Priyadarshini College of Engineering

Department of Electronics & Tele-ommunication

SIGNAL DEGRADATION IN OPTICAL FIBERS

(Unit-2)
CO-To study various attenuation and dispersion
mechanismsm in optical fibers

Dr.(MRS.)S.W.Varade
Professor,Deptt. of E&T

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Signal Degradation in the Optical
Fiber
Signal Attenuation
It determines the maximum unamplified or
repeaterless distance between transmitter
and receiver.

Signal Distortion

•Causes optical pulses broaden.

•Overlapping with neighboring pulses,
creating errors in the receiver output.
•It limits the information carrying capacity of
a fiber.
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 Attenuation
The Basic attenuation mechanisms in a fiber:
1.Absorption:
It is related to the fiber material.

2. Scattering:
It is associated both with the fiber material and
with the structural imperfections in the optical
waveguide.

3. Radiative losses/ Bending losses:

It originates from perturbation (both microscopic
and macroscopic) of the fiber geometry.
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 Example: Absorption by Atmospheric

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 Example: Scattering of light by Atmospheric

The colours of the sky are caused by the scattering

of light
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 Attenuation
Units
If P(0) is the optical power in a fiber at the origin
(at z=0), then the power P(z) at a distance z

P(z) =P (0) e -αpz

αp = (1/z) ln [P(0) / P(z)] Fiber attenuation coefficient

Attenuation coefficient in units of decibels per

kilometer, denoted by dB/ Km, then

α(dB/km) = (10/z) ln [P(0) / P(z)]=4.343 x αp

(km-1)
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Q: Fiber has an attenuation of 0.4 dB/km at
a wavelength of 1310 nm.
Then after it travels 50 km, what is the
optical power loss in the fiber ?

Q: Optical powers are commonly expressed

in units of dBm, which is the decibel power
level referred to 1 mW. Consider a 30 km
long optical fiber that has an attenuation of
0.4 dB/km at 1310 nm.
Find the optical output power Pout, if Pin is
200 μW
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Absorption

Absorption is caused by three different

mechanisms:
Absorption is caused by three different
mechanisms:

1- Impurities in fiber material: from transition metal ions

(must be in order of ppb) & particularly from OH ions
with absorption peaks at wavelengths 2700 nm, 400
nm, 950 nm & 725nm.

2- Intrinsic absorption (fundamental lower limit):

electronic absorption band (UV region) & atomic bond
vibration band (IR region) in basic SiO2.

3- Radiation defects
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Absorption
1. Absorption by atomic defects
Atomic defects are imperfections in the atomic
structure of the fiber material.
Examples:
•Missing molecules
•High density clusters of atom groups
•Oxygen defects in the glass structure.
•Absorption losses arising from these defects are
negligible compared with intrinsic and impurity
absorption.

•C a n b e s i g n i f i c a n t i f t h e f i b e r i s ex p o s e d t o
ionization
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radiations. 9
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 1 rad(Si) = 0.01
J/Kg

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Absorption
2. Extrinsic absorption by impurity atoms
The dominant absorption factor in silica fibers is the
presence of minute quantities of impurities in
the fiber material.
•These impurities include
•OH- (water) ions dissolved in the glass.
•Transition metal ions, such as iron, copper,
chromium and vanadium
Origin :
OH ion impurities in a fiber preform results mainly
from the oxyhydrogen flame used in the
hydrolysis reaction of the SiCl4, GeCl4 and POCl3
starting
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Optical fiber attenuation as a function of wavelength yields nominal values
of 0.5 dB/km at 1310 nm and 0.3 dB/km at 1550 nm for standard single mode
fiber. Absorption by the water molecules causes the attenuation peak around
1400nm for standard fiber. The dashed curve is the attenuation for low water
peak fiber.
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Absorption
3. Intrinsic absorption by the basic constituent ato

Intrinsic absorption is associated with the basic fiber

material (e.g pure SiO2).

