OPTICAL FIBER COMMUNICATION

An optical fiber cable is a cable containing one or more optical fibers. The optical fiber elements are typically individually coated with plastic layers and contained in a protective tube suitable for the environment where the cable will be deployed. An optical fiber is a flexible, transparent fiber made of very pure glass (silica) not much wider than a human hair that acts as a waveguide, or "light pipe", to transmit light between the two ends of the fiber. Optical fibers are widely used in fiber-optic communications, which permits transmission over longer distances and at higher bandwidths (data rates) than other forms of communication. Fibers are used instead of metal wires because signals travel along them with less loss and are also immune to electromagnetic interference. It has basic three parts:

Core: Thin Glass center of the Optical Fiber Cable where the light signal travels. Cladding: Outer Material surrounding the Reflects the light signals back into the core. Coating: Protects the Optical fiber from damage. core.

In practical fibers, the cladding is usually coated with a tough resin buffer layer, which may be further surrounded by a jacket layer, usually plastic. These layers add strength to the fiber but do not contribute to its optical wave guide properties. Rigid fiber assemblies sometimes put light-absorbing ("dark") glass between the fibers, to prevent light that leaks out of one fiber from entering another. This reduces cross-talk between the fibers, or reduces flare in fiber bundle imaging applications. Joining lengths of optical fiber is more complex than joining electrical wire or cable. The ends of the fibers must be carefully cleaved, and then spliced together either mechanically or by fusing them together with heat. Special optical fiber connectors for removable connections are also available. Optical fiber can be used as a medium for telecommunication and networking because it is flexible and can be bundled as cables. It is especially advantageous for long-distance communications, because light propagates through the fiber with little

attenuation compared to electrical cables. This allows long distances to be spanned with few repeaters. Each fiber can carry many independent channels, each using a different wavelength of light (wavelength-division multiplexing(WDM)). For short distance applications, such as a network in an office building, fiber-optic cabling can save space in cable ducts. This is because a single fiber can carry much more data than electrical cables such as standard category 5 Ethernet cabling, which typically runs at 1 Gbit/s. Fiber is also immune to electrical interference; there is no cross-talk between signals in different cables, and no pickup of environmental noise. Wiretapping (in this case, fiber tapping) is more difficult compared to electrical connections, and there are concentric dual core fibers that are said to be tap-proof.

Principle of operation An optical fiber is a cylindrical dielectric waveguide (nonconducting waveguide) that transmits light along its axis, by the process of total internal reflection. The fiber consists of a core surrounded by a cladding layer, both of which are made of dielectric materials. To confine the optical signal in the core, the refractive index of the core must be greater than that of the cladding. The boundary between the core and cladding may either be abrupt, in step-index fiber, or gradual, in graded-index fiber. Fiber refractive index profiles classify single mode and multimode fibers as follows: Multimode step-index fibers Multimode graded-index fibers Single mode step-index fibers Single mode graded-index fibers In a step-index fiber, the refractive index of the core is uniform and undergoes an abrupt change at the corecladding boundary. Step-index fibers obtain their name from this abrupt change called the step change in refractive index. In graded-index fibers, the refractive index of the core varies gradually as a function of radial distance from the fiber center. Multi mode fibre

Fiber with large core diameter (greater than 10 micrometers) may be analyzed by geometrical optics. Such fiber is called multi-mode fiber, from the electromagnetic analysis. In a step-index multi-mode fiber, rays of light are guided along the fiber core by total internal reflection. Rays that meet the core-cladding boundary at a high angle (measured relative to a line normal to the boundary), greater than the critical angle for this boundary, are completely reflected. The critical angle (minimum angle for total internal reflection) is determined by the difference in index of refraction between the core and cladding materials. Rays that meet the boundary at a low angle are refracted from the core into the cladding, and do not convey light and hence information along the fiber. The critical angle determines the acceptance angle of the fiber, often reported as a numerical aperture. Single mode fiber Fiber with a core diameter less than about ten times the wavelength of the propagating light cannot be modeled using geometric optics. Instead, it must be analyzed as an electromagnetic structure, by solution of Maxwell's equations as reduced to the electromagnetic wave equation. The electromagnetic analysis may also be required to understand behaviors such as speckle that occur when coherent light propagates in multi-mode fiber. As an optical waveguide, the fiber supports one or more confined transverse modes by which light can

