UNIT – V

FIBER OPTIC COMMUNICATION

Introduction
Fibre optics deals with the light propagation through thin glass fibres. Fibre optics plays an
important role in the field of communication to transmit voice, television, and digital data
signals fro one place to another. The transmission of light along the thin cylindrical glass
fibre by total internal reflection was first demonstrated by John Tyndall in 1870 and the
application of this phenomenon in the field of communication is tried only from 1927. Today
the applications of fibre optics are also extended to medical field in the form of endoscopes
and to instrumentation engineering in the form of optical sensors.
Characteristics of fibre
1)Wider bandwidth: The optical carrier frequency is in the range 10^13 Hz to 10^15Hz.
2)Low transmission loss: The fibres having a transmission loss of 0.002dB/km.
3)Dielectric waveguide: Optical fibres are made from silica which is an electrical insulator.
Therefore, they do not pick up any electromagnetic wave or any high current lightning.
4)Signal security: The transmitted signal through the fibres does not radiate. Further the
signal cannot be tapped from a Fibre in an easy manner.
5)Small size and weight:Fibre optic cables are developed with small radii, and they are
flexible, compact, and lightweight. The fibre cables can be bent or twisted without damage.
Construction of optical fibre: -
The optical fibre mainly consists the following six parts as shown in figure
Core:
A typical glass fibre consists of a central core material. Generally, core diameter is 50µm.
The core is surrounded by cladding. The core medium refractive is always greater than the
cladding refractive index.
Cladding:
Cladding refractive index is lesser than the cores refractive index. The overall diameter of
cladding is 125µm. to 200µm.
Silicon Coating:
Silicon coating is provided between buffer jacket and cladding. It improves the quality of
transmission of light.
Buffer Jacket:
Silicon coating is surrounded by buffer jacket. Buffer jacket is made of plastic and protects
the fibre cable from moisture.
Strength Member:
Buffer jacket is surrounded by strength member. It provides strength to the fibre cable.
Outer Jacket:
Finally, the fibre cable is covered by polyurethane outer jacket. Because of this arrangement
fibre cable will not be damaged during pulling, bending, stretching, and rolling through the
fibre cable is made up of glasses.
Total Internal Reflection
The phenomenon of total internal reflection takes place when it satisfies the following
conditions.
1. Light should travel from denser medium to rarer medium. (i.e.) n1 > n2 where n1 is the
refractive index of core, n2 is the refractive index of cladding.
2. The angle of incidence on core should be greater than the critical angle. (i.e.) φ >φc where
φ is the angle of incidence. φc is the critical angle.
Critical angle
When φ = φcthe ray traverses along the interface so that the angle of refraction is 90˚.This
angle φc is called critical angle.
Propagation of light
Let the light ray traverse from denser medium to rarer medium
Case (i) when φ<φc the ray is refracted into the rarer medium as shown in figure
Case (ii) when = φc, the ray traverse along the interface as shown in figure

Case (iii) when φ >φc, the ray is totally reflected into the denser medium itself.

By Snell’s law
𝑛1 𝑠𝑖𝑛𝜑𝑐 = 𝑛2 𝑠𝑖𝑛90
𝑠𝑖𝑛𝜑𝑐 = 𝑛1 /𝑛2
𝜑𝑐 = sin−1(𝑛1 /𝑛2 )
Acceptance angle
The maximum angle θ0 with which a ray of light can enter through one end of the
fibre and still be total internally reflected is called acceptance angle of the fibre.
Numerical aperture
Numerical Aperture of the fibre is the light collecting efficiency of the fibre and is a
measure of the number of light rays that can be accepted by the fibre. It is equal to the sine of
the angle of acceptance.
Expression for numerical aperture and acceptance angle
Let us consider a cylindrical fibre. It consists of core of refractive index ‘n1’ and cladding of
refractive index ‘n2’ and ‘n0’ be the refractive index of the medium in which the optical fibre
is placed.

