Contents

 Introduction
 Basic Optics
 Fibre transmission properties
 Light sources (laser, LED)
 Light detectors
 Optical receivers
 Fibre systems

Optical Communication et4-013 A1

 Optical communication

TRANSMITTER FIBRE RECEIVER

+ –
+ –

Optical Communication et4-013 A2

 Standard Single-Mode (SM) Fibre
Fibre core
SiO2+ GeO2
Ø 10 mm
n  1.443

SiO2 Cladding
Ø 125 mm
n  1.44
Primary coating (soft)
Ø 400 mm

Secondary coating (hard)

Ø 1 mm

Optical Communication et4-013 A3

 Optical attenuation in glass

1000
Attenuation (dB/km)

CVD (Chemical Vapour Deposition)

100

10

 20 dB/km (Corning)
1

0.16 dB/km
0.1
1960 1970 1980 1990 2000

Optical Communication et4-013 A4

 Fibre attenuation (SiO2)

Rayleigh IR band edge

1.5
scattering
Attenuation (dB/km)

UV
absorption
1.0

OH--peak
0.5
0.16 dB/km
0.2

0.8 0.9 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8
Wavelength (mm)

Optical Communication et4-013 A5

 Optical source

TRANSMITTER

FIBRE

Performance:
+ – Modulation speed
Fibre-coupled power

Optical Communication et4-013 A6

 Light Emitting Diode (LED)

– +
Typical performance data:
Power in MM-fibre: 100 mW
Power in SM-fibre: 1 mW
Direct Modulation Bandwidth: 100 MHz

Optical Communication et4-013 A7

 Laser

Typical performance:

Power (in fibre): 1-10 mW

Max: 100-300 mW
Direct Modulation Bandwidth: 1-10 GHz

Optical Communication et4-013 A8

 Photodiode detector

+ –
Typical performance data:
Responsivity ~1 mA / mW
Bandwidth: 1-20 GHz

Optical Communication et4-013 A9

 Optical Communication Systems
First Generation, ~1975, 0.8 mm
MM-fibre, GaAs-laser or LED

Second Generation, ~1980, 1.3 mm, MM & SM-fibre

InGaAsP FP-laser or LED

Third Generation, ~1985, 1.55 mm, SM-fibre

InGaAsP DFB-laser, ~ 1990 Optical amplifiers

Fourth Generation, 1996, 1.55 mm

WDM-systems

0.8 0.9 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8
Wavelength (mm)

Optical Communication et4-013 A10

 Trunk transmission capacity
10000

1000 WDM experiments (10x / 2.5 yrs)

5 yrs
Capacity (Gb/s)

100

ETDM
10

1
installed
(10x / 6 yrs)
0,1

0,01
1980 1985 1990 1995 2000
Optical Communication et4-013 A11
 Wavelength division multiplexing
Multiwavelength Multiwavelength
Transmitter Receiver
MUX DMX
ADM

ADM

System capacity:

1996: 16x2.5 Gb/s Detector

ADM
OXC
Tunable laser
40 Gb/s
1998: 80x2.5 Gb/s
200 Gb/s
2000: 40x10 Gb/s ADM: Add-Drop Multiplexer ADM
0.4 Tb/s OXC: Optical CrossConnect

Optical Communication et4-013 A12

 4l 2x2 OXC with dilated switches
1 1 Total on-chip loss < 16 dB
in OXC out Inter-channel crosstalk < -20 dB
2 2
Dimensions 8x12 mm2

X X
X X

Optical Communication et4-013 A13

 Transmission standards

SDH Gigabit Ethernet

STM-1 155 Mb/s ~ 1 Gb/s
STM-4 622 Mb/s ~ 10 Gb/s
STM-16 2.4 Gb/s
STM-64 10 Gb/s
STM-256 40 Gb/s