propagate along the fiber. Fiber supporting only one mode is calledsingle-mode or mono-mode fiber. Single-mode fiber gives you a higher transmission rate and up to 50 times more distance than multimode, but it also costs more. Single-mode fiber has a much smaller core than multimode. The small core and single lightwave virtually eliminate any distortion that could result from overlapping light pulses, providing the least signal attenuation and the highest transmission speeds of any fiber cable type. Single mode and multimode fibers can have a step-index or graded-index refractive index profile. The performance of multimode graded-index fibers is usually superior to multimode step-index fibers. However, each type of multimode fiber can improve system design and operation depending on the intended application. Fiber optic cable functions as a "light guide," guiding the light introduced at one end of the cable through to the other end. The light source can either be a light-emitting diode (LED)) or a laser. The light source is pulsed on and off, and a light-sensitive receiver on the other end of the cable converts the pulses back into the digital ones and zeros of the original signal. Even laser light shining through a fiber optic cable is subject to loss of strength, primarily through dispersion and scattering of the light, within the cable itself. The faster the laser fluctuates, the greater the risk of

dispersion. Light strengtheners, called repeaters, may be necessary to refresh the signal in certain applications. While fiber optic cable itself has become cheaper over time - a equivalent length of copper cable cost less per foot but not in capacity. Fiber optic cable connectors and the equipment needed to install them are still more expensive than their copper counterparts.

Advantages of fiber optics: 1. Immunity to Electromagnetic Interference 2. Non Conductive Cables 3. Eliminating Spark Hazards 4. Ease Of Installation 5. High Bandwidth Over Long Distances 6. Easy to accomodate increasing bandwidth 7. Early detection of cable damage 8. Secure transmissions

9. No cross talk 10. Less prone to theft 11. Easier avalbility of raw material 12. Flexibility in system upgradation 13. High resistance to chemical effect, tempurature variation 14. Very small size Disadvantages of Fiber Optics: 1. Installation costs, while dropping, are still high 2. Special test equipment is often required 3. Susceptibility to physical damage 4. Highly skilled staff required 5. Tapping is difficult 6. Precision and costly instruments are required 7. Difficulty in splicing

Colour coding of optical fiber : 4 coloured fibre Blue Orange Green

 Natural 6 loose tubes Blue Orange Green Brown Slate White

Indian Railways use single mode step indexed 1310 nm wavelength optical fiber. Refractive index of core is 1.48 1.50 Refractive index of cladding is 1.46 1.48

Plesiochronous Digital Hierarchy (PDH)

As bandwidth demand grew the technology called Plesiochronous Digital Hierarchy (PDH) was developed by ITU-T G.702, whereby the basic primary multiplexer 2.048Mb/s trunks were joined together by adding bits (bit stuffing) which synchronised the trunks at each level of the PDH. 2.048Mb/s was called E1 and the hierarchy is based on multiples of 4 E1s. Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH) Management is very inflexible in PDH, so SDH was developed. Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH) originates from Synchronous Optical Network (SONET) in the US. It includes capabilities for bandwidth on demand and is also made up of multiples of E1. STM-1 (155Mb/s) is 63 x E1, STM-4 (622Mb/s) is 4 x STM-1 and STM16 (2.5Gb/s) is 4 x STM-4. The benefits of SDH are: Different interfaces or different bandwidths can connect (G708, G781). Network topologies are more flexible. There is flexibility for growth. The optical interface is standard (G957). Network Management is easier to perform (G774 and G784).

