Optical Communication

4/4 B.Tech ECE

Part3
 Scattering Loss:
Scattering results in attenuation (in the form of radiation) as the scattered light
may not continue to satisfy the total internal reflection in the fiber core.
The scattered ray can escape by refraction according to Snell’s Law.
Scattering is due to irregularity of materials.
When a beam of light interacts with a material, part of it is transmitted, part it
is reflected, and part of it is scattered.
Mainly there are five such losses viz.
⮚ Rayleigh
⮚ Brillouin
⮚ Raman
⮚ Wave Guide
⮚ Mie
Linear scattering
Linear scattering
• Light Scattering typically characterized by wide variety
of reflection angles.
• Light scattering depends on the wavelength of the
light being scattered.
• Basically, scattering losses are caused by the
interaction of light with density fluctuations within a
fiber. Density changes are produced when optical
fibers are manufactured.
• The scattering of light in optical quality glass fiber is
caused by molecular level irregularities(compositional
fluctuations) in the glass structure.
 Rayleigh scattering losses
• During manufacturing, glass is drawn into long fibers of very small
diameter.
• During this process, the glass is in a plastic state (not liquid and
not solid).
• The tension applied to the glass causes the cooling glass to
develop permanent submicroscopic irregularities.
• When light rays propagating down a fiber strike one of these
impurities, they are diffracted.
• Diffraction causes the light to disperse or spread out in many
directions.
• Some of the diffracted light continues down the fiber, and some
of it escapes through the cladding.
• The light rays that escape represent a loss in light power. This is
called Rayleigh scattering loss.
 Rayleigh scattering
• Atoms and other particles inevitably scatter
some of the light that hits them. The light isn't
absorbed, just sent in another direction in a
process called Rayleigh scattering, after the
British physicist Lord Rayleigh, as shown in
Figure.
• However, the distinction between scattering and
absorption doesn't matter much if you are trying to
send light through a fiber, because the light is lost
from the fiber in either case.
• Scattering depends not on the specific type of material
but on the size of the particles relative to the
wavelength of light.
• The closer the wavelength is to the particle size, the
more scattering. In fact, the amount of scattering
increases quite rapidly as the wavelength decreases.
For a transparent solid, the scattering loss in decibels
per kilometer is given by
 Formula for Rayleigh scattering loss

• where γR is the Rayleigh scattering coefficient, λ is the

optical wavelength, n is the refractive index of the
medium, p is the average photo elastic coefficient, βc is
the isothermal compressibility at a fictive temperature
TF, and K is Boltzmann’s constant.
• The fictive temperature is defined as the temperature
at which the glass can reach a state of thermal
equilibrium and is closely related to the anneal
temperature.
 Transmission loss factor
• The Rayleigh scattering coefficient is related to
the transmission loss factor (transmissivity) of
the fiber given by the following the relation.

• where L is the length of the fiber. It is apparent

from that the fundamental component of
Rayleigh scattering is strongly reduced by
operating at the longest possible wavelength.
Problem
Solution
Solution (cont..)
 Scattering Loss – Mie:

Linear scattering may occur at inhomogeneities which are comparable in size

with the guided wavelength.
When the size of scattering inhomogeneity is greater than λ/10, the
scattering
intensity has an angular dependence and can be quite large.
The scattering occurring due to such inhomogeneity is mainly in the forward
direction and is known as Mie Scattering.
Depending on the fibre material, design and manufacture, Mie
scattering can
cause considerable power loss. The inhomogeneity can be minimized by
⮚ Reducing imperfection during glass manufacturing process
⮚ Careful controlled extrusion and coating of the fibre
⮚ Increasing the fibre guidance by increasing the relative refractive index
between core and cladding.
Scattering Loss – Wave Guide:
Imperfections in the waveguide structure of a fiber, such as non-
uniformity in the size and shape of the core, perturbations in the core-
cladding boundary, and defects in the core or cladding, can be generated
in the manufacturing process.

Environmentally induced effects, such as stress and temperature

variations, also cause imperfections.

