OPTICAL FIBERS

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What are Fiber Optics
Long thin strands of very pure glass about the size
of human hair
 Arranged in bundles called optical cables

Used to transmit light signals over long distances

Hundreds of thousands arranged in bundles to form
optical cables
What is an Optical Fiber?
An optical fiber is a waveguide for
light

consists of :
core inner part where wave propagates
cladding outer part used to keep wave in core
buffer protective coating
jacket outer protective shield
Passage of light from a material with a high index of
refraction(n1) to a material with a lower index of
refraction(n2)
At the critical angle light will not go into n2 but
instead travel along the surface between the two media
 What are Optical Fibres ?
  
• Optical Fibres are fibres of glass, usually
about 120 micrometres in diameter, which
are used to carry signals in the form of
pulses of light over distances up to 50 km
without the need for repeaters. These
signals may be coded voice
communications or computer data
• The optical fiber can be used as a medium
for telecommunication and networking
because it is flexible and can be bundled
as cables.
• The light transmitted through the fiber is
confined due to total internal reflection
within the material.
• In telecommunications applications, the
light used is typically infrared light
• Fibers are generally used in pairs, with
one fiber of the pair carrying a signal in
each direction
• Fibers, like waveguides, can have various
transmission modes. The fibers used for
long-distance communication are known
as single mode fibers, as they have only
one strong propagation mode.
• Multi-mode fibers, where light
transmitted in the different modes
arrives at different times, resulting in
dispersion of the transmitted signal.
• single mode equipment is generally more
expensive than multi-mode equipment.
• single-mode optical fiber, data rates of
up to 40 Gbit/s are possible in real-world
use on a single wavelength.
Wavelength division multiplexing can
then be used to allow many wavelengths
to be used at once on a single fiber
 Types of optical fibers
• Single mode
– only one signal can be transmitted
– use of single frequency

• Multi mode
– Several signals can be transmitted
– Several frequencies used to modulate the signal
 Types of Fibres

Multi-mode step index

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Single-mode step index

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multi-mode graded index

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GRIN

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 Typical core and
cladding diameters

Type Core (mm) Cladding (mm)

Single mode 8 125

Multimode 50 125

62.5 125

100 140
Launching the Light
Factors that effect the
Launching of Light

•Intensity
•Area
•Acceptance Angle
•Fresnell Loss
 Signal Production
• Convert electrical
input to modulated
light
2 Basic Schemes
On/Off
Linear Variation
2 Common Devices used

Light Emitting Diode (LED)

Laser Diode (LD)
Through the Wire
 Light Propagates through the wire due to
total internal reflection
 Fibre can be bent!!

Illustration of total internal

reflection
Total internal reflection
Trapping light in the fiber
Total Internal Reflection

n i .sin θ i n t .sin θ t

n i .sin θ c n t .sin ( 90 )
n i .sin θc n t .( 1 )

nt
sin θ c
ni
Types of fiber ends
beam patterns can be:
spherical
cylindrical
Fibers carry modes of
light
number of modes ~ V 2

a mode is :
• a solution to the wave equation
• a given path/distribution of light

higher # modes gives more light, which is not always

desirable
Controlling the # of
Modes
• From the V parameter, we see that we can reduce
the number of modes in a fiber by reducing:

(1) NA
(2) diameter (wrt λ )

• This is exactly the case in single mode fibers.

The V Parameter
a a = fiber radius
V = 2π NA λ o = incident wavelength
λo

•known as the “V-parameter” or the fiber parameter

•an important parameter that governs the number of
modes
•parameters that relates yucky EM wave solutions for
both core and cladding
How Fibers Work
• The classical understanding of fiber
optics comes once again from out
longtime friend, Snell’s Law!
•Step index fibers: Total Internal Reflection
Optical Fiber Bandwidth
 Bandwidth Limitation
Light entering at different angles reach the end of the cable at different times
•
Smearing is produced: uncertainty of beginning and end of signal
•

• less smearing higher the

bandwidth
• smearing can be reduced by
reducing the size of the fiber
core
 Areas of Application
  
• Telecommunication's
– Optical fibres are now the standard
point to point cable link between
telephone substations.
• Local Area Networks (LAN's)
– Multimode fibre is commonly used as the
"backbone" to carry signals between the
hubs of LAN's from where copper
coaxial cable takes the data to the
desktop. Fibre links to the desktop,
however, are also common.
• Cable TV
– As mentioned above domestic cable TV
networks use optical fibre because of its very
low power consumption.
• CCTV
– Closed circuit television security systems use
optical fibre because of its inherent security, as
well as the other advantages mentioned above.

• Optical Fibre Sensors

• Long-haul trunks
common in telephone networks
• Metropolitan trunks
to join phone exchanges in metro areas
• Rural exchange trunks
connect exchanges of different phone companies
• Subscriber loops
central exchange to subscriber
• LANs
Can support hundreds of
stations on a campus
Other Applications
Advantages of optical
Fibres
• Can carry much more information
• Much higher data rates
• Much longer distances than co-axial cables
• Immune to electromagnetic noise
• Light in weight
• Unaffected by atmospheric agents
Disadvantages of
optical Fibres
• expensive
• need to convert electrical signal
into optical signal when
transmitting and convert it back to
electrical signal when receiving
 The Optical Transmitter:

•
• The source of the optical signal can be either a light
emitting diode, or a solid state laser diode.
• The transmitter converts an electrical analog or digital
signal into a corresponding optical signal.
• The most popular wavelengths of operation for optical
transmitters are 850, 1300, or 1550 nanometers.
 Optical Receivers
 Converts modulated
light from the cable
into the original
signal
• Photodiode: Pin or
Avalanche type
• High gain internal
amplifiers
• Large sensitive
detecting area
several microns
thick
 The Optical Receiver:

• The receiver converts the optical signal back into a replica of

the original electrical signal. The detector of the optical
signal is either a PIN-type photodiode or avalanche-type
photodiode.
Degradation of the
Signal
 Glass must be extremely pure
 Most general purpose optical fiber
 Signal losses per km traveled
• 850nm = 60-75%
• 1300nm = 50-60%
• 1550nm = 40%
 Excessive bending
 Signal Regeneration
 Optical regenerators spliced along the cable
to boost weakened signals
 Optical Regenerator
• Optical fibers with specially doped coating
• Doped portion is pumped with a laser
• When signals enters energy from the laser
allows doped material to imitate lasers
• Doped molecules now emit a stronger signal
with the same initial characteristics
Optical Fiber - Transmission
Characteristics
• Act as wave guide for 1014 to 1015 Hz
– Portions of infrared and visible spectrum
• Light Emitting Diode (LED)
– Cheaper
– Wider operating temp range
– Last longer
• Injection Laser Diode (ILD)
– More efficient
– Greater data rate
• Wavelength Division Multiplexing
- Multiple beams of light at different frequencies can
be transmitted simultaneously
Global crossing fibre networks
Atlantic crossing networks
Thank You