed network consists of optical
wavelength routers interconnected by pair of point-to-point fiber link in an arbitrary
mesh configuration.
 · Each link can carry a certain number off wavelength which can be directed
independently to differently output paths at a node.
· Each node may have logical connections with several other nodes in the
network, where each connection uses a particular wavelength.
· The paths taken by any two connections do not overlap, they can use the same
wavelength.

1. Optical Cross Connect

The concept of an optical cross connect architecture is the physical path structure, have a
high degree of path modularity, capacity scaling, and flexibility in adding or dropping channels
at a user site can be achieved.
· The physical path structure is called as path layer.
· These cross connects (OXCs) operate in the optical domain and can route very
high capacity WDM data streams over a network of interconnected optical paths.

OXC architecture uses space switching without wavelength conversion. The space switching
can be constructed of a cascade of electronically controlled opticaldirectional-coupler elements
or semiconductor-optical-ampliier switching gates. Each of the input fiber carries a M
wavelengths. The input, arriving aggregate if signal wavelength is amplified and divided into
N streams by a power splitter. Tunable filter then select individual wavelengths, which are
directed to an optical space switching matrix.
A waveguide grating demultiplexer could be used to divide the incoming aggregate stream into
individual wavelength channels. The switch matrix directs the channels either output lines, or
to a particular receiver attached to the OXC at outputs ports 9 through 12. Signals that are
generated locally by a user get connected electrically via the digital cross connect matrix
(DXC) to an optical transmitter.
They enter the switch matrix, which directs them to the appropriate output line. The M output
lines, each carrying separate wavelength, are fed into a wavelength multiplexer (‘mux’ and a
demultiplexer is ‘demux’) to form a single aggregate output stream. An optical amplifier to
boost the signal level for transmission over the trunk fiber.
2. Performance Evaluation of Wavelemgth Conversion
These effects are
(1) Probability models
(2) Deterministic algorithms
· The benefits are greater in a mesh network than in a ring or fully connected
network.
The Effect of Wavelength Conversion
· Simple model, circuit switched networks is used.
· The probability that a wavelength is blocked along a path.
· It provides insight into the network performance improvement using
wavelength conversion.
· Assume H links (or hops) between two nodes A and B.
· The expected number of busy wavelength on any link is ρF, where ρ is a
measure of the fiber utilization along the path and F is the number of a available
wavelengths per

Non Linear Effect on Network Performance

• Important Challenges In Designing Non Linear Networks Are:
• Transmission of the different wavelength channel at the highest possible bit rate.
• Transmission over the longest possible distance with the smallest number of optical
amplifiers.
• Network architectures that allow simple and efficient operation, control and
management.

The Various Signal Impairment Effect are as Follows

i. Group Delay Dispersion (GVD), Which limits the bit rate by temporally spreading a
transmitted optical pulse, dispersion induced pulse spreading can be minimized by WDM
networks operation in a low dispersion window such as 1310 nm and 1550 nm.
ii. Non-uniform gain across the desired wavelength range of EDFAs in WDM links.
iii. Polarization Mode Dispersion (PMD), Which arises from orthogonal polarization modes
traveling at a slightly different speeds owing to fiber birefringence.
iv. Reflections from splices and connectors that can cause instabilities in laser sources. These
can eliminated by the use of optical isolators.
v. Non-linear inelastic scattering processes, which are interactions between optical signal and
molecular or acoustic vibrations in a fiber.
v. Non-linear variations of the refractive index in a silica fiber that occur because the refractive
index is dependent on intensity changes in the signal.

· A connection request between modes A and B is blocked if one of the H

intervening fibers is full.
· The probability Pb’ that a the connection request from A to B is blocked is the
probabity and fiber link with all wavelength F.

· If q is the achievable utilization for a given blocking probability in a network

with wavelength conversion.
The effect of path length is small, and q rapidly approaches I as F becomes large.
A Network Without Wavelength Conversion
· A connection request between A and B can be honoured only if there is a free
wavelength.
· The probability Pb that the connection request from A and B is blocked is the
probability that each wavelength is used on at least one of the H links,

· Letting P be the achievable utilization for a given blocking probability in a

network without wavelength conversions,

· Where the approximation holds for large values of H and for Pb1/F not too close
to unity.
· In this case, the achievable utilization is inversely proportional to the length of
the path H between A and B.

· Here the effect of path length (i.e., the number of links) is dramatic.