Synchronous networking differs from Plesiochronous Digital Hierarchy (PDH) in that the exact rates that are used to transport the data on SDH are tightly synchronized across the entire network, using atomic clocks. This synchronization system allows entire inter-country networks to operate synchronously, greatly reducing the amount of buffering required between elements in the network. SDH can be used to encapsulate earlier digital transmission standards, such as the PDH standard, or they can be used to directly support either Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) or so-called packet over SDH (POS) networking. As such, it is inaccurate to think of SDH as communications protocols in and of themselves; they are generic, all-purpose transport containers for moving both voice and data. The basic format of a SDH signal allows it to carry many different services in its virtual container (VC), because it is bandwidth-flexible. SDH frame The STM-1 (Synchronous Transport Module, level 1) frame is the basic transmission format for SDHthe first level of the synchronous digital hierarchy. The STM-1 frame is transmitted in exactly 125 s, therefore, there are 8,000 frames per second on a 155.52 Mbit/s OC-3 fiber-optic circuit. The STM-1 frame consists of overhead and pointers plus information payload. The first nine columns of each frame make up the Section Overhead and Administrative Unit Pointers, and the last 261 columns make up the Information Payload. The pointers (H1, H2,

H3 bytes) identify administrative units (AU) within the information payload. Thus, an OC-3 circuit can carry 150.336 Mbit/s of payload, after accounting for the overhead. Carried within the information payload, which has its own frame structure of nine rows and 261 columns, are administrative units identified by pointers. Also within the administrative unit are one or more virtual containers (VCs). VCs contain path overhead and VC payload. The first column is for path overhead; it is followed by the payload container, which can itself carry other containers. Administrative units can have any phase alignment within the STM frame, and this alignment is indicated by the pointer in row four. The section overhead (SOH) of a STM-1 signal is divided into two parts: the regenerator section overhead (RSOH) and the multiplex section overhead (MSOH). The overheads contain information from the transmission system itself, which is used for a wide range of management functions, such as monitoring transmission quality, detecting failures, managing alarms, data communication channels, service channels, etc. The STM frame is continuous and is transmitted in a serial fashion: byte-by-byte, row-by-row. With the exception of 8Mb/s, different PDH outputs are 'mapped' into Containers (C) and then into fixed sizeVirtual Containers (VC). When the VC is aligned in the Tributary Unit (TU) a Pointer is added which indicates the

phase of the particular VC. TU's are then grouped, via Time Division Multiplexing (TDM), into Tributary Unit Groups (TUG).

The TUGs are collated into Administrative Units (AU) via more VCs where more pointers are added (these being fixed relative to the frame). The VCs and the pointers are incorporated into the section overhead of the Synchronous Transport Module (STM). One AU forms an STM-1, 4 AUs form an STM-4. You can also get STM-16 and STM-64. Add-drop multiplexer Add-drop multiplexers (ADMs) are the most common type of network elements. Traditional ADMs were designed to support one of the network architectures, though new

generation systems can often support several architectures, sometimes simultaneously. ADMs traditionally have a high-speed side (where the full line rate signal is supported), and a low-speed side, which can consist of electrical as well as optical interfaces. The lowspeed side takes in low-speed signals, which are multiplexed by the network element and sent out from the high-speed side, or vice-versa.

FLEXIMUX is a versatile 30-channel (2.048 MBPS) digital voice and data multiplexer. Besides, use as terminal equipment, it has the capacity of channel-wise drop and re-insert as a wayside unit with flexible voice interfaces for different adaptations. The design caters for user selectable low and high speed data interface option. The in-built NMS allows centralized configuration as well as remote status & performance monitoring of the network by a PC. The associated external equipment in the system can also be centrally controlled via NMS. Features of FLEXIMUX Compliant with all relevant ITU-t Completely indigenous design. Dynamic branching through digital cross-connect.

 Flexible configuration as a Terminal or Drop/Insert wayside unit or for digital branching. Re-use on any branched off time slot at the same station for new channel insertion. Wide choice of voice and data interface circuits. Digital conferencing circuits up to 21 channels. Sub rate multiplexing bandwidth efficiency. of low speed data for

Remote programming of time slot assignment, digital cross connect, channel gain adjust and data rate settings from the control station by PC. Centralized network monitoring of all operating equipment and their performance by NMS. Tele-command signals from the control for remote operation of associated external equipment. Redundant power supply(optional) Any station terminal can be user designated as control, thereby creating total redundancy. High MTBF.