Optical Fiber Communication

Unit-I
Introduction to Fibers

Outline
1. Applications
2. Advantages
3. Introduction
4. Laws and Definitions
5. Modes and Configurations
6. Transmission loss
7. Pulse broadening

1. Applications

Military
1970s, Fiber optic telephone link installed aboard the U.S.S. Littl
Rock
1976, Air Force developed Airborne Light Fiber Technology (ALOF)
Commercial
1977, AT&T and GTE installed the first fiber optic telephone system
Fiber optic telephone networks are common today
Research continues to increase the capabilities of fiber optic
transmission
Sensors

Gas sensor
Pressure sensors
Chemical sensors
Fluid level sensors
Mechanical sensors
Gyro sensors
Fuel sensors
Distance sensors

Medical Applications
 Endoscope
Eyes surgery
Blood pressure meter

Future Applications
interactive video
interactive banking and shopping
distance learning
security and surveillance
high-speed data communication
digitized video

2. Advantages of Fiber Optics

Immunity from EM radiation and Lightning

Lighter Weight
Long Transmission Distance
Large Information Capacity
Enhanced Safety
increased Signal Security
Better Signal Quality
Lower Cost
very low transmission loss
Immunity to interference and crosstalk,

3 PRIMARY ELEMENTS OF OPTICAL FIBER COMMUNICATION SYSTEM:

Figure10 shows the major elements used in an optical fiber communication
system. As we can see the transmitter stage consists of a light source and associated drive
circuitry. Again, the receiver section includes photodetector, signal amplifier and signal
restorer.
Additional components like optical amplifier, connectors, splices and couplers are
also there. The regenerator section is a key part of the system as it amplifies and reshapes the
distorted signals for long distance links.
Figure 10.
 4.1 Transmitter section :
The main parts of the transmitter section are a source (either a LED or a LASER), efficient
coupling means to couple the output power to the fiber, a modulation circuit and a level
controller for LASERs. In present days, for longer repeater spacing, the use of single mode
fibers and LASERs are seeming to be essential whereas the earlier transmitters operated
within 0.8m to 0.9m wavelength range, used double hetero structure LASER or LED as
optical sources. High coupling losses result from direct coupling of the source to optical fibers.
For LASERs, there are two types of lenses being used for this purpose namely discrete
lenses and integral lenses.

4.1.2 Drive circuitry :

The circuits used in the transmitters to switch a current in the range of ten to several hundred
miliamperes required for proper functioning of optical source. For LEDs there are drive circuits
like common emitter saturating switch, low impedance, emitter coupled, transconductance
drive circuits etc. On the other hand for LASERs, shunt drive circuits, bias control drive circuits
etc are noticeable.

4.2 Receiver section :

It is clear that it includes Photodetector, low noise front end amplifier, voltage amplifier and
a decision making circuit to get the exact information signal back. High impedance amplifier
and Trans impedance amplifier are the two popular configurations of front end amplifier. The
two most common photodetectors are p-i-n diodes and avalanche photodiodes. Quantum
 efficiency , responsivity and speed of response are the key parameters behind the decision of
photodetectors. The most important requirements of an optical receiver are sensitivity, bit
rate transparency, bit pattern independence, dynamic range, acquisition time etc. As the
noise contributed by receiver is higher than other elements in the system so, we must put a
keen check on it.

4. Laws and Definitions

Reflection and Refraction of a light or
Critical Angle and Total Internal Reflection

Reflection involves a change in direction of waves when they bounce off a barrier.
Refraction of waves involves a change in the direction of waves as they pass from one medium
to another.

As the angle of incidence 1 in an optically denser material becomes larger, the refracted angle

2 approaches 2 . Beyond this point no refraction is possible and the light rays become totally
internally reflected. This point is known as the critical angle of incidence c. Critical angle can
be expressed as :

c = sin-1 (21)

5. Optical Fiber Modes

1. optical fiber is a dielectric waveguide.