The incident ray travels along AO and enters the core at an angle ‘i ’to the fibre axis. The ray
is refracted along OB at an angle θ in the core. It further proceeds to fall at critical angle of
incidence (φc) =90- θ on the interface between core and cladding. At this angle the ray just
moves along BC.
Any ray which enters the core at an angle of incidence less than i will have refractive angle
less than θ.
Hence the angle of incidence (φc) =90- θ at the interface of core and cladding will be more
than the critical angle. Hence the ray is totally internally reflected ray.
Thus, only those rays which passes within the acceptance angle will be totally reflected.
Therefore, the light incident on the core within this maximum external incident angle im can
be coupled into the fibre to propagate. This angle is called as waveguide and acceptance
angle.
substitute the equations we get
𝑛22
𝑖 = sin−1 (𝑛12 − )
𝑛0

If the refractive index of air n0=1, then the maximum value of sin i is given as

sin 𝑖𝑚𝑎𝑥 = √𝑛12 − 𝑛22

Where n1 and n2 are refractive index of core and cladding respectively. Thus, the maximum
angle at or below which the light can suffer total internal reflection is called acceptance
angle. The cone is called acceptance cone.
Numerical Aperture (NA)
It is defined as the sine of the acceptance angle of the fibre
𝑁𝐴 = 𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑖𝑚

𝑁𝐴 = sin 𝑖𝑚𝑎𝑥 = √𝑛12 − 𝑛22

Types of fibres
Optical fibres are classified into three major categories. They are
(i) Materials Based on materials in which the fibres are made it is classified into two
types as follows
1. Glass fibres: If the fibres are made up of mixture of metal oxides and silica
glasses.Examples: The glass fibres can be made by any one of the following
combinations of core and cladding.
(i) Core: SiO2; Cladding: P2O3-SiO2
(ii) Core: GeO2-SiO2; Cladding: SiO2
2. Plastic fibres:
If the fibres are made up of plastics which can be handled without any care due to its
toughness and durability it is called plastic fibre. Examples: The plastic fibres are made
by any one of the following combinations of core and cladding.
(i) Core: Polymethyl methacrylate; Cladding: Co-polymer
(ii) Core: polystyrene: Cladding: Methyl methacrylate
(ii)Mode of propagation

Features Single mode Multimode

Diameter of core 2 to 8 µm 50 µm

No. of modes 1 >1

Bandwidth Wide Narrow

Output Faithfully follows input Distorted output

Number of modes 1
dn 1 √2 Δ 2
N=4.9( )
λ
Signal degradation Less More

Fabrication Difficult Easier

(iii)Refractive index

S. Step Index Fibre Graded Index Fibre

No

1. Refractive index of core is uniform Refractive index of core is made to

throughout and undergoes an abrupt vary in the parabolic manner. (i.e.)
or step change at the core cladding maximum along the centre of the core
interface and decreases towards interface and
becomes equal to that of cladding at
the interface.

2. Diameter of core: Multimode ≈ 50µ𝑚

Multimode ≈50-200µm
Single mode: 10 µm

3. Light travels in the form of Light travels in the form of skew rays.
meridional ray.

4. Signal distortion is more in Signal distortion is low because of self-

multimode step index fibre focusing effect.

5. Both single and multimode are Only multimode propagation is

possible. possible.

