Question -1: Explain two main components which form fiber optic

communication system.

Answer -1: LED is used at transmit end and photo diode is used at receive
end of fiber optic system. LED converts electrical signal to light form and
photo diode does the reverse.

This page on Fiber Optic Communication tutorial covers basics,

benefits of fiber optic system, fiber optic cables/connectors, optical
transmitter, optical receiver and optical components.
The fiber optic communication systems are mainly used for long distance
telephone communication across large seas and now-a-days even for
transmitting internet data from one part of the world to the other part. The
other vital application of fiber optic communication system is for TV signal
transmission/reception due to its large bandwidth.

As we know that increase in demand of bandwidths across the world for

carrying the enormous high bit rate data leads to the transmission media
which can carry huge bandwidth. Fiber optic has total bandwidth of about
11 THz. If we consider bandwidth of telephone signal to be about 3 KHz
effectively this gives us 36 billion total number of conversations to be
carried by optical fiber simultaneously.

Total No. of conversations = 1.1 x 1014 / 3 x 103

= 36 billion
Figure describes typical fiber optic communication system comprising
coder, light source transmitter, fiber optic cable, light detector and decoder.
As depicted here information signals can be voice or video or data or image
etc. In the first step, analog information signal need to be converted into
series of digital pulses suitable to be transmitted over the medium. This is
achieved with the use of ADC and coder (if required). This digital pulses
are applied to the light source to make the light emission on and off as per
the information (pulses). Usually LED and solid state laser devices are
used as light source transmitter. This light beam pulses are coupled with
care to the fiber optic cable to avoid coupling loss. This beams are
transmitted to the long distances.

At the other receiving end devices such as photocell or light detectors are
used to convert light pulses into electrical signals which then amplified and
converted back to its original form. If required DAC is used if original signal
sent was either audio or video.

In the case of very long distance communication system, repeater units are
incorporated to avoid complete attenuation of the signal. Without repeater it
is not possible to re-cover the signal back to its original form.

This fiber optic relay or repeater stations pick up the light beam convert it to
electrical signal. This converted electrical signal is amplified before again
being transformed back to the light beams. This amplified light beams are
again transmitted over the fiber optic cable.

The latest development in fiber optic amplifiers have

provided EDFA (Erbium Doped Fiber Amplifier). This EDFA amplifier does
not convert the signal into electrical form and does the amplification in the
optical domain itself.

Benefits of fiber optic system

Following are benefits of the fiber optic system:

• Fiber optic cable has large information carrying capacity due to large
bandwidth.
• Electrical cables are becoming costlier due to copper price rise,this makes
fiber optic less costlier comparative to the copper based cable.
• Fiber optic connectors are used for better coupling of the fiber optic
cables to have less loss.
•  Abundant cheaper materials such as silica and plastic made it possible to
have less cost per km for the fiber cable. • Optical fiber probes are used
for medical imaging applications (endoscope), used in microscopes as
light sources and in spectroscopy.
Optical Transmitter and Receiver

As mentioned above LED and semiconductor lasers are used as optical

transmitter due to its fast on/off application compare to conventional
incandescent lamp. This incandescent lamp can not be switched on and off
fast due to thermal delay in the filament.
Photodiode is used as optical receiver device or detector to convert light
source into voltage pulses.
Optical components
There are wide components used in a optical fiber chain from trasmitting
end to the receiving end. They include optical
coupler,isolator,circulator,amplifier,repeater,regenerator,ADM(Add and
Drop Multiplexer,demultiplexer),filter, equalizer,switches, wavelength
converters and more. Each has different functions in the optical
chain.These components have been described in the links provided on the
left panel.

These components work based on wavelengths of interest. There are

various optical wavelength bands such as L band, S band, C band etc. Pls.
check wavelength bands page for all the optical bands available.
Losses in Optical Fiber

Following are the losses in optical fiber system:

• Absorption Losses
-Intrinsic(Caused due to interaction of one or major component of glass)
-Extrinsic(Caused due to OH- ion or due to transition element impurity)
• Linear scattering losses
-Rayleigh
-Mie
-Nonlinear scattering losses
-Fiber bend losses
Optoamplifier basics
Optical amplifier is the device which increases the strength of the optical
signal. Typical fiber cable has loss of about 0.2dB per km for 1.5 micro-
meter light signal. Hence if the signal occurs loss of about 20dB if it travels
a distance of 100km. The signal needs to be amplified in order to
compensate for the losses at the regular intervals and to maintain SNR (or
BER). Usually optical amplification is carried out by converting signal from
optical to electrical and later signal is converted back to optical form.
Erbium Doped Fiber Amplifier (EDFA) has made it possible to amplify the
signal in the optical form without being converted to the electrical form
avoiding costly high speed electronic devices needed for such conversions
at frequency of more than 10GHz.
An optical amplifier is usually characterized by parameters such as gain,
gain efficiency, gain bandwidth, gain saturation etc. The same is described
below.
•   Gain = ratio of output power by input power. It is measured in
Decibel(dB).
•   Gain taken as function of the input power is referred as gain efficiency .
•  Bandwidth refers to range of wavelengths over which amplifier functions
effectively and provides maximum gain.
•   Gain saturation refers to the max. output optical amplifier can deliver.
Above this limit amplification is not possible.
•  .
Types of Optical Amplifier

The main types of amplifiers are EDFA(Earth Doped Fiber

Amplifier),Semiconductor Optical Amplifiers (SOA) and Raman Amplifier.
Rare Earth Doped Fiber Amplifiers are of two types EDFA (Erbium Doped)
and PDFA (Praseodymium Doped). EDFA works in 1500-1600nm band.
PDFA works in 1300nm band. SOA works in 400-2000nm band.