SDH over WDM IP over WDM

Optical Communication et4-013 A14

 Optical Communication Market

1999 2003 %/yr

Optical communication systems 14 B$ 50 B$ 37

Optical communication hardware 5 B$ 21 B$ 43

WDM hardware 2 B$ 12 B$ 56

Optical Communication et4-013 A15

 Advantages of Optical communication

 Huge bandwidth
 Low loss
 Low cost per bit
 Small and light
 Electrical isolation
 No EMI (Lightning, interference)
 Security (no tapping)
 Reliability
Optical Communication et4-013 A16
 Fibre performance

z=0 z=L
Attenuation

z=0 z=L
Dispersion

Optical Communication et4-013 A17

 Fibre attenuation (SiO2)

Rayleigh IR band edge

1.5
scattering
Attenuation (dB/km)

UV
absorption
1.0

OH--peak
0.5
0.16 dB/km
0.2

0.8 0.9 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8
Wavelength (mm)

Optical Communication et4-013 A18

 Bandwidth and Bit rate

dBe dBo Idet = R·Popt (:) Pel

0 0
t -3 -1.5
FWHM
-6 -3

DT t Dfe Dfo n

Rule of thumb :
Dff o 
D 2 Df  B 1 1
o 2 Df e  B  
e
DT 2t
Ce  2Co (incoherent )

Optical Communication et4-013 A19

 Numerical Aperture
Multimode fibre
n
n0 n2 Critical angle : cos( )  2
a c n
n1 1
c
n1
Acceptance angle : sin  a  sin  c
n0

NA  n0 sin   n1 sin  c  n1 1  cos 2  c  n12  n22

a

if n1  n2  n : NA  0.1   a  6
n12  n22 n1  n2 Dn
D  
2n12
n1 n NA  n12  n22  2nDn  n 2D

Optical Communication et4-013 A20

 Coupling efficiency
LED

Pa
 sin 2  a  NA2
Pa Pe

Pe

A fibrecore
LED to fibre  NA 2
(if A fibrecore  ALED )
ALED

Optical Communication et4-013 A21

 Problem 1

Problem 1
Estimate how much power will be coupled from a top-emitting LED which emits 10 mW
from a surface with 500 mm diameter in the following Step-Index fibres (l=1300 nm):
A. PCS MM-fibre with 500 mm core diameter (ncore=1.45, nclad=1.51)
B. Silica MM-fibre with 50 mm core diameter (ncore=1.46, nclad=1.45)
C. Silica SM-fibre with 10 mm core diameter (ncore=1.453, nclad=1.45)

Solution
A. NA  n1  n2  1.51  1.45  0.42
2 2 2 2

  NA 2  0.422  0.18  P  1.8 mW

NA  2nDn  2 1.45  0.01  0.17
B.
A fibre 50 2
  NA  2
 0.17 
2
2
 3  10 4
 P  3 mW
ALED
Optical Communication et4-013 A22500
 Problem 1
Problem 1
Estimate how much power will be coupled from a top-emitting LED which emits 10 mW
from a surface with 500 mm diameter in the following Step-Index fibres (l=1300 nm):
A. PCS MM-fibre with 500 mm core diameter (ncore=1.45, nclad=1.51)
B. Silica MM-fibre with 50 mm core diameter (ncore=1.46, nclad=1.45)
C. Silica SM-fibre with 10 mm core diameter (ncore=1.453, nclad=1.45)

Solution
A. NA  n1  n2  1.51  1.45  0.42
2 2 2 2

  NA 2  0.422  0.18  P  1.8 mW

NA  2nDn  2 1.45  0.01  0.17
B.
A fibre 50 2
  NA 
2
 0.17 
2
2
 3 10  4  P  3 mW
ALED 500