Intrinsic absorption results from:

1. Electronic absorption bands in the ultraviolet
region
2. Atomic vibration bands in the near infrared
region

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Absorption
1.Electronic absorption (EA) occurs when a
photon interacts with an electron in the valance
band and excites it to a higher energy level. The
electronic absorption is associated with the band
gap of the material. The UV edge of EA follow
the empirical formula
E / Eo
uv Ce
Ultraviolet absorption decays exponentially
with increasing wavelength and is small compared
with scattering loss in the near infrared region. UV
loss in dB/km at any as a function of mole
fraction x of GeO2 is
154.2 x 4.63
uv 10 2 exp
46.6 x 60
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2. The inherent infrared absorption is
associated with the vibration frequency of
chemical bond between the atoms of which
the fiber is composed.

An interaction between the vibrating bond

and the electromagnetic field of the optical
signal results in a transfer of energy from the
field to the bond and thereby giving rise to
absorption.
This absorption is quite strong because of many
bonds present in the fiber. Example: GeO2-SiO2.
11 48.48
IR 7.81 10 exp

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**Optical fiber attenuation characteristics and their limiting
mechanisms
02/07/19 for a GeO2 doped low16loss water content silica fiber.
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A comparison of the infrared absorption induced by various
doping materials in low-loss silica fibers.
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 Absorption

Extrinsic Intrinsic
Atomic Defects
(Impurity atoms) Absorption

Absorption in Absorption in
Ultraviolet region Infrared region

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Scattering
Losses
Scattering losses in glass arise from microscopic
variation in the material density from:
1. Compositional fluctuations
2. Inhomogeneities or defects occurring during fiber
manufacture
These two effects give rise to refractive index
variation, occurring within the glass over distances
that are small compared with the wavelength.
These index variation case Rayleigh-type
scattering of the light and inversely
proportional to wavelength.
It decreases dramatically with increasing
wavelength
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Scattering
Losses

Rayleigh scattering in an optical fiber

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 Scattering Loss
• Small (compared to wavelength) variation in material
density, chemical composition, and structural
inhomogeneity scatter light in other directions and absorb
energy from guided optical wave.
• The essential mechanism is the Rayleigh scattering. Since
the black body radiation classically is proportional to
(this is true for wavelength typically greater than 5
micrometer), the attenuation coefficient due to Rayleigh
scattering is approximately proportional to 4
. This seems
to me not precise, where the attenuation of fibers at 1.3 &
1.55 micrometer can be exactly predicted with Planck’s
formula & can not be described with Rayleigh-Jeans law.
Therefore I believe that the more accurate formula for
scattering loss is 1
5 hc
scat exp( )
k BT
34 23
h 6.626 10 Js, k B 1.3806 10 JK -1 , T : Temperature
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Absorption & scattering losses in fibers

Optical Fiber communications, 3rd ed.,G.Keiser,McGrawHill, 2000

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Combining the infrared, ultraviolet, and scattering
losses for single mode fiber.
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 Scattering Losses

Compositional fluctuations Inhomogeneities or defects

in material in fiber

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Radiative losses / Bending Losses
Radiative losses occur whenever an optical fiber
undergoes a bend of finite radius of curvature.
Fiber can be subject to two types of bends:
1.Macroscopic bends
2.Microscopic bends

Macrobending: Light lost from the optical core due

to macroscopic effects such as tight bends being
induced in the fiber itself.

Microbending. Light lost from the optical core due to

microscopic effects resulting from deformation and
damage to the core cladding interface.
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 Radiative losses / BendingLosses
•
•For the slight bends losses are unobservable

• By decreasing radius of curvature we will come to the critical value

after which these losses increase drastically, shown as xc in the fig.

• As we know that the electric/magnetic field have a tail in the

cladding region so by bending the cable we come to the extent where
cladding field should move faster to keep up with the core field.

• As this is not possible so the energy in that region radiates away

• Radiation losses depend on the value of xc and radius of curvature

R

• As the lower order modes remain close to the core axis and the
higher modes are closer to the cladding so the higher modes will
radiate out of the fiber first.