To Measure the Benefit of Wavelength Conversion

· The gain G=q/P to be the increase in fiber or wavelength utilization for the same
blocking probability.
 · G as a function of H=5, 10 and 20 links for blocking probability for pb=10-3.
· F increases, the gain increases, peaks at about H/2
· The gain slowly decreases, since large trunking networks are more efficient.
1. Effective Length And Area
· The non-linear process can be depend on the transmission length, the cross-
sectional area of the fiber, and the optical power level in the fiber.
· Effective Length Leff: Which takes into account power adsorption along the
length of the fiber (i.e., optical power decays exponentially with length) is given by

· When there is a optical amplifier in a link, the effective length is the sum of the
effective lengths of the individual spans between optical amplifiers.
· If the total amplified link length is LA and the span length between amplifier is
L, the effective length is

· The effects of non-linearities increase with the light intensity in a fiber. This
light intensity is inversely propoetional to the cross-sectional area of the fiber.
· As a rule of thumb, standard non-dispersion-shifted single mode fibers have
effective area Aeff=80μm2, dispersion-shifted fibers have effective area Aeff is
55μm2 and dispersion-compenstating fibers have effective areas is 20oμm2.
2. Stimulated Raman Scattering
· Stimulated Raman scattering is an interaction between light waves and the
vibrational modes of silica molecules.
· If a photon with energy hv1 is incident on a molecule having a vibrational
frequency vin, the molecule can absorb some energy from the photon.
· In interaction, the photon is scattered, thereby attaining a lower frequency v2 a
corresponding lower energy hv2. The modified photon is called as stokes photon.
· The optical signal wave that is injected into a fiber is the source of the
interacting photons, it is often called the pump wave, it supplies power from the
generated wave.

· SRS can severely limit the performance of a multichannel optical

communication system by transferring energy from short-wavelength channels to
neighboring higher-wavelength channels. This is a broadband effect that can occur in
both dirctions.
· The effects of SRS, consider WDM system has N channel equally spaced in a
30 nm band cantered at 1545 nm.
· Assume fout (j) is the fraction of power coupled from channel o to channel j

· The total fraction of power coupled out of 0 to all the other channel is

· The power penalty for this channel is -10 log(1-Fout)

· To keep power penalty <0.5 dB and Fout <0.1 use equation (5.31) with
Aeff=55μm2, the criterion.
3. Stimulated Brillouin Scattering
· Stimulated Brillouin scattering arises when light waves scatter from acoustic
waves.
· Scattered wave propagates principally in the backward direction in single-mode
fibers. This backward light experiences gain from the forward-propagating signals.
· The frequency of the scattered light experiences a Doppler shift given by

Where n is the index refraction, Vs is the velocity of sound in material.

· Interaction occurs Brillouin linewidth of Dvg=20MHz at 1550nm.
· For Vs=5760 m/s in fused silica, the frequency of the backward propagating
light at 1550 nm is shifted by 11 GHz(0.99nm) rom the original signal.
· In a long fiber chain containing optical amplifiers, there are optical isolators to
prevent backward scattered signals form entering the amplifier.
· SBS threshold power Pth is defined to be the signal power at which the
backward light equal the fiber-input power.

· The SBS threshold power increase as the source linewidth becomes larger.

· Several schemes are available for reducing the power penalty effects of SBS as
follows:
- Keeping the optical power per WDM channel below the SBS thresholds, for long-
haul systems.
 - Increasing the linewidth of the source, smince the gain bandwidth of SBS is very
small. This can be achieved through direct modulation of the source.
- Slightly dithering the laser output in frequency, at roughly tens of kilohertz. The
dither frequency should scale as the ratio of the injected power to the SBS threshold.
4. Cross Talk
Crosstalk: it is defined us the feed through of one channel signal into another channel.

Types Of Crosstalk:
There are two types of crosstalk that can occur is WDM systems:
(1) Intrachannel crosstalk
(2) Interechannel crosstalk
(I)INTRACHANNEL CROSSTALK;
It arises when interfering signal is at the same wavelength as the desired signal. This effect is
more severe than interchannel crosstalk, because the interference falls completely with in the
receiver bandwidth.

Two independent signals, each at a wavelength l1, enter an optical switch.

