A

Seminar report

On

Optical Fiber Communication

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the award of Higher

National Diploma in Computer Science

SUBMITTED TO: SUBMITTED BY:

 Preface

I have made this report file on the topic Optical Fiber Communication;

I have tried my best to elucidate all the relevant detail to the topic to be

included in the report. While in the beginning I have tried to give a general

view about this topic. My efforts and wholehearted co-corporation of each

and everyone has ended on a successful note. I express my sincere gratitude

to …………..who assisting me throughout the preparation of this topic. I

thank him for providing me the reinforcement, confidence and most

importantly the track for the topic whenever I needed it.

 Content

i. Introduction

ii. Fundamentals of Fibers

iii. Construction of Fibers

iv. Classification of Optical Fibers

v. Modes and Propagation of Light in Fibers

vi. Advantages over Conventional Cables

vii. Areas of Application

viii. Conclusion

ix. References
 Introduction

Optical fibers are arguably one of the world’s most influential scientific

developments from the latter half of the 20th century. Why has the

development of fibers been given so much attention by the scientific

community when we have alternatives? The main reason is bandwidth –

fibers can carry an extremely large amount of information. More indirectly,

many of the systems that we either rely on or enjoy in everyday life such as

banks, television and newspapers as (to name only a very limited selection)

are themselves dependent on communication systems that are dependent

on optical fibers.

Fundamentals of Fibers

The fundamental principle that makes optical fibers possible is total

internal reflection. This is described using the ray model of light as shown

in following figure.
Total Internal Reflection

From Snell’s Law we find that refraction (as shown by the dashed line) can

only occur when the angle theta1 is large enough. This implies that as the

angle is reduced, there must be a point when the light ray is reflected,

where theta1 = theta2. The angle where this happens is known as the

critical angle and is:

CONSTRUCTION OF FIBERS

In fibers, there are two significant sections – the core and the cladding. The

core is part where the light rays travel and the cladding is a similar material

of slightly lower refractive index to cause total internal reflection. Usually

both sections are fabricated from silica (glass). The light within the fiber is

then continuously totally internally reflected along the waveguide.

 Structure of Fiber

When light enters the fiber we must also consider refraction at the interface

of the air and the fiber core. The difference in refractive index causes

refraction of the ray as it enters the fiber, allowing rays to enter the fiber at

an angle greater than the angle allowed within the fiber as shown in the

figure 3.

Acceptance Angle

This acceptance angle, theta, is a crucial parameter for fiber and system

designers. More widely recognized is the parameter NA (Numerical

Aperture) that is given by the following equation:

CLASSIFICATION OF OPTICAL FIBERS

Optical fibers are classified into three types based on the material used,

number of modes and refractive index.

1. Based on the materials used:-

a. Glass fibers:

They have a glass core and glass cladding. The glass used in the fiber

is ultra pure, ultra transparent silicon dioxide (SiO2) or fused quartz.

Impurities are purposely added to pure glass to achieve the desired

refractive index.

b. Plastic clad silica:

This fiber has a glass core and plastic cladding. This performance

though not as good as all glass fibers, is quite respectable.

c. Plastic fibers:

They have a plastic core and plastic cladding. These fibers are

attractive in applications where high bandwidth and low loss are not a

concern.

2. Based on the number of modes:-

a. Single Mode fiber:

When a fiber wave-guide can support only the HE11 mode, it is

referred to as a single mode wave-guide. In a step index structure this

 occurs when the wave-guide is operating at v<2.4 where v is

dimensionless number which relates the propagating in the cladding.

These single mode fibers have small size and low dopant level

(typically 0.3% to 0.4% index elevation over the cladding index.)

In high silica fibers the wave-guide and the material dispersion are

often of opposite signs. This fact can be used conveniently to achieve

a single mode fiber of extremely large bandwidth. Reduced dopant

level results in lower attenuation than in multimode fibres. A single

mode wave guide with its large and fully definable bandwidth

characteristics is an obvious candidate for long distance, high

capacity transmission applications.

b. Multimode fiber:

It is a fiber in which more than one mode is propagating at the system

operating wavelength. Multimode fiber system does not have the

information carrying capacity of single mode fibers. However they

offer several advantages for specific systems. The larger core

diameters result in easier splicing of fibers. Given the larger cores,

higher numerical apertures, and typically shorter link distances,

multimode systems can use less expensive light sources such as LED

s. Multimode fibers have numerical apertures that typically range

 from 0.2 to 0.29 and have core size that range from 35 to100 micro-

meters.

