Unit I : Optical Fibers for Telecommunication (8 hrs)

Fundamentals of Optical Communication: EM spectrum – Optical Spectral bands, Shannon

channel capacity, power units (watts, dB & dBm), Block diagram of optical fiber communications link,
advantages of optical fibers.

Optical Fiber Waveguides: Introduction, Total internal reflection, acceptance angle, numerical aperture,
fiber types, mode theory for circular waveguides: overview of modes & key modal concepts (V number,
number of modes, power in clad), single mode fibers, cutoff wavelength

Transmission characteristics of optical fibers:

Attenuation, material absorption, scattering losses, fiber bend loss,loss due to fiber misalignment,
splices and connectors;

Signal distortion – intermodal delay, intramodal dispersion or chromatic dispersion, modal delay, bit rate-
distance product, plot of material & waveguide dispersions for standard single mode, dispersion shifted and
dispersion flattened fibers; optical fibers for 5G networks, comparison.
 EM spectrum - Optical Spectral bands

Designations of spectral bands used for OFC

Ref: T1:
 Source: https://api.ctia.org/wp-
content/uploads/2018/06/what-is-spectrum-
graphic.png

The spectrum of electromagnetic radiation Spectral band designations used in optical fiber communications
Bit rate-distance Product
- A commonly used
figure of merit for
communication
systemsis the bit
rate–distance product,
BL, where B is the bit
rate and L is the
repeater spacing.
- An increase of several
orders of magnitude in
the BL product would
be possible if optical
waves are used as
the carrier.

-Increase in bit rate–distance product BL during the period 1850–2000.

-The emergence of a new technology is marked by a solid circle.
Formulae: Sample Numericals:

1. Calculate the
frequency carrier
communicationfor
operating at 0.88,optical
1.3,
and 1.55 µm. What systems
is the
photon energy (in eV) in
each case?
2. What are the energies in
electron volts (eV) of
light at wavelengths 850,
1310, 1490,and 1550
nm?
https://www.informit.com/content/images/chap2_0201760320/elementLinks/02fig08.gif
Basic Construction of a Fiber Optic Cable
https://blog.biamp.com/

•400 nm to 770 nm Visible light

•770 nm to 1700 nm Infrared
light
 Shannon Channel Capacity

- In the analysis of any communication network, an important factor is channel capacity

(maximum rate at which data can be sent across a channel from source to destination).
- Shannon-Hartley Theorem/Shannon Limit: reveals the limit to information carrying
capacity in bits per second. If a channel has a bandwidth B (Hz) then the maximum
information-carrying capacity C of that channel is given by:

C = BW log2(1 +SNR)
 Shannon Channel Capacity

C = BW log2(1 +SNR)

- In practice this capacity cannot be reached.

- Considers only thermal noise & does not consider impulse noise, attenuation, delay distortion.
- Raising the signal strength increases nonlinear effects in the system, which leads to higher
noise power.
- Increasing the bandwidth BW decreases the SNR, since wider the bandwidth the more noise is
introduced in the system.
Formulae: Sample Numericals:

1. Calculate the maximum

capacity for a
channel with noisy a 1
bandwidth in which the
MHz
signal-to-noise ratio is 1.
2. Calculate the capacity of a
channel that operates
between 3 MHz and 4 MHz
and in which the signal-to-
noise ratio is 20 dB
 Power Units

Periodically placed amplifiers compensate for energy losses along a

link

Example of pulse attenuation in a link. P1 and P2 are the power levels of a signal at points 1
and 2
Formulae: Sample Numericals:

1. Convert the following decibel

power gains to absolute power
gains: – 30 dB, 0 dB, 13 dB, 30
dB, 10n dB.
2. Convert the following absolute
power levels to dBm values: 1
pW, 1 nW, 1 mW, 10 mW, 50
mW.
3. Convert the following dBm
values to power levels in units
of mW: – 13 dBm, –6 dBm, 6
dBm, 17 dBm.
 Block Diagram-OFC Link