EDFA (Erbium Doped Fiber Amplifier)

EDFA has been commercially available for use since about 1990. It
performs best in the band from 1530 nm to 1565 nm. It provides gain of up
to 30dB. As shown in the figure-1, Erbium Doped Fiber is pumped using
semiconductor laser either at 980 nm or at 1480 nm.
When the stimulated emission gets dominated over spontaneous emission,
efficient amplification can be obtained. As we know that light gets absorbed
when it propagates through the medium. If the population at higher state of
energy is more than that at lower state, light will be amplified when it travels
from one end of fiber amplifier to the other end. Usually 980 nm pump is
preferred due to its low noise amplification characteristics over 1480nm
pump. But at 1480 nm wavelength silica fiber incur low loss and hence
pump can also propagate along with the input signal to be amplified. Pump
can also be placed remotely.

EDFAs are available in L band and C band. In L band EDFAs pump powers
are higher than the L band EDFAs. Gain equalizing filter is employed if
required at the output of the EDFA to equalize the gain over the bandwidth
of interest. Following are the typical specifications of the EDFA type of
optical amplifier.

EDFA specifications

•   Gain of about 40dB or greater

•   Wavelength in the range from 1530 nm to 1560 nm
•   Maximum saturation of about 22 dBm
•   Noise figure in the order of 5dB
•   Pump power of about about 25 dBm
•   bandwidth (3dB) - 30 to 60
•   Polarization sensitivity not available with EDFA
EDFAs will provide high pump utilization of power and is used along with
optical filters to equalize the gain response. There are so many merits of
EDFA but as they are not small, they can not be seamlessly integrated with
other semiconductor devices in the chain.

SOA (semiconductor optical amplifier)

Photons travelling from active region can cause electrons to lose energy in
the form of released photons and if wavelength of these photons matches
the initial photons, amplification can be achieved. This can be achieved by
passing electric current through the device. Due to this principal optical
signal which is passing from active region will be amplified with gain of
certain order.

SOA specifications

•   Gain of about 30dB or greater

•   Wavelength in the range from 1280 nm to 1650 nm
•   Maximum saturation of about 18 dBm
•   Noise figure in the order of 8 dB
•   Pump power of about less than 400 mA
•   bandwidth (3dB) - 60
•   Polarization sensitivity available with SOA

Figure-3 depicts the application of EDFA in CATV transmission and

reception. As shown in the figure, CATV signal is being amplified by EDFA
with the gain of 10dB. Later optical splitter is used to split the signal so that
individual connections are provided to the users.

Optical Fibre wavelength Bands-O,E,S,C,L,U-Band

Following wavelength bands are used in fibre optical communication. This
bands are used by optical engineers so often.The values in the table are
approximate. They have not been finalized as standard values.

Optical fibre wavelength Band Wavelength Range

band descriptor (nm)

O-band Original 1260 to 1360

E-band Extended 1360 to 1460

S-band Short 1460 to 1530

C-band Conventional 1530 to 1565

L-band Long 1565 to 1625

 U-band Ultra-long 1625 to 1675

Power loss per km for various optical fibre cables based on wavelength
bands viz.S band, C band and L band is mentioned below.

Question -2: What is FTTH? Explain different types of optical

networks.

Answer -2: FTTH stands for fibre to the home. There are two main types
viz. AON (Active Optical Network) and PON (Passive Optical Network).
FTTH(Fibre to the Home) basic tutorial
The FTTH tutorial covers basics of FTTH (fibre to the home) configurations
and architectures viz. Active Optical Network(AON) and Passive Optical
Network(PON). It covers PON standards EPON and GPON etc.

Earlier telecommunication networks were using optic fibre cables for

connectivity between exchanges across sea. This has been replaced with
all fibre network. This concept provides connectivity between user premises
and the service provider using fibre optic. It has become more popular
because of higher bandwidth and cheap cost. Moreover it is reliable and
secure way of communication compare to wireless networks.

Fibre optic networks have been evolved very quickly and service providers
are deploying different fibre configurations based on different applications.
It is designed as FTTx. Here 'x' stands for final terminating point on the
user side. 'x' can be Home or Premise or Building, Curb or Node. Based on
this there are different terminologies of fibre optic deployment
configurations. They are FTTH (Fibre to the Home), FTTP (Fibre to the
Premise), FTTB(Fibre to the Building) FTTN(Fibre to the Node) and FTTC
(Fibre to the Curb).
Following diagram depicts FTTH configuration.

Fibre Access Network Configurations

As shown in the figure-1, there are two basic elements in the fibre optical
network viz. OLT and ONU. OLT(Optical Line Terminal) is located at the
telecom service provider side. ONU(Optical Network Unit) is located at the
user premises. In this FTTH configuration modem is used at the user
premises which converts optical signal to the electrical signal and vice
versa. User computer is connected with the network using ethernet card.
FTTH Architectures

The major deployment consideration for telecom service provider is to

decide on FTTH architecture. There are two categories of architectures.
They are active optical network(AON) and passive optical network(PON).
These AON and PON have been explained below.

AON vs PON

AON is a point to point FTTH architecture. This type uses active devices
and connects OLT (Optical Line Terminal) placed at central office with ONT
(Optical Network Terminal) placed at user premises using dedicated cable.
Distance can be about 80 Km and the fibre cable provides full bi-directional
communication. Figure-2 depicts typical active star ethernet (ASE)
architecture which is a point to point architecture. This ASE architecture
reduces cost due to sharing of the fibre cable.
PON is a point to multipoint FTTH architecture. This configuration is used
for various applications. It includes voice, video, data etc. This configuration
uses optical splitter to connect OLT located at service provider side with
multiple ONUs located at user premises. Optical splitters are available in
different configurations viz. 1:4, 1:8, 1:16, 1:32, 1:64 etc. As the name
suggests this architecture uses all the passive components between OLT
and ONUs. No electronic or electrical active components are used. There
are two benefits to this type of architecture; easy maintanance and lower
cost. Typical distance between OLT and ONU is about 35Km.
As shown in the figure-3, transmission from user premises to service
provider is referred as uplink and from service provider to user premises is
referred as downlink. In the uplink TDMA is used and in the downlink TDM
is used. TDMA stands for Time Division Multiple Access and TDM stands
for Time Division Multiplexing.