3. Based on refractive index:-

a. Step index fiber:

The step index (SI) fiber consists of a central core whose refractive

index is n1, surrounded by a lading whose refractive index is n2,

lower than that of core. Because of an abrupt index change at the core

cladding interface such fibers are called step index fibers.

b. Graded index fibers:

The refractive index of the core in graded index fiber is not constant,

but decreases gradually from its maximum value n1 to its minimum

value n2 at the core-cladding interface. The ray velocity changes along

the path because of variations in the refractive index. The ray

propagating along the fiber axis takes the shortest path but travels

most slowly, as the index is largest along this path in medium of lower

refractive index where they travel faster. It is therefore possible for

all rays to arrive together at the fiber output by a suitable choice of

refractive index profile.

 MODES AND PROPAGATION OF LIGHT IN FIBERS

Also crucial to understanding fibers is the principle of modes. A more in-

depth analysis of the propagation of light along an optical fiber requires the

light to be treated as an electromagnetic wave (rather than as a ray).

Modes

The solid line is the lowest order mode shown on figure 4. It is clear that

according to the ray model the lowest order mode will travel down a given

length of fiber quicker than the others. The electromagnetic field model

predicts the opposite – that the highest order mode will travel quicker.

However, the overall effect is still the same – if a signal is sent down the

fiber as several modes then as it travels along the fibre the pulse will spread

out, this can lead to the pulses merging and becoming indistinguishable.
Propagation of light in fibers

The propagation of light is as shown in figure 5. When light ray enters the

core with an angle strikes the surface of cladding whose refractive index is

less than that of core. As the incidence angle on surface of the cladding is

greater than or equal to critical angle total internal reflection takes place.

Hence the ray is reflected back into the core in the forward direction. This

process continues until it reaches other end of the cable.

The method of signal transmission has benefits in terms of security – for

the signal to be ‘tapped’ the fiber must be broken (since effectively no

energy escapes from the fiber) and this can easily

be detected (when no signal reaches the other end of the fiber!). This is one

of the many advantages of the medium. But mainly two factors, attenuation
and dispersion of light, have to be considered while transmitting the light

over large distances. We use repeaters and regenerators to reduce the

attenuation and dispersion.

REPEATERS AND REGENERATORS:-

Optical repeaters are purely optical devices that are used simply to combat

attenuation in the fiber; typically spans of 80km upwards are now possible.

The recent introduction of soliton transmission methods has increased the

allowed distance between repeaters and systems spanning 130km without a

repeater are now possible. Regenerators are devices consisting of both

electronic and optical components to provide ‘3R’ regeneration – Retiming,

Reshaping,

Regeneration. Retiming and reshaping detect the digital signal that will be

distorted and noisy (partly due to the optical repeaters), and recreate it as a

clean signal as shown in figure 6 This clean signal is then regenerated

(optically amplified) to be sent on. It should be noted that repeaters are

purely optical devices whereas regenerators require optical-to-electrical

(O/E) conversion and electrical-to-optical (E/O) conversion. The ultimate

aim of many fiber system researchers is to create a purely optical network

without electronics, which would maximize efficiency and performance.

Many aspects of such a system are in place, but some still require the O/E

and E/O conversion.

A digital signal before (noisy and attenuated) and after

regeneration

The most common optical amplifier currently in use is the EDFA (Erbium

Doped Fiber Amplifier). These consist of a coil of fiber doped with the rare

earth metal erbium. A laser diode pumps the erbium atoms to a high energy

state; when the signal reaches the doped fiber the energy of the erbium

atoms is transferred to the signal, thus amplifying it.

Light Sources

Two types of light source are used with fibers, LEDs and Laser Diodes.