This switch routes the signal entering port 1 to output port 4, and routes the signal entering port
2 to output port 3.
Within the switch, a spurious fraction of the optical power entering port 1 gets coupled to port
3, where it interferes with the signal from port 2.
(II) INTERCHANNEL CROSSTALK
It arises when an interfering signal comes from a neighboring channel that operates at a
different wavelength.
Power penalty of interchannel crosstalk is

Average crosstalk power eiP, the factor is from equation (5.43)

Example, a 1 –dB penalty arises when the intra channel level is 38.7 dB below the signal level
and for inter channel crosstalk is 16 dB below the signal.
SOLITONS
Group velocity dispersion (GVD) causes most pulses to broaden in time as they propagate
through an fiber.
A ‘solitons’ are pulses that travel along the fiber without change in shape or amplitude or
velocity.
Soliton, takes advantage of non-linear effects in silica, particularly self phase modulation
(SPM) resulting from the Kerr non-linearity, to overcome the pulse-broadening effects if GVD.
The term “soliton” refers to special kinds of waves that can propagate undistorted over long
distances and remain unaffected after collision with each other.
In an optical communication system, solitons are very narrow, high intensity optical pulses
that retain their shape through the interaction of balancing pulse dispersion with the non-linear
properties of an optical fiber.
In an relative effects of SPM and GVD are controlled just right, and the appropriate pulse
shape is chosen, the pulse compression routing from SPM can exactly offset the pulse
broadening effect of GVD.
Fundamental Solitons- The family of pulse that do not change in shape are called
fundamental solitons.
1. SOLITONS PULSE
When a pulse transverse a medium with a positive GVD parameter β2 for the constituent
frequencies, the leading part of the pulse is shifted toward a longer wavelength (lower
frequencies) so that the speed in that portion increases.
In the trailing half, the frequency arises. So the speed decreases. This causes the trailing edge
to be further delayed.
When a narrow high-intensity pulse traverse a medium with a negative GVD parameter for the
constituting frequencies, GVD counteracts the chirp produced by SPM.
GND retards the low frequencies in the front end of the pulse and advances the high
frequencies at the back.
The result is that the high-intensity sharply peaked soliton pulse changes neither its shape nor
its spectrum as it travels along the fiber.
To derive the evolution of the pulse shape required for sodium transmission, one needs to
consider the non-linear schrodinger (NLS) equation

Special soliton units to eliminate scaling constants.

The Three Right-Hand Terms in Equation (5.45)
(1) The first term represents GVD effects of the fiber.
(2) The second non-linear term denotes the fact that the refractive index of the fiber depends
on the light intensity.
Through the self-modulation process, this physical phenomenon broadens the frequency
spectrum of a pulse.
(3) The third term represents the effects of energy loss or gain.
2. SOLITONS PARAMETERS
Full-Width Half-Maximum (FWHM)
The full-width Half-maximum (FWHM) is a pulse is defined as the full width of the pulse at
its half-maximum power level.
The FWHM Ts of the fundamental soliton pulse in normalized time is found from the
relationship

Dispersion Length (Ldisp)

The normalized distance parameter (also called dispersion length) Ldisp is a characteristic
length for the effects of the dispersion term.
Ldisp is a measure of the period of a soliton

The solition to equation for the fundamental solution is given by

Where sech (t) is the hyperbolic secant function. This is a bell-shaped pulse.
The phase term exp (jz/2) in equation has no influence on the shape of the pulse, the soliton is
independent of z and hence is non-dispersive in the time domain.
For the NLS equation, to find the first-order effects of the dispersive and non-linear terms are
just complementary phase shifts.
For a given by equation these phase shifts are

For the non-linear process, and

Dispersion and non-linear phase shifts of a soliton pulse which sum is constant, which yields
a common phase shift of z\2 for the entire pulse.
Since such a phase shift changes neither the temporal nor the spectral shape of a pulse, the
soliton remains completely non-dispersive in both the temporal and frequency domain.
Optical CDMA
• The simplest configuration,CDMA achieves multiple access by assigning a unique code
to each user.
• To communicate with another node, user imprint their agreed upon code onto the data.
The receiver can then decode the bit stream by locking onto the code sequence.
• The principle of optical CDMA is based on spread-spectrum techniques.
• The concept is to spread the energy of the optical signal over a frequency band that is
much wider than the minimum bandwidth required to send the information.
• Spreading is done by a code that is independent of the signal itself.
• On optical encoder is used to map each bit of information into the high-rate (longer-
code-length) optical sequence.
• The symbols is the spreading code are called chips.
• The energy density of the transmitted waveform is distributed more or less uniformly
over the entire spread-spectrum bandwidth.
• The set of optical sequences becomes a set of unique ‘address codes or signature
sequences’ the individual network users.
 • The signature sequence contains six chips. When the data signal contains 1 data bit, the
six-chip sequence is transmitted, no chips are sent for a 0 data bit.
• Time-domain optical CDMA allows a number of users to access a network
simultaneously, through the use of a common wavelength.
• Both asynchronous and synchronous optical CDMA techniques. In synchronous
accessing schemes follow rigorous transmission schdules, the produce more successful
transmission (higher throughputs) than asynchronous methods where network access is
random and collisions between users can occurs.
• An optical CDMA network is based on the use of a coded sequence of pulses.
• The setup consists of N transmitter and receiver pairs interconnected in a star