PON standards
There are different standards which are evolving under PON based on
ethernet technology advancement. They are EPON(Ethernet PON) and
GPON(Gigabit Ethernet PON).

Basic
Specifications PON(BPON) EPON GPON

FSAN, ITU-T IEEE FSAN & ITU-T

Standard SG25, G-983 802.3ah SG15, G984

Downstream 1490nm,
wavelength 1550nm 1490nm 1490nm,1550nm

Download Speed 622Mbps 1.25Gbps 2.5Gbps

Upstream
wavelength 1310nm 1310nm 1310nm

Upload speed 155.52Mbps 1.25Gbps 2.5Gbps

ATM, Ethernet,
L2 protocol ATM Ethernet TDM over GEM

Distance between 10Km, 20Km, upto

OLT and ONU 20Km 20Km max.60Km logically

Split ratio 1:16, 1:32, 1:64 1:16, 1:32 1:16, 1:32, 1:64

Not
Security in the specified
downlink direction AES yet AES
 FEC technique Not provided Available Available

Protection Does not

switching Supports support Supports

Question -3: Explain difference between SDH and PDH?

Answer -3: Refer PDH vs SDH➤.

PDH vs SDH | Difference between PDH and SDH
This page PDH vs SDH describes difference between PDH and SDH. It
explains basics of PDH and SDH and mentions useful difference between
terms. PDH stands for Plesiochronous Digital Hierarchy and SDH stands
for Synchronous Digital Hierarchy.
Both PDH and SDH are terminologies associated with digital multiplexers
used in exchanges. The different hierarchies having different bit rates are
combined. These hierarchies will comprised of many such bit
streams/channels (either 24,30 or multiples) often called as tributaries.

PDH

In PDH, digital multiplexer's inputs(bit streams) are of same bit rate and are
derived from different clocks from different oscillators. Each will differ within
tolerance of few clock periods. Hence it is called plesiochronous.
Bit Interleaving is used in PDH to combine digital signals.
In PDH there are two main standards i.e. 30 channel one used in Europe
and 24 channel one used in North America/Japan. Basic rate is 64 Kbps in
North America(designated as DS0) and in Europe (designated as E0).
Rates derived from 2.048 Mbps basic rate including bit stuffing in 30
channel case are mentioned below.
2.048 x 4 gives 8.448 Mbps (120 channels)
8.448 x 4 gives 34.368 Mbps (480 channels)
34.368 x 4 gives 139.264 Mbps (1920 channels)
139.264 x 4 gives 564.992 Mbps (7680 channels)
The figure-1 depicts PDH level hierarchy used in North America while
figure-2 depicts PDH levels used in Europe. Rates derived from 1.544
Mbps basic rate including bit stuffing in 24 channel case are mentioned
below.
1.544 x 4 gives 6.312 Mbps (96 channels)
6.312 x 7 gives 44.736 Mbps (672 channels)
44.736 x 6 gives 274.16 Mbps (4032 channels)
44.736 x 3 gives 139.264 Mbps
44.736 x 12 gives 564.992 Mbps

The table below mentions PDH rates used in Japan.

Level data rate in Japan

0 0.064 Mbps

1 1.544 Mbps

2 6.312 Mbps

3 32.064 Mbps
 4 97.928 Mbps

Following are the limitations of PDH:

•  In PDH, different frame is used for transmission and in data layer. Hence
multiplexing and de-multiplexing is very complex.
• Accessing lower tributary requires the whole system to be de-multiplexed.
• The maximum capacity for PDH is 566 Mbps, which is limited in
bandwidth.
• Tolerance is allowed in bit rates.
• PDH allows only Point-to-Point configuration.
• PDH does not support Hub.
• Every manufacturer has its own standards; PDH also has different
multiplexing hierarchies making it difficult to integrate interconnecting
networks together.
SDH

As PDH was not scalable to support high capacity bandwidth and hence
was not suitable to accomodate growing traffic need. SONET was
developed as American Standard while SDH as European Standard.

SDH supports various topologies such as point to point, ring, star, linear
bus etc. It uses TDM and octet multiplexing. It uses extremely precise
timings. It employs both electrical and optical specifications.

In SDH, digital multiplexer's inputs are of same bit rate and are derived
from common clock, hence are in phase. Hence it is synchronous.
Word(group of bits) Interleaving is used in SDH to combine digital signals.
SDH uses basic rate of 155.52 Mbps and four times multiples of this i.e.
622.08 Mbps and 2488.32Mbps. Basic SDH rate of 155.52 is also known
as STM-1. STM stands for Synchronous Transport Module. SDH is referred
as SONET (Synchronous Optical Network) in USA due to optical interfaces
used. Figure-3 depicts table mentioning SONET and SDH levels with their
respective data rates.

As per CCITT, any of PDH rates upto 140 Mbps can be integrated with
SDH rates up to 155.52 Mbps.

Following are the merits or advantages of SDH:

• A more simplified multiplexing and demultiplexing technique.

• Synchronous networking and SDH supports multipoint networking.
• Capability of transporting existing PDH signals.
•  Easy growth to higher bit rates which enhances the administration and
maintenance process.
• It is capable of transporting broadband signals.
• It is multivendor and supports different operators.
• It provides network transport services on LAN such as video
conferencing, and interactive multimedia.
• Optical fibre bandwidth can be increased without limit in SDH.
•  Switching protection to traffic is offered by rings.
• SDH allows quick recovery from failure.
PDH vs SDH | Difference between PDH and SDH

Following table compares PDH vs SDH with respect to various parameters

and mention difference between PDH and SDH in the form of table below.

