Optical Fiber Communication Systems and

Applications
Tonmoy Hassan
Department of EEE
American International University-Bangladesh (AIUB)
Dhaka, Bangladesh
18-37777-2@student.aiub.edu

Abstract— This research paper is all about optical

communication system and its applications. It describe the
optical communication system working principle,
classification, different type of components used in optical
communication system and its application.

Keywords— communication, application, optical fiber,

light Introduction
The main purpose of this paper is to know about the
optical communication systems and its application. An
optical fiber is a flexible, transparent fiber created by
pulling glass (silica) or plastic to a diameter slightly larger
than a human hair. Optical fibers are commonly used to
convey light between two ends of a fiber and are widely
employed in fiber-optic communications, where they allow
transmission over greater distances and at higher
bandwidths (data transfer speeds) than electrical lines.
Fibers are utilized instead of metal wires because they
carry signals with minimal loss; also, fibers are immune to
electromagnetic interference, which metal cables suffer
from. Fibers are also employed for lighting and imaging,
and are frequently bundled in bundles to convey light into
or pictures out of limited locations, as in the case of a
fiberscope. Specially engineered fibers are also employed
in a wide range of other applications, including fiber optic
sensors and fiber lasers. Typically, optical fibers have a
core surrounding by a transparent cladding material with a
lower index of refraction. The property of complete
internal reflection keeps light in the core, causing the fiber
to operate as a waveguide [1].
Figure: Optical Fiber [2]
B. Characteristics and Behavior
Light waves travel in a straight line like microwaves
do. The speed of light depends upon the medium through
which the light passes. When light passes through another
material such as glass, its speed becomes slower. Light
rays travel at the speed of light, which is generally
considered to be 300,000,000 m/s in free space. Light
travels down a fiber optic cable by bouncing off the walls
of the cable repeatedly. Each light particle (photon)
bounces down the pipe with continued internal mirror-like
reflection. The light beam travels down the core of the
cable. The core is the middle of the cable and the glass
structure. The cladding is another layer of glass wrapped
around the core. Cladding is there to keep the light signals
inside the core.

I. THEORY Total Internal Reflection is an optical phenomenon that

occurs when a ray of light strikes a medium boundary at
A. Optical Fiber an angle larger than the critical angle with respect to the
Fiber optics, often known as optical fiber, is a normal to the surface.
technique that transports data as light pulses via a glass or
plastic fiber. A fiber optic cable can have anywhere from a
few to several hundred of these glass fibers. The glass fiber
core is surrounded by another glass layer known as
cladding. The cladding is protected by the buffer tube
layer, and the individual strand is protected by the jacket
layer. Because of their benefits over copper connections,
fiber optic cables are widely employed. Higher bandwidth
and transmission speeds are among the advantages. Fiber
optics is employed in high-performance, long-distance data
networking. It is also widely utilized in Figure: How Light Travel in a Cable[3]
telecommunications services including the internet,
television, and phones. Verizon and Google, for example,
employ fiber optics in their Verizon FIOS and Google
Fiber services, respectively, to provide subscribers with If the refractive index is lower on the other side of the
Gigabit internet speeds. boundary no light can pass through, so effectively all of
the light is reflected. The critical angle is the angle of
incidence above which the total internal reflection occurs.