6. Attenuation more for multimode; very Attenuation is less

less for single mode

7. NA more for multimode and less for NA is less

single mode

8. Bandwidth Multimode:
Multimode: ≈50MHZ 200-600MHZ
Singlemode:1000MHZ

Fibre optical communication system

An optical fibre communication system (block diagram) consists of three important parts
viz., (i) Transmitter (ii) Optical fibre (iii) Receiver as shown in figure.
a) Information signal source:
The information signal source may be voice, music, video signals etc, which is in the
analog form to be transmitted is converted from analog to electrical signal
b) Transmitter:
The transmitter consists of a drive circuit and a light source. The drive circuit transfer the
electric input signal into digital pulses and the light source convert that into optical pulses.
The light source usually used is LED. Here the electric pulses modulate the intensity of the
light source and are focused onto the optical fibre.
c) Optical fibre:
It acts as a waveguide and transmits the optical pulses towards the receiver, by the principle
of total internal reflection
d) Receiver:
The photo detector is a receiver which receives the optical pulses and converts it into
electrical pulse. Further the signals are simplified by an amplifier. These electrical signals are
decoded (i.e.) converted from digital to analog signals. Thus, the original electrical signal is
obtained in analog form with the same information. In this way, the information is
transmitted from one end to another end.
e) Attenuation
Attenuation is a measure of decay of signal strength or loss of light power thatoccursas light
pulses propagate through the length of the fibre.In optical fibres the attenuation is mainly
caused by two physical factors absorption andscattering losses. Absorption is because of fibre
material and scattering due to structuralimperfection within the fibre. Nearly 90 % of total
attenuation is caused by Rayleighscattering only. Micro bending of optical fibre also
contributes to the attenuation ofsignal.The rate at which light is absorbed is dependent on the
wavelength of the light and thecharacteristics of glass. Glass is a silicon compound, by
adding differentadditional chemicals to the basic silicon dioxide the optical properties of the
glass can bechanged.
The Rayleigh scattering is wavelength dependent and reduces rapidly as the wavelength of
the incident radiation increases.The attenuation of fibre is governed by the materials from
which it is fabricated, themanufacturing process and the refractive index profile chosen.
Attenuation loss ismeasured in dB/km.
Modulation:
The transmitter converts the electrical input signal to an optical signal. Its drive circuit varies
the current flow through the light source, which in turn varies the irradiance of the source.
The process of varying the irradiance as a function of time is called modulation.
Dispersion in Optical Fibres
Any phenomenon in which the velocity of propagation of any electromagnetic wave
iswavelength dependent. In communication, dispersion is used to describe any process by
which any electromagnetic signal propagating in a physical medium is degraded because the
various wave characteristics (i.e., frequencies) of the signal have different propagation
velocities within the physical medium.
There are 3 dispersion types in the optical fibres,
in general:
1- Material Dispersion
2- Waveguide Dispersion
3- Polarization-Mode Dispersion
Material Dispersion
Material dispersion is also called as chromatic dispersion. Material dispersion exists due to
change in index of refraction for different wavelengths. A light ray contains components of
various wavelengths centred at wavelength λ10. The time delay is different for different
wavelength components. This results in time dispersion of pulse at the receiving end of fibre.
Fig. 2.6.2 shows index of refraction as a function of optical wavelength.The material
dispersion for unit length (L = 1) is given by Formula
Waveguide Dispersion
Waveguide dispersion is caused by the difference in the index of refraction between the core
and cladding, resulting in a ‘drag’ effect between the core and cladding portions of the
power.Waveguide dispersion is significant only in fibres carrying fewer than 5-10 modes.
Since multimode optical fibres carry hundreds of modes, they will not have observable
waveguide dispersion.The group delay (τwg) arising due to waveguide dispersion
Advantages of Optical Fibre Communications
1. Wide bandwidth
The light wave occupies the frequency range between 2 x 1012 Hz to 3.7 x 1012 Hz.
Thus, the information carrying capability of fibre optic cables is much higher.
2. Low losses
Fibre optic cables offers very less signal attenuation over long distances. Typically, it
is less than 1 dB/km. This enables longer distance between repeaters.
3. Immune to cross talk
Fibre optic cables have very high immunity to electrical and magnetic field. Since
fibre optic cables are non-conductors of electricity hence, they do not produce
magnetic field. Thus, fibre optic cables are immune to cross talk between cables
caused by magnetic induction.
4. Interference immune
Fibre optic cable immune to conductive and radiative interferences caused by
electrical noise sources such as lighting, electric motors, fluorescent lights.
5. Light weight
As fibre cables are made of silica glass or plastic which is much lighter than copper or
aluminium cables. Light weight fibre cables are cheaper to transport.
6. Small size
The diameter of fibre is much smaller compared to other cables; therefore, fibre cable
is small, requires less storage space.
7. More strength
Fibre cables are stronger and rugged hence can support more weight.
8. Security
Fibre cables are more secure than other cables. It is almost impossible to tap into a
fibre cable as they do not radiate signals. No ground loops exist between optical fibres
hence they are more secure.
9. Long distance transmission