PDH SDH

Plesiochronous Digital Hierarchy Synchronous Digital Hierarchy

In PDH, reference clock is not

synchronized throughout the In SDH, Reference clock is synchronized
network. throughout the network.

There is no synchronization There is synchronization between

between payload and frame. payload and frame.

PDH system has different frame

structures at different hierarchy SDH system has consistent frame
levels. structures throughout the hierarchy.

Physical cross-connections are

provided on the same level in Digital cross-connections are provided at
PDH. different signal levels in SDH.

In PDH, rates are derived from In SDH, rates are derived from basic
basic rate of 1.544 Mbps. The rate of 155.52 Mbps. The maximum up
maximum capacity is about 566 to 40 Gbps rates can be derived from
Mbps. basic rate mentioned.
 There is no universal standard
for PDH. Universal standard exists for SDH.

PDH is incompatible with other

signals such as ATM, FDDI, SDH is compatible with other signals
DQDB etc. such as ATM, FDDI, DQDB etc.

Multipling method used in PDH is Multipling method used in SDH is

complex. simple.

Implementation cost of PDH is

lower. Implementation cost of SDH is higher.

Question -4: Explain difference between SDH and SONET.

Answer -4: Refer SONET vs SDH➤.
SONET vs SDH
SONET vs SDH provide similarities and difference between SONET and
SDH technologies,data rates,number of voice channels supported for
various designations(OC,STM).
Both SONET and SDH is information transmission techniques over fibre
optic cable. The both does following functions.
• Frame the information to be transmitted over fibre using HDLC standard
frame format.
• Provides error checking functionalities.
• Take care of link management functionalities.
SONET was developed in US through ANSI T1X1.5 committee,while SDH
was developed by ITU.
SONET stands for Synchronous Optical Network while SDH stands for
Synchronous Digital Hierarchy. SONET is basically a subset of SDH.

The basic unit of SDH is synchronous transmission module level-1(STM-1).

The basic unit of SONET is Optical Carrier level-1(OC-1). The other rates
OC-3,OC-12,OC-18,OC-24,OC-36,OC-48,OC-96 and OC-192 are derived
from this basic rate.

North American Digital Telephone System

Following are the rates supported in North American digital telephone

system.

Designation Data Rate(MBPS) Number of voice channels

DS-1 1.544 24

DS-2 6.312 96

DS-3 44.736 672

DS-4 274.176 4032

SONET

Following are the rates supported in SONET system.

Designation Data Rate(MBPS) Number of voice channels

 OC-1 51.84 672

OC-3 155.52 2016

OC-12 622.08 8064

OC-18 933.12 12,096

OC-24 1244.16 16,128

OC-36 1866.24 24,192

OC-48 2488.32 32,256

OC-96 4976.64 64,512

OC-192 9953.28 129,024

SDH

Following are the rates supported in SDH system.

Designation Data Rate(MBPS) Number of voice channels

STM-1 155.52 2016

STM-4 622.08 8064

STM-16 2488.32 32,256

STM-64 9953.28 129,024

In SONET and SDH, OC-192 level supports maximum data rate of about
9953.28Mbps, but with recent dvelopments in SDH data rate upto 40Gbps
can also be achieved.

Question -5: What is WDM ? Explain different types of WDM.

Answer -5: WDM stands for Wavelength Division Multiplexing. There are
diference types of WDM such as narrowband, wideband, coarse and dense
WDM.

What is WDM?
Transfer of information from one place to the other can be achieved using
different transmission technologies or mediums which include copper cable
lines, space and fibre optic cables etc. As there is only one medium,
maximum data rate through it can only be achieved by simultaneous
transmission of information through various techniques. These techniques
are called multiplexing techniques. These are TDMA,FDMA,CDMA,OFDMA
etc. WDM is also one such multiplexing technique.

This page describes what is WDM or Wavelength Division Multiplexing and

WDM application.
Wavelength Division Multiplexing(WDM) is similar to the FDM(Frequency
division multiplexing) technique. This is because of their mathematical
relationship as mentioned below.
Wavelength = C/Frequency , C is the Speed of Light
The difference between them is that in WDM light signals are multiplexed
and transmitted through fibre optic cables. This results into higher data rate
capacity as different light signals of different wavelengths will be carrying
different data streams. This is because narrower band signals are
combined to form wide band of light signal.

The basic concept in WDM is that it uses different optical carriers or colours
to transmit different signals in a optic fibre. Optic fibre here is analogous to
multi-lane highway. WDM is irrelevant to type of traffic to be carried and
hence any type of traffic can travel over fibre optic cable e.g. ATM
packets,SDH and IP data.

SONET/SDH functional capabilities and enormous bandwidth of DWDM

lead to development of 32 and 96 channel WDM which can carry
information at 320 Gbps to 1.2terabit per second transmission rates.

When the number of wavelength channels are more than 20, WDM is
referred as DWDM or Dense WDM.

Narrowband WDM vs Wideband WDM vs Coarse WDM vs Dense WDM

This page describes WDM types which
include narrowband WDM,wideband WDM,coarse WDM
and Dense WDM and provide difference between them.Following are
evolutions of WDM used in fibre optical based communication system.
Wideband WDM

Early developments of WDM started in late 1980s. The system were using
two widely spaced wavelengths of order 1310nm and 1550nm
( 850nm/1310nm) regions. This is referred as wideband WDM.

Narrowband WDM

In the early 1990s , second generation of WDM have been developed

referred as narrowband WDM. In this type 2 to 8 channels have been used.
These channels are frequency spaced at interval of 400GHz in 1550nm
window.

There are passive WDM systems which employs 2,4,8,12 and 16 channels.
These techniques has distance coverage upto 100Km without any repeater
module.

Coarse WDM

This type of coarse WDM used 20nm spacing for up to 18 channels. This
can cover distance of about 50km on single mode fibres.