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Radiative losses / Bending Losses

Macrobending losses are normally produced by

poor handling of fiber .
Poor reeling and mishandling during installation
can create severe bending of the fiber resulting in
small but important localized losses

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 Bending Loss (Macrobending &
Microbending)
Macrobending Loss: The
curvature of the bend is
much larger than fiber
diameter. Lightwave suffers
sever loss due to radiation of
the evanescent field in the
cladding region. As the radius
of the curvature decreases,
the loss increases
exponentially until it reaches
at a certain critical radius.
For any radius a bit smaller
than this point, the losses Optical Fiber communications, 3rd ed.,G.Keiser,McGrawHill, 2000

suddenly becomes extremely

large. Higher order modes
radiate away faster than
lower order modes.

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Radiative losses / Bending Losses
Microbending losses:
It is the radiation loss in optical waveguide results
from mode coupling by random microbends.
Fiber curvature causes repetitive coupling of energy
between the guided modes and the leaky or
nonguided modes in the fiber.

Microbending is a much more critical feature and can

be a major cause of cabling attenuation.
These stresses are very difficult to define, however,
they can be caused by:
• nonuniformities in the manufacturing of the fiber
• nonuniform lateral pressures during cabling
• Low temperatures
• High pressures
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 Microbending losses

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Minimizing microbending
losses:

A compressible jacket extruded over a fiber reduces

microbending resulting from external forces.

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 Macrobending due to poor reeling
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 Minimum safe bend radius —shown full size
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Bends are shown full size — and may have caused damage to the
fiber

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Radiative losses / Bending Losses

Making use of bending

losses
There are many uses of bending losses which are
based on either the increase in the attenuation or on
making use of the light which escapes from the optic
fiber.
A fiber optic pressure
sensor
This makes use of the increased attenuation
experienced by the fiber as it bends.

Active fiber
detector
This uses the escaping light.

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 Pressure causes loss at the bends

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 Is the fiber in use?

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 Radiative losses/
Bending losses

Macroscopic bends Microscopic bends

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 Attenuation

Scattering Radiative
Absorption Losses losses/ Bending
losses

Extrinsic
Intrinsic Atomic
(Impurity
Absorption Defects
atoms)

Absorption Absorption Inhomogeneities Compositional

in in Microscopic Macroscopic
or defects fluctuations
Infrared Ultraviolet bends bends
in fiber in material
region region

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 Signal Distortion in Fibers

Optical signal weakens from attenuation

mechanisms and broadens due to distortion effects.

Eventually these two factors will cause

neighboring pulses to overlap.
After a certain amount of overlap occurs, the
receiver can no longer distinguish the
individual adjacent pulses and error arise
when interpreting the received signal.
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 Pulse broadening and attenuation

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 Dispersion

• The basic need is to match the output

waveform to the input waveform as closely
as possible.
• Attenuation only reduces the amplitude of
the output waveform which does not alter
the shape of the signal.

• Dispersion distorts both pulse and analog

modulation signals.

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Dispersion

• Dispersion results when some

components of the input signal spend
more time traversing the fiber than
other components.
• In a pulse modulated system, this
causes the received pulse to be spread
out over a longer period.

• It is noted that actually no power is

lost to dispersion, the spreadi ng
effect reduces the peak power.
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Dispersion

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Dispersion

• Pulse dispersion is usually specified in terms

of “Nanoseconds-per-kilometer”.

• The difference in width of an input pulse

with the width of the same pulse at the
output, measured in time, is the dispersion
characteristic for that piece of fiber.

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Dispersion

Dispersion of optical energy within an

optical fiber falls into following categories:

Ø Intermodal Delay or Modal Delay)

Ø Intramodal Dispertion or Chromatic

Dispersion
Ø Material Dispertion
Ø Waveguide Dispertion

Ø Polarization –Mode Dispersion

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 Dispersion in Optical Fibers
• Dispersion: Any phenomenon in which the velocity of
propagation of any electromagnetic wave is wavelength
dependent.

• In communication, dispersion is used to describe any

process by which any electromagnetic signal propagating in
a physical medium is degraded because the various wave
characteristics (i.e., frequencies) of the signal have different
propagation velocities within the physical medium.