The imperfections in a fiber waveguide result in additional scattering

losses.
They can also induce coupling between different guided modes.
Remedy for scattering losses
• Removing imperfections due to glass manufacturing process.
• Carefully controlled extrusion and coating of the fiber.
• Increase the fiber guidance ,which depends on refractive
index difference.
 Nonlinear scattering losses
• Optical waveguides do not always behave as completely
linear channels whose increase in output optical power is
directly proportional to the input optical power.
• Several nonlinear effects occur, which in the case of
scattering cause disproportionate attenuation, usually at
high optical power levels.
• This nonlinear scattering causes the optical power from one
mode to be transferred in either the forward or backward
direction to the same, or other modes, at a different
frequency.
• It depends critically upon the optical power density within
the fiber and hence only becomes significant above
threshold power levels.
Stimulated Brillouin Scattering Loss (SBS)
It may be regarded as the modulation of light through thermal molecular
vibration within the fibre.
17
The incident photons of light undergo nonlinear interaction to produce
vibrational energy or phonons in the glass as well as the scattered light
or photons.
The scattered light is found to be frequency modulated by the thermal
energy and both upward and downward frequency shifts are observed.
The amount of frequency shift and the strength of scattering vary as the
function of the scattering angle maximum occurring at the backward
direction and the minimum or zero being observed in the forward
direction.
Thus Brillouin scattering mainly occurs in the backward direction
which directs the power to the source and the power of the receiver
is reduced.
• The optical power level at which Brillouin scattering
becomes significant in a single mode fibre is given
by an empirical formula.
The threshold power level PB is given by

Pb =4.4(10^-3)(d^2)(λ ^2)α dB v watts

where, λ= operating wavelength, μm

d= fiber core diameter, μm
v = source bandwidth, GHz
SRS Scattering:
The non-linear interaction in Raman scattering produces a high
frequency phonon and a scattered photon, where as low
frequency phonons are produced in Brillouin scattering.
In Raman scattering, light is predominantly in the
forward direction and thus the power is not reduced in the
receiver.

Pb =5.9(10^-2)(d^2)λα dB watts
• Where
d is the diameter of the fibre in μm,
λ is the wavelength emitted by the source in μm,
𝛼 is the fibre loss in dB/km
𝑑𝐵

PR is the threshold optical power.

Core & Cladding Losses
Fig1. For Intermodal dispersion
Fig 2. For Material dispersion
Fig 3 .For waveguide dispersion
 ADVANTAGES

❖ Fiber optic cables have a much greater bandwidth than metal cables.
❖ Ability to carry much information
❖ Fiber optic cables weight less than a copper wire cable
❖ Lower-power transmitters can be used instead of the high-voltage electrical transmitters
used for copper wires.
❖ Support higher data rates,and at greater distances.
❖ Immune to all kind of interference including lightning.
❖ Unaffected by most chemicals.
❖ Unaffected by outdoor atmospheric condition.
❖ Smaller and lighter.
❖ Ideal for secure communication systems because it is difficult to tap.
❖ Not susceptible to noise from electronic instruments
❖ Cost of initialization and installation is high.
❖ Require specialized skills and knowledge much different from those required for
installation of electrical cables.
❖ There is possibility of hazard when working with optical fiber
like glass shards and optical radiation.
❖ Fiber is delicate so has to be handled carefully.
❖ Communication is not totally in optical domain, so repeated electric –optical –
electrical conversion is needed.
❖ The splicing and testing equipments are very expensive as compared to copper
equipments.
APPLICATION

• Telecommunications

• Local Area Networks

• Cable TV

• CCTV

• Optical Fiber Sensors

APPLICATION

❖ LONG DISTANCE COMMUNICATION BACKBONES

❖ INTER-EXCHANGE JUNCTIONS
❖ VIDEO TRANSMISSION
❖ BROADBAND SERVICES
❖ COMPUTER DATA COMMUNICATION (LAN, WAN etc..)
❖ MILITARY APPLICATION
❖ NON-COMMUNICATION APPLICATIONS (sensors etc…)
THANK YOU