Dense WDM

In the middle of 1990s, dense WDM (DWDM) has been developed which
had 16-40 channels at frequency spacing of 100GHz to 200GHz .

Later in the late 1990s, DWDM systems were developed with 64-160
channel capacities. These systems were capable of packing at 50GHz or
25GHz spacing. These can transfer information at distance of several
thousands kilometers with amplifiers and regenerators along the route.

Optical fibre based communication system uses wavelenths in near

infrared region which is in non-visible spectrum. Following table mentions
wavelengths at which fibre works best.

Optical Transmission Windows

Optical Window Operating Wavelength

 800-900 nm 850 nm

1250-1350 nm 1310 nm

1500-1600 nm 1550 nm

Question -6: Explain Basics of Optical Amplifier. Explain EDFA.

Answer -6: Optical Amplifier is used to amplify the optical signal. EDFA
stands for Erbium Doped Fiber Amplifier.

Optoamplifier basics
Optical amplifier is the device which increases the strength of the optical
signal. Typical fiber cable has loss of about 0.2dB per km for 1.5 micro-
meter light signal. Hence if the signal occurs loss of about 20dB if it travels
a distance of 100km. The signal needs to be amplified in order to
compensate for the losses at the regular intervals and to maintain SNR (or
BER). Usually optical amplification is carried out by converting signal from
optical to electrical and later signal is converted back to optical form.
Erbium Doped Fiber Amplifier (EDFA) has made it possible to amplify the
signal in the optical form without being converted to the electrical form
avoiding costly high speed electronic devices needed for such conversions
at frequency of more than 10GHz.
An optical amplifier is usually characterized by parameters such as gain,
gain efficiency, gain bandwidth, gain saturation etc. The same is described
below.
•   Gain = ratio of output power by input power. It is measured in
Decibel(dB).
•   Gain taken as function of the input power is referred as gain efficiency .
•  Bandwidth refers to range of wavelengths over which amplifier functions
effectively and provides maximum gain.
•   Gain saturation refers to the max. output optical amplifier can deliver.
Above this limit amplification is not possible.
•  .
Types of Optical Amplifier

The main types of amplifiers are EDFA(Earth Doped Fiber

Amplifier),Semiconductor Optical Amplifiers (SOA) and Raman Amplifier.
Rare Earth Doped Fiber Amplifiers are of two types EDFA (Erbium Doped)
and PDFA (Praseodymium Doped). EDFA works in 1500-1600nm band.
PDFA works in 1300nm band. SOA works in 400-2000nm band.

EDFA (Erbium Doped Fiber Amplifier)

EDFA has been commercially available for use since about 1990. It
performs best in the band from 1530 nm to 1565 nm. It provides gain of up
to 30dB. As shown in the figure-1, Erbium Doped Fiber is pumped using
semiconductor laser either at 980 nm or at 1480 nm.
When the stimulated emission gets dominated over spontaneous emission,
efficient amplification can be obtained. As we know that light gets absorbed
when it propagates through the medium. If the population at higher state of
energy is more than that at lower state, light will be amplified when it travels
from one end of fiber amplifier to the other end. Usually 980 nm pump is
preferred due to its low noise amplification characteristics over 1480nm
pump. But at 1480 nm wavelength silica fiber incur low loss and hence
pump can also propagate along with the input signal to be amplified. Pump
can also be placed remotely.

EDFAs are available in L band and C band. In L band EDFAs pump powers
are higher than the L band EDFAs. Gain equalizing filter is employed if
required at the output of the EDFA to equalize the gain over the bandwidth
of interest. Following are the typical specifications of the EDFA type of
optical amplifier.

EDFA specifications

•   Gain of about 40dB or greater

•   Wavelength in the range from 1530 nm to 1560 nm
•   Maximum saturation of about 22 dBm
•   Noise figure in the order of 5dB
•   Pump power of about about 25 dBm
•   bandwidth (3dB) - 30 to 60
•   Polarization sensitivity not available with EDFA
EDFAs will provide high pump utilization of power and is used along with
optical filters to equalize the gain response. There are so many merits of
EDFA but as they are not small, they can not be seamlessly integrated with
other semiconductor devices in the chain.

SOA (semiconductor optical amplifier)

Photons travelling from active region can cause electrons to lose energy in
the form of released photons and if wavelength of these photons matches
the initial photons, amplification can be achieved. This can be achieved by
passing electric current through the device. Due to this principal optical
signal which is passing from active region will be amplified with gain of
certain order.

SOA specifications

•   Gain of about 30dB or greater

•   Wavelength in the range from 1280 nm to 1650 nm
•   Maximum saturation of about 18 dBm
•   Noise figure in the order of 8 dB
•   Pump power of about less than 400 mA
•   bandwidth (3dB) - 60
•   Polarization sensitivity available with SOA
Figure-3 depicts the application of EDFA in CATV transmission and
reception. As shown in the figure, CATV signal is being amplified by EDFA
with the gain of 10dB. Later optical splitter is used to split the signal so that
individual connections are provided to the users.

Question -7: Explain the function of optical isolator and optical

circulator in fiber optic communication system.

Answer -7: Optical isolator passes optical signal in one direction and
blocks the signal coming from the other direction. Optical circulator couples
the signal from one port to the next port, but only in one durection i.e. either
clockwise or anti-clockwise.

Optoisolator basics
Optoisolator is the isolator used for optical communication. It is basically a
passive and non-reciprocal device. Opto-isolator passes light in only one
direction and blocks light in the other direction.
Figure 1 depicts simple schematic of opto-isolator consisting LED, dielectric
barrier in between and phototransistor (sensor).

Optical isolators are employed at the amplifier/laser output which helps

prevent light reflections to enter these optical devices backwards. Hence it
improves the performance of amplifier and other optical components.
Basic parameters to be considered for selecting isolator are insertion loss
and isolation. Insertion loss should be less and isolation should be high.
Insertion loss is the loss in the forward direction for the light signal to pass
though as desired. Isolation is the loss in the backward direction to block
the light signal to prevent degrades the performance of preceding devices
in the chain. Typically isolation will be in the order of 40 dB to 50 dB and
insertion loss will be in the order of 1dB.