• There are 3 dispersion types in the optical fibers, in general:

1- Material Dispersion
2- Waveguide Dispersion
3- Polarization-Mode Dispersion

Material & waveguide dispersions are main causes

of Intramodal Dispersion.
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Dispersion
Intermodal delay/ modal
delay
Intermodal distortion or modal delay appears only in
multimode fibers.

This signal distortion mechanism is a result of each

mode having a different value of the group
velocity at a single frequency.

The amount of spreading that occurs in a fiber is a

function of the number of modes propagated by
the fiber and length of the fiber

Group Velocity: It is the speed at which energy in a

particular mode travels along the fiber.
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Intermodal delay/ modal
delay
The maximum pulse broadening arising from the
modal delay is the difference between the travel
time Tmax of the longest ray and the travel time Tmin
of the shortest ray .
This broadening is simply obtained from ray tracing
for a fiber of length L:

∆T= Tmax – Tmin = n1/c ( L/sinøc –L) = (Ln12/cn2)∆

∆T= Tmax – Tmin = (Ln12/cn2)∆

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Intermodal delay/ modal delay
Fiber Capacity:
Fiber capacity is specified in terms of the bit rate-
distance product BL.
(Bit rate times the possible transmission distance L)

For neighboring signal pulses to remain

distinguishable at the receiver, the pulse spread
should be less than 1/B. Or
Pulse spread should be less than the width of a
bit period.
∆T < 1 /B General requirement
∆T ≤ 0.1 /B For high performance link
Bit rate distance product BL < n2 c/ n12 ∆
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Light rays with steep incident angles have
longer path lengths than lower-angle rays.

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02/07/19 52
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How to minimize the effect of modal
dispersion?
Answer is
1.Graded index fiber
2.Single mode fiber

How to get one mode and solve the problem

V = 2πa / λ x (n12 – n22)1/2 = 2πa / λ x (NA)

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 How to get one mode and solve the problem

we could decrease the number of modes by

increasing the wavelength of the light.
Changing from the 850 nm window to the 1550 nm
window will only reduce the number of modes by a
factor of 3 or 4.

Change in the numerical aperture can help but it

only makes a marginal improvement.

We are left with the core diameter. The smaller the

core, the fewer the modes.

When the core is reduced sufficiently the number of

modes can be reduced to just one.
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 Step Index Multi-mode

02/07/19 Graded Index

55 Multi-mode
Irfan khan
Q: Consider a 1 Km long multimode fiber in
which n1= 1.480 and ∆ = 0.10 , so that n2= 1.465.
Then find ∆T= ?

Where:
L = 1 Km
n1 = 1.480
n2= 1.465
∆ = 0.10

∆T = (Ln12/cn2)∆
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 Group Velocity
• Wave Velocities:
• 1- Plane wave velocity: For a plane wave propagating
along z-axis in an unbounded homogeneous region of
refractive index n , which is represented exp( jωt jk1 z )
by exp( j ω t j z ) 1 , the velocity of constant phase plane
is: v
c
k1 n1 [3-4]

• 2- Modal wave phase velocity: For a modal wave

propagating along z-axis represented by ,
the velocity of constant phase plane is:
ω
vp [3-5]

3- For transmission system operation the most important &

useful type of velocity is the group velocity, V g . This is
the actual velocity which the signal information & energy is
traveling down the fiber. It is always less than the speed of
light in the medium. The observable delay experiences by
the optical signal waveform & energy, when traveling a
length of l along the fiber is commonly referred to as group
delay.

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 Group Velocity & Group Delay
• The group velocity is given by:

dω
Vg [3-6]
d
• The group delay is given by:

l d
g l [3-7]
Vg dω
• It is important to note that all above quantities depend both
on frequency & the propagation mode. In order to see
the effect of these parameters on group velocity and delay,
the following analysis would be helpful.