LEDs can operate in the near infrared (the main wavelengths used in fibers

are 1300nm and 1550nm, along with 850nm for some applications); they
can emit light at 850nm and 1300nm. They also have the advantages of

long lifetimes and being cheap. Unfortunately they are large compared to

the cross-section of a fiber and so a large amount of light is lost in the

coupling of an LED with a fiber. This also reduces the amount of modal

control designers have over incident light. Laser diodes can be made to emit

light at either 1300nm or 1550 nm, and also over a small spectral width

(unlike LEDs), which reduces chromatic dispersion. Their emitting areas

are extremely small and so the angle of incidence of light on a fiber can be

accurately controlled such that <5% of the possible modes within a

multimode fiber will be initially used. They are more efficient than LEDs in

terms of coupling of light into the fiber, although they have shorter

lifetimes than and are more expensive than LEDs. One crucial advantage of

lasers over LEDs in today’s world of digital communications is their high

switching speed and small rise times, leading to increased bandwidth.

Detecting the Signal

The most efficient detectors are reverse-bias photo detectors. They

essentially cause a current to flow when light is incident on them. The

choice of semiconductor that is used to fabricate the

detector is dependent on the wavelength sensitivity and the responsivity

that are required. Bandwidth considerations are also important

(determined by the rise time and fall time of a detector); in detectors the

fall time is often appreciably greater than the rise time and so this must be

used to calculate the bandwidth of a detector. There are many further

complications in detectors, including noise equivalent power that indicates

how ‘clean’ a signal from a detector is.

ADVANTAGES OVER CONVENTIONAL CABLES

1. Wide Bandwidth: Optical fibers offer greater bandwidth due to the

use of light as carrier. The frequency range used for glass fiber

communication extends from 2*e14Hz to 4*e14Hz. Hence optical

fibers are suitable for high speed, large capacity telecommunication

lines.

2. Low Loss: In a coaxial cable attenuation increases with frequency.

The higher the frequency of information signals the greater the loss,

whereas in an optical fiber the attenuation is independent of

frequency. They offer a loss of0.2 dBm/km, allowing repeater

separation up to 50Km or more.

3. Freedom from electromagnetic interference: Optical fibers

are not affected by interference originating from power cables,

railways and radio waves. They do not limit unwanted radiation and
 no cross talk between fibers exists. These fibers make an ideal

transmission medium when EMI (Electro Magnetic Immunity) is

increased.

4. Non conductivity: Optical fibers are non-conductive and are not

effective by strong electromagnetic interference such as lighting.

These are usable in explosive environment.

5. Small diameters and less weight: Even multi fiber optical cables

have a small diameter and are light weight, and flexible optical fiber

cables permit effective utilization of speech and can also be applicable

to long distance use are easier to handle and install than conventional

cables.

6. Security: Fiber optic is a highly source transmission medium. It

does not radiate energy that can be received by a nearby antenna, and

it is extremely difficult to tap a fiber and virtually impossible to make

the tap undetected.

7. Safety: Fibre is a dielectric and does not carry electricity. It presents

no sparks or fire hazards. It does not cause explosions, which occur

due to faulty copper cable.

Areas of Application

1. Telecommunications: Optical fibers are now the standard point to

point cable link between telephone substations.

2. Local Area Networks (LAN's): Multimode fiber is commonly

used as the "backbone" to carry signals between the hubs of LAN's

from where copper coaxial cable takes the data to the desktop. Fiber

links to the desktop, however, are also common.

3. Cable TV: As mentioned before domestic cable TV networks use

optical fiber because of its very low power consumption.

4. CCTV: Closed circuit television security systems use optical fiber

because of its inherentsecurity, as well as the other advantages

mentioned above
Conclusions

We are currently in the middle of a rapid increase in the demand for data

bandwidth across the Earth. For most applications optical fibers are the

primary solution to this problem. They have potentially a very high

bandwidth, with many of the bandwidth limitations now being at the

transceivers rather than being an intrinsic property of the fiber allowing

easy upgrading of systems without relaying cable. This is creating a surge in

the deployment of fiber both in backbones of networks and in

topologically horizontal cabling, which in turn is supporting and propelling

the industry into further research. With the adoption of new techniques

such as DWDM, soliton transmission, and ultimately the purely optical

network, we have a medium that will satisfy our communication

needs for the foreseeable future.

References

 www.google.com

 www.wikipedia.com

 www.studymafia.org