Main constituents of an optical fi ber communications link

Main constituents of an optical fiber communications link

OFC-based Optical Link of ‘80s
Operating ranges of Components
 Advantages of Optical Systems at a Glance

• Enormous capacity: 1.3 µm ... 1.55 µm allocates bandwidth of 37 THz!! https://in.rsdelivers.com

/
•Low transmission loss: – Optical fiber loss can be as low as 0.2 dB/km. Compare to loss of coaxial cables: 10
… 300 dB/km

• Cables and equipment have small size and weight.

•A large number of fibers fit easily into an optical cable .
•Applications in special environments as in aircrafts, satellites, ships.
•Immunity to interference–Nuclear power plants, hospitals, EMP (Electromagnetic pulse) resistive systems
(installations for defense)
•Electrical isolation – electrical hazardous environments
– Negligible crosstalk
•Signal security–Banking, computer networks, military systems
•Silica fibers have abundant raw material
Applications Areas of Optical Fibers

• Submarine
• Long haul
• Short haul
• Subscriber
• In-building
Refractive Index (n) or Index of Refraction:

- A fundamental optical parameter of a material is the refractive index.

- In free space a light wave travels at a speed c = 3 x 10^8 m/s.
- The speed of light is related to the frequency 𝝂 and the wavelength 𝛌 by c = 𝝂
𝛌.
- Upon entering a dielectric or nonconducting medium the wave now travels at a speed

v, which is characteristic of the material and is less than c.

- The ratio of the speed of light in a vacuum to that in matter is the index of refraction n
of the material and is given by n = c/ʋ
Reflection and Refraction:
 Total Internal Reflection_ Meridional
ray representation
- Concept of Acceptance angle
- Numerical Aperture

- Concept of Critical angle :

Skew rays
Formulae: Sample Numericals:

1. Consider a multimode silica

fiber that has a core
refractive index n1 = 1.480
and a cladding index n2 =
1.460. Find (a) the critical
angle, the numerical
(b) and (c)
aperture, angle.
acceptance the
2. Consider a multimode
fiber thathas a core
refractive index of 1.480
and a core-cladding index
difference 2.0 percent (Δ=
0.020). Find
the (a)numerical aperture,
(b) the acceptance angle,
and ( c) the critical angle.
sin 〖 θc=(n2/
n1) 〗
Low-order-mode fields
Formulae: Sample Numericals:

1. Consider a multimode step-index

fiber with a 62.5-µm core
diameter and a core-cladding
index difference of 1.5 %. If the
core refractive index
is 1.480, estimate the normalized
frequency of the fiber and the
total number of
modes supported in the fiber at
a wavelength of 850 nm.
1. Find the core radius necessary
for single-mode operation at
1320 nm of a step-index fiber
with n1= 1.480 and n2= 1.478.
What are the numerical aperture
and acceptance angle of
this fiber?
Formulae: Sample Numericals:

1. Consider a multimode step-

index optical fiber that has
a core radius of 25 mm, a
core index of 1.48, and an
index difference Δ = 0.01.
Find percentage
the of power
propagates
optical in the cladding
that
at 840 nm.
2. A manufacturer wishes to
make a silica-core, step-
index fiber with V = 75 and
a numerical aperture NA =
0.30 to be used at 820 nm. If
n1 = 1.458, what should the
core size and cladding index
be?
Fiber Types & Comparison of fiber structures
Formulae: Sample Numericals:

1. Calculate the number of

modes at 820 nm and 1.3
µm in a graded-index fiber
having a parabolic-index
profile (𝛂= 2), a 25-mm core
radius, n1 = 1.48, and n2 =
1.46. How does this
compare to a step-index
fiber?
Formulae: Sample Numericals:

1. Calculate the coreradius

necessary for single-mode
operation at 1320 nm of a
step-index fiber with n1
= 1.480 and n2 = 1.478.
What are the numerical
aperture and acceptance
angle of this fiber?
1. A MMGI fiber has an
acceptance angle in air of
8°. Estimate the relative
refractive index difference
between the core axis and
the cladding when the
refractive index at the core
axis is 1.52
Transmission Characteristics - OFs
Formulae: Sample Numericals:

1. Consider a 30-km
long optical fiber that has
an attenuation of 0.4 dB/km
at 1310 nm. Calculate the
optical output power Pout if
200 µW of optical power is
launched into the fiber.
Attenuation- Signal Degradation in OFs
Single Mode Fibers: The characteristics of SMF are wavelength dependent. Whereas the attenuation of an
optical signal is lowest in the C-Band and lower in L-Band, Chromatic dispersion (CD) is least in O- band and
zero at ~1310nm. Chromatic dispersion (CD) increases as signal rate increases. Thus both attenuation and
chromatic dispersion limits the reach of the signal.
Single Mode Fibers: Access networks largely employ ITU-T G.652 single mode fibres (SMF). The
characteristic of single mode fibre with respect to attenuation and chromatic dispersion is given in the figure
over different optical bands.

Single mode fibre attenuation

and chromatic dispersion
 Fiber Bending Loss

Power Loss in Curved Fiber Microbending Loss

Bending effects on Loss
Mechanical misalignments

Longitudinal offset effect

Formulae: Sample Numericals:
Two SI fibers
following parameters:
exhibit the
a. A MM fiber with n1 = 1.5
and Δ = 3 % and
operating an
820 nm. wavelength of
b. An 8 µm core diameter SM
fiber with n1 same as in (a),
and a Δ = 0.3 % and an
operating wavelength of
1550 Estimate the
nm.
critical radius of curvature
at which large bending
losses occur both
in cases. For indoor FTTx
applications which of the
above would
two
preferred & why? be
Formulae:
Formulae: Sample Numericals:

a. An OF has core
refractive index of 1.5.
Two lengths fiber
of with
smooth
perpendicular (to the
and
core axes) end faces
are butted together.
Assuming the fibers
are perfectly aligned,
calculate the optical
loss in dB at the joint
(due to Fresnel
reflection) when there
is small air gap
between the fiber end
faces.
• Fiber dispersion results in optical pulse broadening and hence digital
signal degradation.
Fiber Dispersion – Bit Errors
•Pulse broadening limits transmission
capability.
 Chromatic Dispersion
•Chromatic dispersion (CD) may occur in all types of optical fiber. The optical pulse broadening
results from the finite spectral line width of the optical source and the modulated carrier.

In the case of the semiconductor laser Δλ corresponds to

only a fraction of % of the centre wavelength λ0.
For LEDs, Δλ is likely to be a significant % of λ0.
 Spectral Line Width
• Real sources emit over a range of wavelengths. This range is the source line width

or spectral width.
•The smaller the line width, the smaller is the spread in wavelengths or
frequencies, the more coherent is the source.
• An ideal perfectly coherent source emits light at a single wavelength. It has zero
line width and is perfectly monochromatic.

Light Sources Line Width (nm)

Light-emitting diodes 20-100

Semiconductor laser diodes 1-5

 Chromatic Dispersion

•Pulse broadening occurs because there may be propagation delay differences among the spectral components of the
transmitted signal.
•Different spectral components of a pulse travel at different group velocities
 Chromatic dispersion

Example: GaAlAs LED is used at 𝛌 0 =1 µm. The source has a spectral width of 40
nm and its material dispersion is Dmat(1µm)=40 ps/(nm x km). How much is its
pulse spreading in 25 km distance?
 Modal Dispersion in Multimode Fibers
•When numerous waveguide modes are propagating, they all
travel with different velocities with respect to the waveguide
axis.
•An input waveform distorts during propagation because its
energy is distributed among several modes, each traveling at a
different speed.
•Parts of the wave arrive at the output before other parts,
spreading out the waveform. This is thus known as multimode
(modal) dispersion.