Let us understand working of polarized type of isolator as shown in the

figure-2. There are two modes of polarization based on electric field vector
orientation with respect to the direction of light propagation. If the vector is
perpendicular to the direction it is referred as vertical SOP (State Of
Polarization) of the light. Let us assume as shown in the figure, that
incoming light signal has vertical SOP and polarizer passes light only
having vertical SOP and blocks the light having horizontal SOP. The rotator
in the middle rotates the light signal by 45 degree clockwise irrespective to
the input signal direction. Polarizer on the right passes the light signal with
45 degree of orientation and hence light signal will be passed from left to
the right without much of attenuation.

The light entering from right towards left is shifted by 45 degree and hence
will have horizontal SOP which is blocked by polarizer on the left as it
passes only vertical SOP. As we do not have control over SOP of the input
light signal this type of isolator is not suitable.

For this purpose polarization independent isolator has been designed. The
same is depicted in the figure-3. First the signal will be passed from SWP
(Spatial Walk-off Polarizer) made of two birefringent crystals having two
different refractive indexes. When light signal having random SOP is
applied as input to these crystals two orthogonal components are refracted
having two different angles. These two light components go through rotator
and half wave plate with each providing 45 degree drift. Remember that
half wave plate provides 45 degree phase shift in clockwise direction for the
signal travelling from left to the right but in anticlockwise direction for the
signal from right to the left. This results into total drift of 90 degree from left
to right. Hence combination of faraday rotator along with half wave plate
converts vertical polarization into horizontal polarization and vice versa.
In the reverse direction i.e. from right to the left, SOP of the light signal will
not change as rotator and half wave plate cancel the phase change
introduced by each other as one introduces phase shift in clockwise and
the other in anticlockwise direction. Typical specifications of polarization
insensitive isolator are summarized below.

Typical specifications to be considered for Optical Isolator

•   Number of Ports (2 ports)

•   Single Grade or Dual Grade(P or A)
•   Operating Wavelength(1310/1480/1550/1585/1590nm)
•   Bandwidth (+/- 15 nm or +/-30 nm)
•   Peak Isolation (Min. 40 dB)
•   Insertion Loss (Typically about 0.4dB )
•   Return Loss ( about 60dB)
•   PDL (about 0.05 to 0.15 dB)
•   PMD in ps (about 0.05 to 0.25)
•   Power handling (about 300mW)
Optocirculator basics
The optocirculator is the circulator used for optical communication. It is
similar to the isolator. Optical Isolator inserts resistance to the reverse
signal by way of insertion loss, optical circulator takes the light on one
port and guides it out to the non reciprocal port.
While in isolator there are only 2 ports, circulator has 3 ports or 4 ports.
Both the 3 port and 4 port circulators are depicted in the figure-1. As shown
in the figure, signal incident on port 1 is passed out from port 2, similarly
signal incident on port 2 is passed out from port 3 and input to port 3 is
passed out from port 1. The same is applicable for 4-port circulator. There
are circulators available either for clockwise direction or for anticlockwise
direction. They are basically used to create bidirectional optical link as
shown in the figure-2. It also provides add and drop functionality in optical
multiplexer and optical de-multiplexer.

As shown in the figure-2, signal (marked in pink) from left to right is

transmitted through two circulators having 3 ports and signal from right to
left marked in blue is transmitted in the other direction over the same fiber
optic cable. This forms the bidirectional link using circulators. From the
figure it is derived that port-1 acts as INPUT port, port-3 as OUTPUT port
and port-2 as both INPUT/OUTPUT port. Hence transmitter-1 and 2 can
transmit signal with wavelength 1550 nm on port-1 simultaneously and the
same can be received on the respective other sides on port-3.

Optical circulators are widely used in fiber amplification systems, WDM

networks, OTDRs (optical time-domain reflectometers), covering
unidirectional optical link to the bidirectional link and test and measurement
instruments.

Typical Specifications for Optical Circulator:

•   Number of Ports( 3 or 4 ports)

•   Grade type ( P or A)
•   Central Wavelength (1310nm or 1550nm)
•   Insertion loss (0.6/0.8) over +/- 20 nm bandwidth
•   Isolation (min.40dB)
•   Directivity (60 dB)
•   Return Loss (60 dB)
•   Power handling limit (300 mW)
•   Max. WDL (0.2 dB)
•   Max. PDL (0.1 dB)
•   Max. PMD (0.1 ps)
Question -8: Explain SDH network and describe SDH modulation.
Answer -8:
Refer SDH Network basics➤ and SDH Modulation basics➤

SDH Networks-Linear,Ring
This page of SDH networks describes type of SDH networks which include
two fibre ring and four fibre ring. It explains unidirectional and bi-directional
ring concepts used in SDH network.
As shown in the figure-1, simple SONET/SDH network is composed of
sequence nodes referred as Add/Drop Multiplexers (ADMs). There will be
either two fibres or four fibres connected between them. In case of four
fibres one set acts as protection or back up pair.

In the case of linear network even if both sets of fibres were used between
the nodes there will be possibility of both getting cut at the same time and
communication services will be hampered. The most common topology is
of type ring network in SDH. They are most popular as they provide
alternate path to communicate between two nodes. A two fibre ring can be
operated either as unidirectional ring or as bi-directional ring.

In unidirectional case, traffic is limited to one fibre and flows only in one
direction. The second fibre is used as protection fibre. In uni-direction case,
there will be propagation delay (PD) between two nodes. As shown in the
figure, if node B sends traffic to node A the PD is one link and if node A
sends to node B then it will be 3 links.
In four fibres case, one set is working fibre and the other set is protection
fibre. Also data flows in both the direction and hence propagation delay
between nodes will be less.