2. confines electromagnetic energy in the form of light and guides the light in the direction
parallel to its axis.
3. transmission properties are dictated by its structural characteristics.
 4. properties of light along a waveguide can be described by a set of guided electromagnetic
waves called the modes of the waveguide.
5. guided mode is a pattern of electric and magnetic field distributions that is repeated along
the fiber at equal intervals.
6. only a certain number of modes are capable of propagating along the fiber waveguide.

Fiber Structure

inner cylinder is known as the core of the fiber.

core is surrounded by a solid dielectric cladding which has refractive index less than the
core.
cladding reduces scattering loss, adds mechanical strength to the fiber, and protects
core from absorbing surface contaminants.
core material - highly pure silica
cladding material - glass (low loss fibers) or plastic (higher loss fibers).
encapsulated in an elastic and plastic material, which adds further strength and
mechanically isolates the fibers from small geometrical irregularities, distortions, or
roughness of adjacent surfaces.

Fiber types
based on the index profile of the fiber, it can be classified as,
Step-index Fiber - refractive index is uniform throughout and undergoes abrupt change at the
cladding boundary.
Graded-index Fiber - core refractive index is made to vary as a function of the radial distance
from the center of the fiber.
 Step-index Fiber Structure
In a step-index fiber, core has a refractive index n1 and is surrounded by a cladding of
slightly lower index n2, where n2 = n1(1 - )
The parameter is called the core-cladding index difference, is nominally 0.01.
Typical values range from 0.2 to 1 percent for single-mode fibers and for multi-mode
fibers range from 1 to 3 percent.

based on number of modes in a fiber, it can be classified as,

1. Single-mode fiber
2. Multi-mode fiber

Multi-mode fiber Single-mode fiber

easier to launch optical power difficult

facilitate the connecting together of similar fibers power loss
light can be launched by using LEDs excited with LASER diodes
suffer from intermodal dispersion no intermodal dispersion

Ray optics Representation

Skew rays
not confined to a single plane
follow a helical path along the fiber
difficult to track since they do not lie in a single plane
even it constitutes a major portion of the total number of guided rays, their
analysis is not necessary.
greater power loss
leaky rays are only partially confined to the core and attenuate.

Meridional Rays
confined to the planes that contain the axis of the symmetry of the fiber
its path is easy to track since it lies in a single plane
It can be divided into two general classes:
Bound rays -> trapped in the core and propagate along the fiber axis
Unbound rays-> refracted out of the fiber core

Numerical Aperture

There is maximum value of angle of incidence beyond which, it does not propagate rather it is
refracted into cladding medium. This maximum value of 0 is called maximum angle of
acceptance and n0sin0 is termed as the numerical aperture (NA)

The minimum angle min that supports total internal reflection for the meridional ray is given by
sinmin = n2/n1
By applying Snells law to the air-fiber face boundary, the maximum entrance angle, 0;max, is
related as

n sin 0, max = n1 sin

where = /2 - c.
Those rays having entrance angles 0 less than 0.max will be totally internally reflected at the
core-cladding interface.

Mode Theory for Circular Waveguides

solve Maxwells equations subject to the cylindrical boundary conditions at the interface
between the core and cladding of the fiber.
Hollow metallic waveguides -> only TE modes and TM modes are found.
In optical fibers, the core-cladding boundary conditions lead to a coupling between the
electric and magnetic field components (hybrid modes, HE or EH modes), which makes
analysis more complex than metallic waveguide analysis.
Two lowest order modes are designated by HE11 and TE01, where the subscripts refer to
possible modes of propagation of the optical field.
Six component hybrid electromagnetic fields -> complete description is more complex.
since is very small, only four field components need to be considered. Those field
components are called linearly polarized (LP) modes.
The fundamental LP01 mode corresponds to HE11 mode.