Because of less attenuation transmission at a longer distance is possible.
10. Environment immune
Fibre cables are more immune to environmental extremes. They can operate over
large temperature variations. Also, they are not affected by corrosive liquids and
gases.
11. Sage and easy installation
Fibre cables are safer and easier to install and maintain. They are non-conductors
hence there is no shock hazards as no current or voltage is associated with them. Their
small size and light weight feature make installation easier.
12. Less cost
Cost of fibre optic system is less compared to any other system.
Disadvantages of Optical Fibre Communications
1. High initial cost
The initial cost of installation or setting up cost is very high compared to all other
system.
2. Maintenance and repairing cost
The maintenance and repairing of fibre optic systems is not only difficult but
expensive also.
3. Jointing and test procedures
Since optical fibres are of very small size. The fibre joining process is very costly and
requires skilled manpower.
4. Tensile stress
Optical fibres are more susceptible to buckling, bending and tensile stress than copper
cables. This leads to restricted practice to use optical fibre technology to premises and
floor backbones with a few interfaces to the copper cables.
5. Short links
Even though optical fibre cables are inexpensive, it is still not cost effective to replace
every small conventional connector (e.g., between computers and peripherals), as the
price of optoelectronic transducers are very high.
6. Fibre losses
The amount of optical fibre available to the photo detector at the end of fibre length
depends on various fibre losses such as scattering, dispersion, attenuation, and reflection.
Applications of Optical Fibre Communications
Applications of optical fibre communications include telecommunications, data
communications, video control and protection switching, sensors and power applications.
1. Telephone networks
Optical waveguide has low attenuation, high transmission bandwidth compared to
copper lines; therefore, numbers of long haul co-axial trunks links between telephone
exchanges are being replaced by optical fibre links.
2. Urban broadband service networks
Optical waveguide provides much larger bandwidth than co-axial cable, also the number
of repeaters required is reduced considerably. Modern suburban communications
involve videotext, videoconferencing Video telephony Switched broadband
communication network. All these can be supplied over a single fibre optic link. Fibre
optic cables is the solution to many of today‘s high speed, high bandwidth data
communication problems and will continue to play a large role in future telecom and
data-com networks.
Fibre optic Sensors:
The fibre optic sensors also called as optical fibre sensors use optical fibre or sensing
element. These sensors are used to sense some quantities like temperature, pressure,
vibrations, displacements, rotations, or concentration of chemical species. Fibres have so
many uses in the field of remote sensing because they require no electrical power at the
remote location and they have tiny size. Fibre optic sensors are supreme for insensitive
conditions, including noise, high vibration, extreme heat, wet and unstable environments.
These sensors can easily fit in small areas and can be positioned correctly wherever flexible
fibres are needed. The wavelength shift can be calculated using a device, optical frequency-
domain reflectometry. The time-delay of the fibre optic sensors can be decided using a device
such as an optical time-domain Reflectometer.
Types of fibre optic sensors:
There are two types of fibre optic sensors
(i)Intrinsic sensor or active sensor:
Here the guided light in the fibre gets modulated by the variable to be measuredand then
demodulated. Thus,sensing, and simultaneous measurement are taking placein the active
sensor. They are
a) intensity modulated sensors which are based on the change in absorption
ortransmission of light, refractive index, temperature, et.,
(b) phase modulated sensors which involve the interference between signal andreference
in the interferometer, leading to a shift in the interference fringes by thevariable. These have
very high sensitivities.
(c) polarization modulated sensors which involve the change in polarization stateof the
guided signal by the variable and
(d) wavelength modulated sensors which involve the spectral dependent variationof
absorption and emission by the variable.
The active multimode fibre sensors are mainly based on the intensitymodulation. The other
modulation methods are not suitable because there are modecoupling and random
relationships between the phases and polarization states of thepropagating mode.The active
single mode fibre sensors are utilizing intensity, phase, andpolarization modulation
methods.
(ii) Extrinsic sensor or passive sensor:
Here the modulation takes place outside the optical fibre which acts merely asconvenient
transmission channel for the light radiation. It has a sensor head andthe sensed optical signal
is transferred to a remote point for signal processing.
Intensity modulated temperature sensor (IMT)
It is based on reflective concept. Here the bimetallicstrip acts as the sensing element. It
consists of steel andbrass welded together in the form of a strip. Since linearexpansion of
brass is more than steel, the strip bends inthe form of an arc. Metal with higher linear
expansionwill be outside of the arc when heated.The strip is attached to a bifurcated
reflective fibre optic probe. Strip is designedto move continuously and its movement is
directly proportional to temperature.The amount of light reflected is converted into voltage
by a photo diode. Fig.10.9shows linear response of the sensor. Amount of light reflected
decreases with increase in temperature, so that the output of the photodiode decreases with
increase intemperature.
 Intensity modulated temperature sensor (IMT)