C. NA  2 1.45  0.003  0.1

A fibre 10 2
  NA 
2 2
 10  2
 4 10 6  P  40 nW
ALED 500

Optical Communication et4-013 A23

 Intermodal dispersion
L

n1 n1
Tmin  L  Tmax  L 
c c  cos c
c
n1 n1
cos  c 
n2 n2

DT  n1 Dn Dn NA2
L n

c
  ns / km t
2 c 2nc

BL 
L

2nc
( Mb / s)km
DT NA2

Optical Communication et4-013 A24

 Problem 2

Estimate the intermodal dispersion of the three fibres from Problem 1

Solution
Problem 1 2 2
NA
DT how much 0 . 42
Estimate
A.  power will5 be .2 ms / km
 0coupled from a top-emitting LED which
2ncwith2 500
from a Lsurface 1.48mm 3  10
diameter in the following Step-Index fibres (l
A. PCS MM-fibre 2 with0500 2mm core diameter (ncore=1.45, nclad=1.51)
NA
DT MM-fibre . 17
B. Silica   50 mm 5core  33diameter
ns / km (ncore=1.46, nclad=1.45)
L 2nc 2with  1.45  3  10
C. Silica SM-fibre with 10 mm core diameter (ncore=1.453, nclad=1.45)
DT  0 (single mode fibre)
C. L
Solution
A. NA  n1
2
 n 2
2
 1 . 51 2
 1 . 45 2
 0.42
  NA 2  0.422  0.18  P  1.8 mW
NA  2nDn  A252 1.45  0.01  0.17
Optical Communication et4-013
B.
 Problem 2

Estimate the intermodal dispersion of the three fibres from Problem 1

Solution
2 2
NA 0 . 42
A. DT L    0.2 ms / km
2nc 2  1.48  3  10 5

2 2
NA 0 . 17
B. DT L    33 ns / km
2nc 2  1.45  3  10 5

DT  0 (single mode fibre)

C. L

Optical Communication et4-013 A26

 Fibre types
refractive
index

SM
Single-Mode

MM-SI
Multi-Mode
Step Index

MM-GI
Multi-Mode
Graded Index

Optical Communication et4-013 A27

 Types of dispersion

 Intermodal dispersion only for MMF

 Material Dispersion Chromatic

 Waveguide Dispersion
}{ Dispersion

 Polarisation Mode Dispersion (PMD)

Optical Communication et4-013 A28

 WDM-transmission

optical fibre

+ –

optical optical
transmitter receiver

Multiwavelength Multiwavelength
Transmitter Receiver
MUX DMX

Optical Communication et4-013 A29

 Trunk transmission capacity

256
‘99
•
# WDM-channels

64 ‘98 ‘00 ‘02?

•
‘97
• •
16
•
‘96
4
•
‘80 ‘83 ‘86 ‘89 ‘98
1
0.01
• 0.1• • 1
• •
10 100
Channel bitrate (Gb/s)

Optical Communication et4-013 A30

 Maximum transmission span

L(km) 1000

Attenuation
100

10

Dispersion
B·L = constant
1
1 10 100 1000 10000
Bitrate B (Mb/s)

Optical Communication et4-013 A31

 System Structure

Figure [2] Optoelectronic Communication System Structure

Optical Communication et4-013 A32

 Continue

Figure [5] : Network Example

Optical Communication et4-013 A33
 Optoelectronics in
Optical Communication System

Figure [5] “Network Example” shows characteristics of

Long-Haul Networks and how these are tied into the
multiple regional backbone providers for residential,
cellular, and corporate networks.

Optical Communication et4-013 A34

 Fiber classification (1)

MM-SI: Multi Mode - Step Index fiber

Core diameter 50 - 400 mm

Cladding 125 (500) mm
2nd coating 250 - 1000 mm
NA 0.16 - 0.5
Attenuation 1 - 4 dB/km
BL-product 6 - 25 MHz.km
Application Short distance, low cost
limited bandwidth

Optical Communication et4-013 A35

 Fiber classification (2)

MM-GI: Multi Mode - Graded Index fiber

Core diameter 50 mm standard

Cladding 125 mm
2nd coating 200-1000 mm
NA 0.2 - 0.3
Attenuation 1 dB/km (1300 nm)
BL-product 150 MHz.km - 2 GHz.km
Application Medium distance communication
LED/Laser sources

Optical Communication et4-013 A36

 Fiber classification (3)

SM-SI: Single Mode - Step Index fiber

Core diameter 3-10 mm

Cladding 50-125 mm
2nd coating 200-1000 mm
NA ~0.1 (not used)
Attenuation 0.20@1550 - 0.4@1300 dB/km
BL-product >> 500 MHz.km
Application Long distance communication
Lasers, standard fiber

Optical Communication et4-013 A37