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 Input/Output signals in Fiber
Transmission System
• The optical signal (complex) waveform at the input of fiber
of length l is f(t). The propagation constant of a particular
modal wave carrying the signal is . Let us find the
output signal waveform g(t).
is the optical signal bandwidth.
(ω)

z-=0 Z=l

c
~
f (t ) f ( )e j t d [3-8]

c
~ j t j ( )l
g (t ) f ( )e d [3-9]

c
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If c

d 1 d2 2
( ) ( c) ( c) 2
( c ) ... [3-10]
d c
2d
c

/2 /2 d
c
~ t j ( )l
c
~ j t j[ ( c)
d
( c )]l

g (t ) f ( )e j d f ( )e c
d
c /2 c /2

/2 d
j ( c )l
c
~ j (t l
d
)
e f ( )e c
d
c /2

j ( c )l
d j ( c )l
e f (t l ) e f (t g ) [3-11]
d c

d l
g l
d c
Vg [3-14]

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 Intramodal Dispersion
• As we have seen from Input/output signal relationship in
optical fiber, the output is proportional to the delayed
version of the input signal, and the delay is inversely
proportional to the group velocity of the wave. Since the
propagation constant, ωc , is frequency dependent over
band width (ω) sitting at the center frequency ω, at
each frequency, we have one propagation constant
resulting in a specific delay time. As the output signal is
collectively represented by group velocity & group delay
this phenomenon is called intramodal dispersion or
Group Velocity Dispersion (GVD). This phenomenon
arises due to a finite bandwidth of the optical source,
dependency of refractive index on the wavelength
and the modal dependency of the group velocity.

• In the case of optical pulse propagation down the fiber, GVD

causes pulse broadening, leading to Inter Symbol
Interference (ISI).
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 Dispersion & ISI

A measure of information capacity of an

optical fiber for digital transmission is
usually specified by the bandwidth
distance product
in GHz.km.
For multi-mode step index fiber this
quantity is about 20 MHz.km, for
graded index fiber is about 2.5 GHz.km
& for single mode fibers are higher than
10 GHz.km.

BW L

Optical Fiber communications, 3rd ed.,G.Keiser,McGrawHill, 2000

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 How to characterize dispersion?
• Group delay per unit length can be defined as:

2
g d 1 d d
[3-15]
L dω c dk 2 c d
• If the spectral width of the optical source is not too wide,
d
then the delay difference per unit wavelength along the g

propagation path is approximately For spectral components d

which are apart, symmetrical around center wavelength,
the total delay difference over a distance L is:
d g L d 2 d2
2
d 2 c d d 2
d d L d2
L [3-16]
2
d d Vg d

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 d2
• 2
d 2is called GVD parameter, and shows how much
a light pulse broadens as it travels along an optical fiber.
The more common parameter is called Dispersion, and
can be defined as the delay difference per unit length per
unit wavelength as follows:
1 d g d 1 2 c
D 2 2
[3-17]
L d d Vg

• In the case of optical pulse, if the spectral width of the

optical source is characterized by its rms value of the
Gaussian pulse , the pulse spreading over the length
of L, g can be well approximated by:
[3-18]
d g
g DL
d

• D has a typical unit of [ps/(nm.km)].

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Dispersion
Intramodal Dispersion or Chromatic
Dispersion
This takes place within a single mode.
Intramodal dispersion depends on the wavelength,
its effect on signal distortion increases with the
spectral width of the light source.
Spectral width is approximately 4 to 9 percent of a
central wavelength.

Two main causes of intramodal dispersion are

as:
1.Material Dispersion
2.Waveguide Dispersion
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 Material Dispersion
vg
vg

02/07/19 66
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Intramodal Dispersion or Chromatic
Dispersion
Material
Dispersion:
This refractive index property causes a wavelength
dependence of the group velocity of a given mode;
that is,

Pulse spreading occurs even when different

wavelength follow the same path.
Material dispersion can be reduced:
•Either by choosing sources with narrower
spectral output widths OR
•By operating at longer wavelengths.
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LASER source will produce far less spectral dispersion or
intramodal dispersion than an LED source since it is more nearly
monochromatic
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 Material Dispersion
• The refractive index of the material varies as a function of
wavelength, n( )
• Material-induced dispersion for a plane wave propagation in
homogeneous medium of refractive index n:
2 2
d d d 2
mat L L L n( )
dω 2 c d 2 c d
L dn
n [3-19]
c d

• The pulse spread due to material dispersion is therefore:

d mat L d 2n
g L Dmat ( ) [3-20]
d c d 2

Dmat ( ) is material dispersion

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Material dispersion as a function of optical wavelength for pure
silica and 13.5 percent GeO2/ 86.5
02/07/19 70 percent SiO2.
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Intramodal Dispersion or Chromatic
Dispersion
Waveguide
Dispersion:
It causes pulse spreading because only part of the
optical power propagation along a fiber is confined
to core.
Dispersion arises because the fraction of light power
propagating in the cladding travels faster than the
light confined to core.