• Multimode dispersion does not depend on the source linewidth (even a single wavelength can be
simultaneously carried by multiple modes in a waveguide).
• Multimode dispersion would not occur if the waveguide allows only one mode to propagate - the advantage
of single-mode waveguides!
 How does dispersion restrict the bit rate?
•As soon as pulses overlap due to broadening, the information can not be recovered properly.
•When this happens, depends on bandwidth and length of the transmission as well as on refractive index of the
core, cladding, and many more parameters.
• Bit rate-distance product: The Modal Bandwidth
–If a system is capable of transmitting 10 Mb/s over a distance of 1 km, it is said to have a BRD product of 10
MHz km.
–Note: the same system can transmit 100 Mb/s along 100m, or 1 Gb/s along 10m, … –Fiber specifications are due
to the BRD-product:
Transmissio 100 Mb Ethernet 1 Gb 10 Gb 40 Gb Ethernet 100 Gb Ethernet
n Etherne Ethernet
Standards t
OM1 (62.5/125) up to 2000 m 275 m 33 m Not supported Not supported

OM2 (50/125) up to 2000 m 550 m 82 m Not supported Not supported

OM3 (50/125) up to 2000 m 550 m 300 m 100 m 100 m

OM4 (50/125) up to 2000 m 1000 m 550 m 150 m 150 m

 Determining Link bit rate

•Link bit rate limited by

–linewidth (bandwidth) of the optical source
–rise time of the optical source and detector
–dispersion (linear/nonlinear) properties of the fiber
•All above cause pulse spreading that reduces link bandwidth
 Chromatic dispersion
• Chromatic dispersion (or material dispersion) is produced when different
frequencies of light propagate in fiber with different velocities.
• Therefore chromatic dispersion is larger the wider source bandwidth is. Thus it
is largest for LEDs (Light Emitting Diode) and smallest for LASERs (Light
Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation) diodes.
• LED BW is about 5% of 𝛌 0 , Laser BW about 0.1 % or below of 𝛌 0
• Optical fibers have dispersion minimum at 1.3 µm but their attenuation
minimum is at 1.55 µm. This gave motivation to develop dispersion shifted
fibers .
 Chromatic and Waveguide dispersion
•In addition to chromatic dispersion, there exists also waveguide dispersion that is
significant for single mode fibers in longer wavelengths
•Chromatic and waveguide dispersion are denoted as intra- modal dispersion and
their effects cancel each other at a certain wavelength.
•This cancellation is used in dispersion shifted fibers.
•Total dispersion is determined as the geometric sum of intra-modal and inter-modal
(or mode) dispersion with the net pulse spreading:
Plot of Material & Waveguide Dispersions
SM Fiber Dispersions
Formulae: Sample Numericals:

1. Consider a 1-km long

multimode step-index fiber
in which n1 = 1.480 and Δ =
0.01, so that n2 = 1.465.
What is the modal delay per
length in this fiber?
Formulae: Sample Numericals:

1. A manufacturer’s data sheet

lists the material dispersion
Dmat of a GeO2-doped fiber
to be 110 ps/(nm.km) at a
wavelength of 860 nm. Find
the rms pulse broadening per
kilometer due to material
dispersion if the optical source
is a GaAlAs LED that has a
spectral width 𝞼𝛌of 40 nm at an
output wavelength of 860 nm.
 https://community.fs.com/blog/itu-t-

standards-for-various-optical-
fibers.html

- There are seven common ITU-T

Recommendations currently in effect at the
date of its publication:
- ITU-T G.651.1, ITU-T G. 652, ITU-T G.653, ITU-
T G.654, ITU-T G.655, ITU-T G.656, and ITU-T
G.657.
 Optical Fibers for 5G Networks

• 5G is the next global wireless network, the latest mobile network technology,
which connects billions of people and things. In addition to machines, objects,
and gadgets, 5G networks are intended to connect virtually everyone and
everything.