SDH Modulation
This page of SDH modulation covers ON OFF Keying modulation
technique used in SDH/SONET optical communication network.
The basic modulation technique used in optic fibre is on off keying where in
light is off when binary zero is to be transmitted and it is on when binary
one is to be transmitted.

The simple method is to provide light emission for duration of "one" bit time
and stop light emission for duration of "zero" bit time. This method is
referred as NRZ or Non Return to Zero technique. Optical NRZ technique is
different than electrical one as there is no negative light as was the case of
negative voltage. In NRZ modulation, continuous long string of ones lead to
light on for the entire duration of the bits and for longer period. Hence this
cause receiver to lose timing synchronization and will lead to wrong
decoding of bits.

To avoid above problem RZ technique is employed. But RZ modulation

permits long string of zeros and reduces no. of photons seen by photo
detector by half for each of the bit period. Due to this RZ is not used for
long distance communication.

DC balance means average transmitted power is constant in optical

communication domain. For long distance communication NRZ technique
is used to minimize long string of ones and zeros to maintain DC balance.
The best way to avoid long string of ones and zeros are line coding and
scrambling.

Question -9: Explain SDH frame structure.

Answer -9: Refer SDH Frame Structure➤.

SDH Frame Structure

This page of SDH tutorial covers SDH frame structure and explains STS-1
SONET/SDH frame including interleaving concept, transport overhead and
payload overhead part of the SDH frame in depth.

The figure describes basic SONET STS-1 frame consisting of 9 rows and
90 columns. SONET frame is composed of 810 octets (bytes).
Transmission is carried out row wise from left to right and from top to
bottom. Bits are transmitted serially.
The STS-1 frame of SDH is composed of section overhead, transport
overhead, payload overhead and data part. The frame starts with fixed
A1/A2 bit pattern of 0xf628 used for bit/octet synchronization. SONET/SDH
is referred as octet synchronous. The first three columns of SONET frame
is referred as transport overhead. The next 87 columns of the frame are
referred as Synchronous payload envelope (SPE). Payload overhead is
part of SPE.

STS-1 data rate is about 51.84 Mbps. Let us examine how this has been
achieved. Every SONET/SDH frame repeats once every 125 micro-sec. 90
columns in 9 rows and 8000 times per second and 8 bits per octet give us
data rate of 51.84 Mbps. STS is the abbreviation of Synchronous Transport
Signal. STS-1 is referred as OC-1(Optical Carrier) after scrambling is done
on STS-1.

SDH/SONET Digital rate hierarchy table

SONET Rate SDH Line Rate Synchronous payload Transport

Name name (Mbps) envelope rate(Mbps) rate(M

STS-1 None 51.84 50.112 1.728

STS-3 STM-1 155.52 150.336 5.184

STS-12 STM-4 622.08 601.344 20.736

STS-48 STM-16 2488.32 2405.376 84.672

STS-192 STM-64 9953.28 9621.504 331.776

STS-768 STM- 39813.12 38486.016 1327.104

 256
Interleaving in SONET/SDH

STS-3 frame is formed using three STS-1 frames with the help of
interleaving technique. The interleaving is octet type i.e. A1 octet from
1st,2nd and 3rd STS-1 frame is taken first then A2 octet from all these
three frames are taken and transmitted.

Transport Overhead

Framing octets (A1,A2) :

These two octets are used to determine start of the SDH frame. A1 is 0xf6
and A2 is 0x28 hexadecimal values.

Section Trace (J0) :

It is used allow connected sections to verify whether the connection is still
alive and with the right terminations or not.

Pariry (B1) :
This parity octet is used by the receiver for bit error rate estimation. As this
is of 8 bits, 8 parities are calculated.

Order Wire (E1) :

This is not used today. This was used by technicians to test the system
while installation.

Section User Channel (F1) :

This is used by the network service provider. The octet is carried over from
section to section within the line.
Section Data Communication Channel (D1,D2,D3) :
These octets form a communication channel to send administrative
messages. These are considered as single 192 kbps message. Used for
maintenance, control, alarm, monitor, administration and the other need of
communication between section terminating equipments.

Pointers and Pointer Action (H1, H2, H3) :

These are used to point to the payload (SPE). They provide flags to
indicate about changes to payload location and provide location for the
data.

Line Parity (B2) :

B2 Octet is used for bit error rate estimation.

Automatic Protection Switching (APS) channel (K1,K2) :

These two octets are used for APS signalling between line level entities.
APS stands for Automatic Protection Switching.

Line Data Communications Channel (D4-D12) :

D4 to D12 octets form communication channel to send administrative
messages. Used for line data communication and consider as single
576kbps message based channel. Used for maintenance, control,
monitoring, administration, alarms as well as communication need between
line terminating entities.

Synchronization messaging (S1) :

It is used for transporting synchronization status messages and defined for
STS-1 of the STS-N signal. Bits 5 to 8 are used for this purpose.
STS-1 REI(M0) :
This octet sends no. of errors detected by B octets back to the transmitter.
This helps in knowing line status as well as receiver status.

STS-N REI (M1) :

The function is same as listed in M0 above.

OrderWire (E2) :
The function is same as listed above for E1.
Payload Overhead

The first column in synchronous payload envelope (SPE) is referred as

Payload overhead (POH). It consists of Path Trace (J1), Path BIP-8(B3),
STS Path Signal Label (C2), Path Status (G1), Path user channel (F2),
Multi-frame indicator (H4), growth octets(Z3,Z4) and N1 fields.

Path Trace (J1):

It helps two ends to verify the connection status (live or not) and check
whether it is connected with right terminations. It is used to transmit STS
path Access point identifier repetitively, Hence path receiving terminal can
verify its continued connection with intended transmitter. 64 byte frame is
used for the purpose.