Single mode fiber confines only 80 percent of the

power in the core for V values around 2.

The amount of waveguide dispersion

depends on the fiber design.
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 Waveguide Dispersion
• Waveguide dispersion is due to the dependency of the
group velocity of the fundamental mode as well as other
modes on the V number, (see Fig 2-18 of the textbook). In
order to calculate waveguide dispersion, we consider that n
is not dependent on wavelength. Defining the normalized
propagation constant b as:
2 2 2
/k n2 / k n2
b 2 2
[3-29]
n1 n2 n1 n2

• solving for propagation constant:

n2 k (1 b ) [3-31]

• Using V number: 2 2 [3-33]

V ka(n1 n2 )1/ 2 kan2 2
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 Waveguide Dispersion
• Delay time due to waveguide dispersion can then be
expressed as:
L d (Vb)
wg n2 n2 [3-34]
c dV

Optical Fiber communications, 3rd ed.,G.Keiser,McGrawHill, 2000

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 Signal Distortion in single mode fibers
• For single mode fibers, waveguide dispersion is in the same
order of material dispersion. The pulse spread can be well
approximated as:
d wg n2 L d 2 (Vb)
wg L Dwg ( ) V [3-25]
d c dV 2
Dwg ( )

02/07/19 74
Optical Fiber communications, 3rd ed.,G.Keiser,McGrawHill, 2000

Irfan khan
 Polarization Mode dispersion

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 Polarization Mode dispersion
• The effects of fiber-birefringence on the polarization states
of an optical are another source of pulse broadening.
Polarization mode dispersion (PMD) is due to slightly
different velocity for each polarization mode because of the
lack of perfectly symmetric & anisotropicity of the fiber. If
the group velocities of two orthogonal polarization modes
are v gx and v gy then the differential time delay pol

between these two polarization over a distance L is

[3-26]

L L
pol
v gx v gy
• The rms value of the differential group delay can be
approximated as:
[3-27]

pol DPMD L
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 Chromatic & Total Dispersion
• Chromatic dispersion includes the material & waveguide
dispersions.

Dch ( ) Dmat Dwg

[3-28]

ch Dch ( ) L

• Total dispersion is the sum of chromatic , polarization

dispersion and other dispersion types and the total rms
pulse spreading can be approximately written as:
Dtotal Dch D pol ...
[3-29]

total Dtotal L
02/07/19
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 Chromatic & Total Dispersion
• Chromatic dispersion includes the material & waveguide
dispersions.
Dch ( ) Dmat Dwg
ch Dch ( ) L [3-28]

• Total dispersion is the sum of chromatic , polarization

dispersion and other dispersion types and the total rms
pulse spreading can be approximately written as:
Dtotal Dch D pol ...
total Dtotal L
[3-29]

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 Total Dispersion, zero Dispersion

Fact 1) Minimum distortion at wavelength about 1300 nm for single mode silica fiber.
Fact 2) Minimum attenuation is at 1550 nm for sinlge mode silica fiber.
Strategy: shifting the zero-dispersion to longer wavelength for minimum attenuation and dispers

02/07/19 79
Optical Fiber communications, 3rd ed.,G.Keiser,McGrawHill, 2000

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Variation in the polarization states of an optical pulse as it
passes through a fiber that has varying birefringence along its
length.
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02/07/19 81
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 Signal Distortion/
Dispersion

Intermodal Delay/ Intramodal Dispersion/ Polarization-mode

Modal Delay Chromatic Dispersion Dispersion

Material Waveguide
Dispersion Dispersion

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 Signal Degradation
in the Optical Fiber