• 5G networks' enhanced bandwidth capacity, lower latency requirements and

complicated outdoor deployments bring challenges as well as unlimited
possibilities for optical fiber manufacturers, but our optical networks must
quickly adapt to meet such new demands.
 Optical Fibers for 5G Networks
Using 5G, we can enhance our lives by getting :
• faster downloads,
• lower latency, and
• more capacity and connectivity for billions of devices (especially in the fields of
virtual reality, the Internet of Things, and artificial intelligence)

• For example, you may access a variety of new and enhanced services, including
near-instant access to cloud services, multiplayer cloud gaming, augmented
reality shopping, real-time video translation and collaboration, and much more.
 5 Types of Optical Fibers for 5G Networks
https://community.fs.com/blog/5-types-of-optical-fibers-for-5g-
networks.html
• It's known that 5G networks will offer consumers high-speed and low-latency services with
more reliable and stronger connections.
• But to make this happen, more 5G base stations have to be built due to the higher 5G frequency
band and limited network coverage.
• And it's estimated that by 2025, the total number of global 5G base stations will reach 6.5
million, which puts forward higher requirements for the optical fiber cable performance and
production.
 5 Types of Optical Fibers for 5G Networks

1. Bend Insensitive Optical Fiber for Easy 5G Indoor Micro Base

Stations

2. OM5 Multimode Fiber Applied to 5G Core Networks

3. Micron Diameter Optical Fibers Enable Higher Fiber Density

4. ULL Fiber with Large Effective Area Can Extend 5G Link Length

5. Optical Fiber Cable for Faster 5G Network Installation

 Submarine Cables: Light weight (LW) Submarine OF
Cable:

- These are types of cables that are used at 8000 meters’ depth of sea. It is suitable for
laying, recovery, and operation, where no special protection is required.
- At such depth the cables are to be protected mainly against strong sea bottom
currents, for this purpose the cables are provided with an extra layer of 2 to 3mm
diameter steel wires.
- These cables provide 1000 times abrasion resistance than Light Weight Protected (LWP).
 Fibers for LAN, MAN, and access networks

Application of G652D fibers:

● ITU-T G652D single-mode fibers are primarily used in networking
and communication.
● These G652D fibers have eliminated the water peak for the complete spectrum.
Hence, you can use both 1310 nm and 1550 nm. Therefore, you can use these
fibers for Coarse Wavelength Division Multiplexing (CWDM) transmissions.
Technical Specification of Fibre-ITU-T G.652.D
 MOOC/NPTEL Courses

1. NPTEL Course on “Advanced Optical Communication”, by Prof R K Shevgaonkar, IIT Madras

Link of the Course: https://nptel.ac.in/courses/117101002
2. NPTEL Course on “Fiber Communication Technology”, by Prof Deepa Venkitesh, IIT Madras
Link of the Course: https://nptel.ac.in/courses/108106167
3.NPTEL Course on “Fiber- Optic Communication Systems & Techniques”, by Dr Pradeep Kumar K, IIT
Kanpur
Link of the Course: https://nptel.ac.in/courses/108104113
 References

•Text Books:
1. Gerd Keiser, “Optical Fiber Communications” , 4th Edition, Tata McGraw Hill.
2. John M Senior, “Optical Fiber Communications”, 2nd Edition, PHI.

•Reference Books:
1.Djafar K Mynbaev and Lowell L Scheiner, “Fiber Optic Communications Technology”, 1stEdition, Pearson
Education.
2. Uyless Black, “Optical Networks- Third Generation Transport Systems,Pearson Education.
3. Govind P Agrawal, “Fiber Optic Communication Systems”, 3rd Edition, Wiley India.
● Internet Resources