Path BIP-8(B3):
It is used by the receiver for BER estimation. It is calculated over all the bits
of previous STS SPE before the scrambling process.

STS Path Signal Label (C2):

This indicates type of traffic carried in the payload part of the SDH frame.

Path Status (G1):

It is used to convey path terminating status/performance back to the
transmitter (Originating STS PTE). PTE stands for Path Terminating
Equipment.

Path user channel (F2):

It is used for user communication similar to F1 octet in transport overhead.

Multi-frame indicator (H4):

It provides generalized multi-frame indicator for the payloads. The first
purpose of this indicator is for VT structured payload. The second purpose
is for support of virtual concatenation of STS-1 SPEs.

Growth octets (Z3,Z4):

Reserved for future use.

N1 fields:
This octet is used to allocate support for tandem connection maintenance
and tandem connection data link.
Question -10: Explain PDH frame structure.

Answer -10: Refer PDH Frame Structure➤.

PDH Frame Structure

This page of tutorial covers PDH frame structure. It covers 2Mbps, 8
Mbps, 34 Mbps and 140 Mbps PDH frames in detail with all the fields.
Frame alignment is very important in PDH which is done by inserting FAS
word at the start and at the end. These words help in synchronization and
to hence to find the beginning of the frame.

Frame synchronization for 2Mbps is done using FAS word at the beginning
of each odd frame and at the beginning of all the frames for rest of the rate
hierarchies. Fixed binary pattern '0011011' is used as FAS.

2.048 Mbps frame

Multi frame in 2Mbps rate is composed of 16 frames and each one has 32
bytes. The first time slot is for the control and 16th channel is used for
signalling. The frame period is 125 micro-sec then 1 byte is 8 bit/125micro-
sec. This gives 64 kbps channel. The transmission rate for 32 such channel
is about 2.048 Mbps. The other parameters for this rate of PDH frames are
as follows:

Basic Binary rate -2048kbps +/- 50 ppm

Line coding -HDB3
Frame length-256 bits
Available bits/slot -8 bits
Multiplexing type - Octet Interleaving
Frame Rate-8000 frames/sec
FAS bits rate-28000bit/sec (without supervision bits)
2Mbps frame is the most commonly used. All the European networks
support this type of frame. Most of the narrow band networks are built over
this type of frame. The most common networks are POTS, Frame Relay, N-
ISDN, GSM, ATM and leased lines.

PDH Applications
PDH networks provide circuits to the public as well as private networks
which include POTS,GSM,ISDN,FRL,video,audio and data. 2Mbps frame
format is used to build synchronization network.

PDH is also used in test and measurement for in-service and out of service
measurements.

DWDM tutorial | Tutorial on DWDM basics

This DWDM tutorial covers DWDM basics including DWDM transmitter and
receiver. The tutorial on DWDM also describes optical fiber basics, optical
amplifier(EDFA) and other system components.

DWDM stands for Dense Wavelegth Division Multiplexing. It is basically

optical multiplex technique. This helps combine multiple discrete transport
channels of different wavelengths and transmit them on a single optic fibre.
For example, if we multiplex 32 signals of STM-1 level, then optic fibre
capacity will be increased from 2.5Gbps to 80 Gbps.

Figure depicts transmitter and receiver of a DWDM system. Information

signals in the form of binary data are converted into corresponding
wavelengths of light. These are later multiplexed using coupler and
multiplexer devices as shown. Optical isolator is used to minimise back
reflection. This information is amplified using EDFA before being
transmitted over single optic fibre cable. As signal need to be travelled 50-
100 km and in order to withstand path loss amplification to the signal is a
must.

Optical circulator along with FBG is employed to add or to drop some

channels. WDM is used if we need to combine 1550nm signals with
1310nm signal. At the receiver demultiplexing is carried out and 1310nm
signal is extracted from the combined signals.

At the receiver DWDM demultiplexer is employed to seperate out all os thr

1550nm signals.

Optic fibre

Due to availability of optical amplifiers at 1550nm and less attenuation at

1550nm DWDM systems operates at C band. The C band ranges from
1530 to 1565 nm. Due to higher dispersion conventional fibres are not used
at these wavelengths. Hence dispersion compensating fibres or zero
dispersion fibres as per ITU G.653 are used. ITU G.655 compliant fibre has
been used due to lower dispersion and high speed of transmission over
long distance.This dispersion is such that it can suppress nonlinearity(four
wave multiplexing). Optic cables as per ITU-G.652 is used for access
network while ITU G.655 is use for backbone network. Most of the systems
use combination of both.

Optical amplifier(EDFA)

In DWDM system, post amplifier is used at the transmitter to boost the

signal while pre-amplifier is used to boost the signals at the receiver side.
EDFA is used as in-line amplifier before signal gets completely degraded.
EDFA is mainly used to boost the signal in the 1530nm to 1570nm
spectrum region.

With EDFA signal need not to be converted back to electrical form before
being regenerated. EDFA uses laser source of either 980 nm or 1480 nm
wavelength and amplification of about 30dB can be achieved.

What is PDMA?
This page describes what is PDMA or Polarisation Division Multiple Access
and PDMA application.
There are many multiple access techniques evolved for sharing the
common resources among multiple subscribers or users or clients. These
include FDMA,TDMA,CDMA,OFDMA etc. PDMA is also multiple access
technique which separates the signals using different polarisation type of
teh antenna. PDMA uses vertical and horizontal polarisation as shown in
the figure.
This helps two different signals share the same frequency without resulting
into any interference issue between them as both will be transmitting
different polarised signals. Typically satellite communication systems
employ this PDMA technique.

The fibre optic communication system employs DP-QPSK referred as Dual

Polarisation Quadrature Phase Shift Keying for multiplexing. This technique
help increase the data rates over single fibre optic cable. To achieve this
high speed data first is divided into slow data streams, which later vertically
and horizontally polarised before transmission.