Signal Distortion/ Attenuation

Dispersion

Scattering Radiative
Absorption Losses losses
Intramodal
Intermodal Polarization
Dispersion/
Delay/ -mode
Chromatic
Modal Delay Dispersion Extrinsic
Intrinsic Atomic
Dispersion (Impurity
Absorption Defects
atoms)

Material Waveguide
Absorption Absorption Inhomogeneities Compositional
Dispersion Dispersion in in Microscopic Macroscopic
or defects fluctuations
Infrared Ultraviolet bends bends
in fiber in material
region region

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Characteristics of Single Mode Fibers

These Characteristics
include :
1.Index profile configuration

2.Cutoff wavelength

3.Signal dispersion designations and

calculations

4.Mode field diameter

5.Signal
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loss due to fiber
84
bending.
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02/07/19 85
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Three dimensional refractive index profiles for (a) matched
cladding 1310nm optimized (b) depressed cladding 1310nm optimized
(c) triangular dispersion shifted and (d) quadruple clad dispersion
flattened
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 SM-fiber dispersions

Typical waveguide dispersion and the common material

dispersion
02/07/19 for three different
87 single mode fiber designs.
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 SM-fiber dispersions

Resultant total dispersions

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 Single mode Cut-off wavelength &
Dispersion
2 a
• Fundamental mode
HEis11 or LP01 with V=2.405 and
2 2
c n 1 n2
V
• Dispersion: [3-30]

d
D( ) Dmat ( ) Dwg ( ) [3-31]
d
D( ) L [3-32]

• For non-dispersion-shifted fibers (1270 nm – 1340 nm)

• For dispersion shifted fibers (1500 nm- 1600 nm)

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 Dispersion for non-dispersion-shifted
fibers
(1270 nm – 1340 nm)
d
D( ) Dmat ( ) Dwg ( )
d
D( ) L

2
S0
( ) 0 ( 0
)2
8
• 0 is relative delay minimum at the zero-dispersion wavelength
0 S 0,
and is the value of the dispersion
ps/(nm 2 .km)slope in .

dD
S0 S( 0)
d 0

S0 0 4
D( ) 1 ( )
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 Dispersion for dispersion shifted fibers
(1500 nm- 1600 nm)
S0 2
( ) 0 ( 0 ) [3-36]
2

D( ) ( 0 )S0 [3-37]

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Dispersion Calculation

If tmod, tCD, and tPMD are the modal, chromatic, and

polarization mode dispersion times
Then
Then total dispersion tT can be calculated by the
relationship.

Note that tmod = 0 for single-mode fibers.

Where
tcd = |DCD | L ∆λ
tPMD = DPMD (fiber
02/07/19 length)1/2 92
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 Mode-field diameter vs wavelength

Typical mode field diameter variations with wavelength for (a)

1300 nm optimized (b) dispersion shifted and (c) dispersion flattened
single mode fibers
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 Bending-induced attenuation

Representative increases in single mode fiber attenuation owing

to02/07/19
microbending and macrobending
94 effects
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 Bending effects on loss vs MFD

Calculated increase in attenuation at 1310 nm from

microbending and macrobending effects as a function of mode
field diameter for (a) depressed cladding single mode fiber and
(b) matched cladding single mode
02/07/19 95 fiber.
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 Bend loss versus bend radius

02/07/19 96
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 International Standards
ITU-T Recommendations for multimode and
Single-Mode Fibers

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 Chromatic dispersion as a function of wavelength in
various spectral bands for several different optical
fiber types
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 Recommendation
G.651
Core diameters :
1)50 µm
2)62.5 µm
cladding diameters:( For both fibers)
125-µm

Attenuation :
Range form 2.5 dB/km at 850nm to less that 0.6dB/km at
1310 nm
Light source used:
Vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VSSEL) operating at 850 nm

Ethernet links running at data rates up to 10Gb/s

over distance up to 550 m can use multimode fibers
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Recommendation G.652a/b (Standard single mode fiber or 1300nm
optimized fiber)
Installed widely in telecommunication networks in the
1990s.
Core diameter: Attenuation :
5 and 8 µm Range form 0.4 dB/km at
Cladding diameter: 1310nm to
125µm
less that 0.35dB/km at 1550 nm

Max PMD: 0.2 ps/ This fiber was optimized to have

a zero-dispersion value at 1310
√km
nm.