Key Modal Concepts

An important parameter connected with the cutoff condition is the V number defined by
This V number also can be used to express the number of modes M in a multimode fiber. the total
number of modes can be supported in a fiber is

The modes are cutoff when = n2k. This occurs when V 2.405.
The HE11 mode has no cutoff and come to exist only when core diameter is zero.
As the V number approaches cutoff for any particular mode, more of the power of that mode is in
the cladding.
For large value of V, the fraction of the average optical power residing in the cladding can be
estimated by

where P is the total optical power in the fiber.

Mode Field Diameter

 Mode Field Diameter (MFD) of a single-mode fiber is analogous to core diameter in
multi-mode fibers, which can be determined from the mode field distribution.
The width 2W0 of the mode field diameter to be twice the e-2 radius of the optical electric
field.
The MFD width 2W0 of the LP01 can be defined as

Propagation Modes in Single Mode Fibers

Two independent degenerate propagation modes, which are very similar but their
polarization planes are orthogonal.
light propagating along the fiber is a linear superposition of these two polarization modes
and depends on the polarization of the light at the launching point into the fiber.
These two polarization modes constitute the fundamental HE11 mode.
In ideal fibers with rotational symmetry, the two modes are degenerate with equal
propagation constants (kx = ky)
 Imperfections in the fiber structure break the circular symmetry of the ideal fiber and lift
the degeneracy of the two modes.
As a result, the modes propagate with different velocities, and the difference between
their refractive indices is called the fiber birefringence,
Bf = ny nx
Beat Length
If light is injected into the fiber so that both modes are excited, then one will be delayed in phase
relative to the other as they propagate.
When this phase difference is an integral multiple of 2, the two modes will beat at this point and
the input polarization will be reproduced.
The length over which this beating occurs is the fiber beat length,
Lp =2/
where = k0(ny - nx) and k0 = 2/

Graded-index Fiber Structure

7 Transmission loss

Attenuation
As light travels along a fiber, its power decreases exponentially with distance.
If P(0) is the optical power in a fiber at the origin, the power at a distance z is P(z), is given by

Absorption
It is caused by three different mechanisms:
i . Absorption by atomic defects in the glass composition
imperfections in the atomic structure.
if the fiber is exposed to ionizing radiation. Radiation damages a material by changing its
internal structure.
ii. Extrinsic absorption by impurity atoms in the glass material
presence of impurities in the fiber material and transition metal ions such as iron, copper,
and chromium.
 electron transitions between the energy levels within these ions
charge transitions between ions
To reduce its effect
* Vapour-phase fiber techniques to reduces the transition-metal impurity levels
* elimination of water ions
iii. Intrinsic absorption by the basic constituent atoms
associated with the basic fiber material
results from electronic absorption bands in the UV region
occurs when a photon interacts with an electron in the valance band and excites it to a
higher energy level
infrared absorption is associated with the chromatic vibration frequency
an interaction between the vibrating bond and the electromagnetic field of the optical
signal results in a transfer of energy from the field to the bond, thereby giving rise to
absorption.
Scattering Loss
scattering loss arises from
microscopic variations in the material density
compositional fluctuations due to oxides present in the glass
structural inhomogeneities
defects occurring during fiber manufacture
structure contains region in which the molecular density is either higher or lower than the
average density. These effects give rise to refractive-index variations over distance that
are small compared with the wavelength. These index variations cause a Rayleigh-type
scattering of the light (analogous to scattering of sun light in the atmosphere)
For single-component glass the scattering loss at a wavelength resulting from density
fluctuations can be approximated by
structural inhomogeneities and defects created during fiber fabrication may be in the form of
trapped glass bubbles, unreacted starting materials, and crystalized regions in the glass.

