U14ECT702-OPTICAL

COMMUNICATION
 UNITS

UNIT-1: INTRODUCTION TO OPTICAL FIBERS

UNIT-2: SIGNAL DEGRADATION IN OPTICAL FIBERS

UNIT-3: FIBER OPTICAL SOURCES AND COUPLING

UNIT-4: FIBER OPTICAL RECEIVERS

UNIT-5: DIGITAL TRANSMISSION SYSTEM

 UNIT-1
Advantages of Optical Communication – key
elements of an Optical Fiber system
Ray Optics– Optical Fiber Modes and
Configurations
Mode theory of Circular Wave guides
Overview of Modes –Key Modal concepts
Linearly Polarized Modes
step index fibers -Graded Index fibers
multimode fibers - Single Mode Fibers
Optical fiber fabrication techniques
FUNDAMENTAL BLOCKS IN AN OPTICAL FIBER
SYSTEM
ADVANTAGES OF OPTICAL COMMUNICATION

Enormous potential bandwidth

Small size and weight.
Electrical isolation
Immunity to interference and crosstalk
Signal security.
Low transmission loss
Ruggedness and flexibility
System reliability and ease of maintenance.
Potential low cost
 OPTICS
Ray optics
Wave Optics
Quantum Optics
 1.2 Ray optics
Some Basic Optical Laws
REFLECTION
REFRACTION

TOTAL INTERNAL REFLECTION

CRITICAL ANGLE OF INCIDENCE

NUMERICAL APERTURE

REFRACTIVE INDEX
 DEFINITIONS
REFRACTIVE INDEX:
The ratio of velocity of light in vacuum to its
velocity in a specific medium (n) n=c/v
C= 3x10^8 m/s ; v= velocity of light in that
medium

Total internal reflection:

As the angle of incidence 1 in an optically denser
material becomes larger the refracted angle 2
approaches π/2 . No refraction is possible beyond
this.
 Reflection and Refraction of Light
Medium 1

1 1 2 Refracted
n1 n2 ray
Boundary 2
1 1
n2 n1
Incident 1 1
2 ray
Reflected
Medium 2 ray
n1 < n2 n1 > n2
Using the Snell's law at the boundary we have:

n1 sin 1 = n2 sin 2 or n1 cos 1 = n2 cos 2

1 = The angle of incident

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 Total Internal Reflection
• As 1 increases (or 1 n1 > n2 n2

decreases) then there is no reflection

1
• The incident angle
c
1 =  c = Critical Angle
n1

• Beyond the critical angle, light ray n1 > n2 n2

becomes totally internally reflected
When 1 = 90o (or c = 0o) 1<c 1
1>c
n1 sin 1 = n2 n1
1  n2
Thus the critical angle c  sin  
 n1 
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Basic Fibre Properties
• Cylindrical
• Dielectric
Core Cladding Buffer coating
• Waveguide
• Low loss
• Usually fused silica
• Core refractive index > cladding refractive index
• Operation is based on total internal reflection

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 Types of Fibre
There are two main fibre types:

(1) Step index:

• Multi-mode
• Single mode

(2) Graded index multi-mode

Total number of guided modes M for multi-mode fibres:

Multi-mode SI M  0.5V 2 Multi-mode GI M  0.25V 2

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 Step-index Multi-mode Fibre

50-200 m
Input Output pulse
pulse n1 =1.48-1.5
120-400m
n2 = 1.46
Advantages: dn=0.04,100 ns/km
• Allows the use of non-coherent optical light source, e.g. LED's
• Facilitates connecting together similar fibres
• Imposes lower tolerance requirements on fibre connectors.
• Cost effective
Disadvantages:
• Suffer from dispersion (i.e. low bandwidth (a few MHz)
• High power loss
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Graded-index Multi-mode Fibre

50-100 m
Input Output
pulse pulse
120-140m n2 n1

Advantages:
• Allows the use of non-coherent optical light source, e.g. LED's
• Facilitates connecting together similar fibres
• Imposes lower tolerance requirements on fibre connectors.

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 Step-index Single-mode Fibre

8-12 m Output pulse

Input
pulse n1 =1.48-1.5
100-120m
n2 = 1.46

Advantages:
• Only one mode is allowed due to diffraction/interference effects.
• Allows the use high power laser source
• Facilitates fusion splicing similar fibres
• Low dispersion, therefore high bandwidth (a few GHz).
• Low loss (0.1 dB/km)
Disadvantages:
• Cost
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 Electromagnetic Radiation
• Carries energy through space (includes visible light, dental x-rays,
radio waves, heat radiation from a fireplace)
• The wave is composed of a combination of mutually perpendicular
electric and magnetic fields the direction of propagation of the wave
is at right angles to both field directions, this is known as an
ELECTROMAGNETIC WAVE
EM wave move through a vacuum at 3.0 x 108 m/s ("speed of light")

E  E (r , )e j ( t z )
H  H (r , )e j ( t z )
Speed of light in a vacuum c  f 
 - Propagation constant = /vp
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 One Dimensional EM Wave
• For most purposes, a travelling light wave can be presented as a
one-dimensional, scalar wave provided it has a direction of
propagation.
• Such a wave is usually described in terms of the electric field E.
Wavelength 
Eo A plane wave propagating
in the direction of z is:

E ( z, t )  Eo sin( t  z )
z

Phase
2 
The propagation constant  
 vp
Phase velocity vp  c / n n = Propagation medium refractive index
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Polarization
Light is a transverse, electromagnetic wave, where the transverse nature of it can be
demonstrated through polarization.

Unpolarized light source: The electric field is vibrating in many directions; all
perpendicular to the direction of propagation.

Polarized light source: The vibration of the electric field is mostly in one direction. Any
direction is possible as long as it's perpendicular to the propagation.

Horizontal Vertical Diognal

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Q&A TIME