With the trend toward operation in the lower-loss 1550-nm

spectral region, the installation of this fiber has decreased
dramatically.

If network operators want to use installed G.652 fiber at 1550

nm, complex dispersion compensation techniques are
needed,
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Recommendation G.652c/d (low water peak
fiber)
It allows operation in the E-band and are used
widely for fiber to the premises (FTTP)
installations.
It is created by reducing the water ion
concentration in order to eliminate the
attenuation spike in the 1360 to 1460 nm E-
band.

It allow operation over the entire wavelength

range from 1260 to 1625 nm

Typically a FTTP link transmits three

independent bidirectional channels at 1310,
1490 and 1550nm over the same fiber.
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Recommendation G.653 (Dispersion shifted fiber
DSF)
It was developed for the use with 1550 nm
lasers.
Zero dispersion point is shifted to 1550 nm where the
fiber attenuation is about half that at 1310nm.
But
It presents dispersion related problems in dense
wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) applications
in the centre of the C band.

Becaus
e nonlinear effects in DWDM
To prevent undesirable
systems the chromatic dispersion values should be
positive or negative over the entire operational band.

Therefor
e for DWDM should be restricted
The use of G.653 fibers
to either the S band or L band
These fibers are seldom
02/07/19 102 deployed anymore
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Recommendation ITU-T G.654 (cutoff wavelength
shifted fiber )

Designed for long distance high power

transmission.
It has zero dispersion wavelength around
1300 nm wavelength.

It has very low loss in the 1550nm band, which

is achieved by using pure silica core.

It has a high cutoff wavelength of 1500 nm,

restricted to operation in the 1500 to 1600
nm region.
Typically used only in long distance
undersea
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application.103
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Recommendation ITU-T G.655 (Non zero dispersion
shifted fiber )
NZDSF was introduced in the mid 1990s for WDM
applications.
Principal
characteristic:
It has a positive nonzero dispersion value over the
entire C-band, which is the spectral operating region
for eribium doped optical fiber amplifiers.

Version G.655b was introduced to extend WDM

application into the S-band.

Version G.655c specifies a lower PMD value of 0.2

ps√km than the 0.5 ps/√km value of G.655a/b

02/07/19 104
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Recommendation ITU-T
G.656
It has a positive chromatic dispersion value ranging
from 2 to 14 ps/(nm-km) in the 1460 to 1625 nm
wavelength band.
Here dispersion slop is significantly lower than in
G.655 fibers
Lower dispersion
slope:
It means that the chromatic dispersion changes
slower with the wavelength so that dispersion
compensation is simpler or not needed.

This allows
The use of CWDM without chromatic dispersion compensation
and
Also means that 40 additional DWDM channels can be
implemented in this wavelength
02/07/19 105 band.
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 Specialty Fibers
Designed to Manipulate or control some characteristic
of an optical fiber.
The light manipulation applications include:
1. Optical signal amplification
2. Optical power coupling
3. Dispersion compensation
4. Wavelength conversions
5. Sensing of physical parameters:
1. Temperature
2. Stress
3. Pressure
4. Vibration

02/07/19 5. Fluid levels 106

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 Specialty
Fibers
Specialty fibers can be of either a multimode or a
single mode design.
Optical devices that may use such fibers are:
1. Light transmitters
2. Light modulators
3. Optical receivers
4. Wavelength multiplexers
5. Light couplers
6. Splitters
7. Optical amplifiers
8. Optical switches
9. Wavelength add /drop modules
10.Optical
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Example of Specialty Fibers and Their Applications

02/07/19 108
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Generic Parameter Values of an Erbium-Doped
Fiber for Use in the C-Band

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 Core

Cladding

Core
Cladding

Cross-sectional geometry of four different

polarization-maintaining fibers
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End-face patterns of two possible holey fiber
structures.
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 The End

02/07/19 112
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