To send information from node j to node k, the address code for node k is impressed upon the
data by the encoder at node j.
At the destination, the receiver differentiates between codes by means of correlation detection.
Each receiver correlates its own address f(n) with the received signal s(n). The receiver output
r(n) is

If the received signal arrives at the correct destination, then s(n)=f(n).

• Equation represents an autocorrelation function, if s(n) not equal to f(n) the equation
represents a cross-correlation function.
 • For a receiver to be able to distinguish the proper address correctly, it is necessary to
maximize the autocorrelation function and minimize the cross-correlation function.
• Prime-sequence codes and optical orthogonal codes (OOCs) are the commonly used
spreading sequences in optical CDMA systems.
• An OOC systems the number of simultaneous user an is bounded by

ULTRA HIGH CAPACITY NETWORKS

• Advance of optical communication systems has provide channels with enormous
bandwidth at least 25THz and dense WDM technology, ultrafast optical TDM.
• To using dense WDM techniques to increase the capacity of long-haul transmission
link and ultrafast optical TDM schemes.
These are particularly attractive in LAN or MANs
TDM Schemes To Shared-Media Local Neteorks Have Two Methods:
(1) Bit-interleaved TDM.
(2) Time-slotted TDM.
1. Ultra High Capacity WDM Networks
• Two popular approaches are used to achieve increased capacity.
o to widen the spectral bandwidth of EDFAs from 30 to 80 nm, by using
broadening techniques.
• Increasing the capacity of a WDM link is to improve the spectral efficiency of the
WDM signals.
• Most of the demonstrations use a rate of 20 Gb/s for each individual wavelength to
avoid non-linear effects.

Examples are,
(1) A 50-channel WDM system operating at an aggregated 1-Tb/s rate over a 600 km link.
(2) A 132-channel WDM system operating at an aggregated 2.6 Tb/s rate over a 120-km/link.
 2. Bit-Interleaved Optical TDM

• Repetition rate typically ranges from 2.5 to 10 Gb/S, which corresponds to the bit rate
of the electric data tributaries feeding the system.
• An optical splitter divides the pulse train into N separate streams.
• The pulse streams is 10 Gb/S and N=4, each of these channels is then individually
modulated by an electrical tributary data source at a bit rate B.
• The modulated outputs are delayed individually by different fractions of the clock
period, and are then interleaved through an optical combiner to produce an aggregate
bitrate of NXB.
• Optical post amplifier and preamplifier are generally included in the link to
compenstate for splitting and attenuation loss.
• At the receiving end, the aggregate pulse stream is demultiplexed into the original N
independent data channels for further signal processing.
• A clock-recovery mechanism operating at the base bit rate B is required at the receiver
to drive and synchronize the demultiplexer.

TEXT BOOKS:
1. Gerd Keiser, “Optical Fiber Communication & quot; Mc Graw-Hill
International, 4th Edition. 2010.

2. John M. Senior, “Optical Fiber Communication”, Second Edition, Pearson Education, 2007.

REFERENCES:
1. Ramaswami, Sivarajan and Sasaki “Optical Networks”, Morgan Kaufmann, 2009.

2. J.Senior, & quot; Optical Communication, Principles and Practice & quot;,
Prentice Hall of India, 3rd Edition, 2008.
3. J.Gower, & quot; Optical Communication System & quot;, Prentice Hall of India, 2001.
Web Reference:

1. https://www.brainkart.com/article/Important-Short-Questions-and-Answers--Optical-
Networks_13652/
2. https://slideplayer.com/slide/12376670/
3. http://www.mmmut.ac.in/News_content/43515tpnews_05162020.pdf