Bending Loss
Radiative losses occur whenever a optical fiber undergoes a bend of finite radius of curvature.
1. Macroscopic Bends having radii that are large compared with the fiber diameter
2. Microscopic Bends it can arise when the fibers are incorporated into cables.
 As the radius of curvature decreases, the loss increases exponentially.
When the fiber is bent, the field tail on the far side of the center of curvature must move
faster to keep up with the field in the core.
Hence, part of the mode in the cladding needs to travel faster than the velocity of light.
As this is not possible, the energy associated with this part of the mode is lost through
radiation.
The total number of modes that can be supported by a curved fiber is less than
in a straight fiber.
 radiation loss results from mode coupling caused by micro-bends of the optical fiber
micro-bends are repetitive small scale fluctuations in the radius of curvature of the fiber
axis
caused by nonuniformities in the manufacturing of the fiber
caused by nonuniform lateral pressures created during the cabling of the fiber (cabling
loss or packaging loss)

8. Pulse broadening
Signal Distortion in Fibers
 An optical signal weakens from attenuation mechanisms and broadens due to distortion
effects as it travels along the fiber
These factors will cause overlapping of pulses.
As a result, the receiver cannot distinguish the individual adjacent pulses and errors arise.
Signal distortion is due to -> intermodal delay, intramodal dispersion, polarization mode
dispersion, and higher order dispersion effects
Intermodal Dispersion
appears only in multi-mode fibers
modal delay is a result of each mode having a different velocity at a single frequency
maximum pulse broadening arising from the modal delay is the difference
between the travel time Tmax of the longest ray congruence (paralle) paths and the
travel time Tmin of the shortest ray congruence paths.
This broadening is simply obtained from ray tracing and for a fiber of length L is given
by

It is a pulse spreading that takes place within a single mode

This arises from the finite spectral emission width of an optical source.
This phenomenon is known as group velocity dispersion
Since this group velocity is a function of the wavelength, its effect on the signal distortion
increases with the spectral width of the light source (band of wavelengths over which the
source emits light)
Material Dispersion
Material dispersion arises due to the variations of the refractive index of the core
material as a function of wavelength
Since this is the same effect by which a prism spreads out a spectrum, it is also referred to
as chromatic dispersion
Waveguide Dispersion
Waveguide dispersion causes pulse spreading because only part of the optical power
propagation along a fiber is confined(restricted) to the core.
Dispersion arises because the fraction of light power propagating in the cladding travels
faster than the light in the core, since the index is lower in the cladding
 Its effect can be ignored in multi-mode fibers, but is significant in single mode fibers
Polarization Mode Dispersion

It results from the fact that light signal energy at a given wavelength in a single mode
fiber actually occupies two orthogonal polarization states or modes
Since the fiber material is not perfectly uniform throughout its length, each polarization
mode will encounter a slightly different refractive index
Consequently, each mode will travel at a slightly different velocity
Resulting difference in propagation times between the two orthogonal polarization modes
will cause pulse spreading
Group Delay
It assumes that
optical signal excites all modes equally at the input of the fiber
each mode carries equal amount of energy through the fiber
each mode contains all the spectral components in the wavelength band over which the
source emits
each of these spectral components is modulated in the same way
Each spectral component can be assumed to travel independently and to undergo a time
delay or group delay per unit length g/L in the direction of the propagation given by
Here, L is the distance travelled by the pulse, is the propagation constant along the fiber axis,
and the group velocity

is the group velocity at which the energy in a pulse travels along a fiber.

If the spectral width of the optical source is not too wide, the delay difference per unit
wavelength along the propagation path is approximately dg/d.

For spectral components which are apart and which lie /2 above and below
a central wavelength 0, the total delay difference over a distance L is

In terms of angular frequency w, this can be written as

the factor 2 = d2/dw2 determines how much a light pulse broaden as it travels
along an optical fiber.

If of an optical source is characterized by its RMS value, then the pulse

spreading can be approximated RMS pulse width,

and the dispersion

It defines the pulse spread as a function of wavelength and is measured in

picoseconds per km per nm [ps/(nm.km)].
Material Dispersion
To calculate material-induced dispersion, we consider a plane wave propagating in an infinitely
extended dielectric medium that has a refractive index n() equal that of the fiber core.
the propagation constant is thus given as

The group delay mat resulting from material dispersion is

where Dmat() is the material dispersion.

Material dispersion can be reduced either by choosing sources with narrow spectral output
widths (reducing ) or by operating at longer wavelengths.