XXX-X-XXXX-XXXX-X/XX/$XX.00 ©20XX IEEE


Figure: Critical Angle[4]
Acceptance angle, θc , is the maximum angle in which
external light rays may strike the air/Fiber interface and
still propagate down the Fiber with <10dB loss.
Figure: Acceptance Cone[5]
Numerical aperture is a measurement of the ability of an
optical fiber to capture light.
C. Principle and Working of Optical Fiber
Light pulses are conveyed from one end of an optical
fiber to the other via a flexible, transparent plastic or glass
fiber. High-speed and long-distance services can be
provided using a fiber optic network. Fiber optic cables are
often utilized in telecommunications services including the
Internet, phone, and television. Many of the benefits of
fiber optic connections are not available with copper lines.
The cables transport data more faster and have a higher
bandwidth. An optical fiber has several glass components,
which can range from a few to a few hundred. The fiber
cable in this scenario is made up of a coating of glass
called cladding that surrounds the glass fiber core.
Furthermore, the cladding is protected by a tube called as a
buffer tube. The jacket layer is the strand's ultimate
protective coating.
 Core- It is a thin piece of glass located near the
center of the fiber on which the light is
transmitted.
 Cladding- A glass core surrounds a material on
the outside called the outer material. During
normal operation, the outer material reflects light
back into the core.
 Buffer Coating- Fibers are protected by a plastic
coating that prevents damage from the elements.
Optical fibers function using the total internal reflection
concept. There is an issue here: light beams move in
straight lines, which makes carrying vast amounts of data
problematic. As a result, without a long straight wire with
no bends, leveraging this advantage will be extremely
difficult. To compensate for this distortion, optical cables
are built with all light beams bent inward (using TIR).
Light rays bounce off the walls and convey data from one
end to the other of the optical cables. Lights fade across
extended distances, depending on the purity of the
material, but at a far slower pace than metal wires. Fiber
Optic Relay Systems are composed of the following
components:
 Transmitter- Light signals are produced and
encoded in order to be transmitted.
 Optical Fiber- Light pulses (signals) are
transmitted through this medium.
 Optical Receiver- The receiver receives the
transmitted light pulses (signals) and decodes
them into usable signals.
 Optical Regenerator- Data transmission over long
distances requires this.
D. Fiber Optic Communication
General Light Wave System:
Communication systems that use high carrier
frequencies in the near IR region of visible spectrum are
called optical communication systems or general light
wave systems. Light wave system that employs optical
fibre as channel for information transmission is called
‘fibre Optics Communication Systems’. The technology to
which light is propagated through very fine cylindrical
hair like transparent fibres is called fibre optics. Optical
communication system or light wave system can be
broadly classified based on the nature of the
communication channel into two.
Figure: Basic Optical Fiber Communication System Block
Diagram[6]
Electrical Transmitter contains electrical stage which
drives an optical source to give modulation of light wave
carrier. Optical Source provides electrical to optical
conversion can be LED’s on laser. Requirements are:
 High output power
 High linearity
 Narrow spectral width
 High modulation rate
 Temperature stability
 Long life time
Optical fibres used as transmission medium to compensate
for losses during transmission repeaters or optical
amplifier can be used at regular intervals. Required
characteristics are low dispersion, lower fiber
nonlinearity, low attenuation, high optical signal-to-noise
ratio, large repeater span.
The optical detector detects and converts optical signal to
proportional electrical signal.
Eg: Photodiodes, Phototransistors etc.
Requirements are sensitive at operating wavelength,
requirements are sensitive at operating wavelength, low
power consumption and operating voltage, fast response
active area match fibre parameter, temperature stability
small size and cost capability of internal gain, low noise.
Repeaters and Optical Amplifier:
To compensate for signal degradation in long distance
convert optical signal to electrical signal, restores the
signal used then converting back to optical signal for
further transmission. This method increases cost,
complexity and reduces operational bandwidth. Optical
amplifiers simply amplify the optical signal. They provide
improved SNR due to all optical domain operation.
Fibre Couplers and Fibre Connectors are used to distribute
light from main fibre into one or more branches of fibres
and to convert one fibre with another[7].
II. TYPES OF OPTICAL FIBER
Optical fibers come in various types based on their
refractive indices, materials, and light propagation
modes.According to refractive index, the classification is
as follows:
 Step Index Fibers: They are characterized by a
core covered with a cladding that has a uniform
refractive index.
 Graded Index Fibers: Increasing distances from
the fiber axis cause the refractive index of the
optical fiber to decrease.
As a result of the materials used, it can be classified as
follows:
 Plastic Optical Fibers: Plastic optical fibers have a
polymethylmethacrylate core material.
 Glass Fibers: They are made of very fine glass
fibers.
The following is a classification of light based on its
propagation mode:
 Single-mode fibers are used to transmit signals
over long distances.
 Multimode fibers are used for short-distance
signal transmission.
There are four types of optic fibers depending on their
mode of propagation and refractive index, which are as
follows[8]:
 Step index-single mode fibers
 Graded index-Single mode fibers
 Step index-Multimode fibers
 Graded index-Multimode fibers
III. ADVANTAGE AND DISADVANTAGE
The advantages of optical fiber include the following.
 Bandwidth is higher than copper cables.
 Less power loss and allows data transmission for
longer distances.
 The optical cable is resistance for electromagnetic
interference
 The size of the fiber cable is 4.5 times better than
copper wires.
 These cables are lighter, thinner, and occupy less
area compare with metal wires.
 These cables are lighter, thinner, and occupy less
area compare with metal wires.
 These cables are lighter, thinner, and occupy less
area compare with metal wires.
 These cables are lighter, thinner, and occupy less
area compare with metal wires.
The disadvantages of optical fiber include the following:
 The optical fiber cables are very difficult to merge
& there will be a loss of the beam within the cable
while scattering.
 The Installation of these cables is cost-effective.
They are not as robust as the wires. Special test
equipment is often required to the optical fiber.
 These cables are more delicate than copper wires.
 Fiber optic cables are compact and highly
vulnerable while fitting
 Fiber optic cables are compact and highly
vulnerable while fitting
Because of its high transmission and data transfer capacity,
optical fiber is commonly used to replace metal cables in
data transmission. These cables are now utilized for a
number of purposes in industries such as communications,
broadcast, industrial, military, and medical. These cables
are used in place of coaxial and copper wires. These cables
are employed in a variety of applications due to their
advantages such as high speed and bandwidth [9].
 IV. CONCLUSION
In this paper, we have discussed the optical fiber
communication, how it works, its working principle, types
of optical fiber. Optical fiber technology has been used in
many areas of telecommunication, photonics, medical and
engineering. It has attracted many researchers due to its
performance, low loss, no interference, higher bandwidth
and its inherently high data-carrying capacity.
REFERENCES
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cable.png
[4] https://www.researchgate.net/publication/355432907/figure/fig4/A
S:1080978227372045@1634736701615/Shows-a-critical-angle-
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[5] https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Thiago-Cabral-
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core-index-of-refraction-Adapted.png
[6] https://img.brainkart.com/imagebk7/nJjJNqC.jpg
[7] https://www.electronicsandcommunications.com/2019/09/optical-
fiber-communication-system.html
[8] https://www.vedantu.com/physics/optical-fiber
[9] Fiber optic cables are compact and highly vulnerable while fitting