Phase modulated temperature sensor (PMT)

Here, Phase shift produced in the sensing fibre relative to reference fibre is a functionof
temperature. Light source is a semiconductor laser. A coupler splits the beam which
travelsthrough sensing and reference fibre. Another coupler combines these two beamsand
on display, alternate bright and dark bands appear. A change in phase of lightin sensing
fibre due to change in refractive index with respect to temperature withreference to phase of
light in the reference fibre appears as a displacement fringepattern. A phase change of 27
radians causes a displacement of the fringe pattern. Bycounting the fringe displacement, the
magnitude of temperature can be determined.

Phase modulated temperature sensor (PMT)

MEDICAL ENDOSCOPE

Optical fibres are very much useful in medical field. Using low quality, large
diameter, and short length silica fibres we can design a fibre optic endoscope or
fiberscope.
A medical endoscope is a tubular optical instrument, used to inspect or view the internal
parts of human body which are not visible to the naked eye. The photograph of the internal
parts can also be taken using this endoscope.
Construction
Figure shows the structure of endoscope. It has two fibres viz.,
 1. Outer fibre(f0)
2. The inner fibre (fi).

Outer fibre:

The outer fibre consists of many fibres bundled together without any order of arrangement
and is called incoherent bundle. These fibre bundles are enclosed in a thin sleeve for
protection. The outer fibre is used to illuminate or focus the light onto the inner parts of the
body.
Inner fibre:

The inner fibre also consists of a bundle of fibres, but in perfect order. Therefore, this
arrangement is called coherent bundle. This fibre is used to collect the reflected light from the
object. A tiny lens is fixed to one end of the bundle in order to effectively focus the light,
reflected from the object. For a wider field of view and better image quality, a telescope
system is added in the internal part of the telescope.
Working:

Light from the source is passed through the outer fibre (f0). The light is illuminated on the
internal part of the body. The reflected light from the object is brought to focus using the
telescope to the inner fibre (fi).Here each fibre picks up a part of the picture from the body.
Hence the picture will be collected bit by bit and is transmitted in an order by the array of
fibres.As a result, the whole picture is reproduced at the other end of the receiving fibre as
shown in the figure. The output is properly amplified and can be viewed through the eye
piece at the receiving end.The cross-sectional view is as shown in the figure.
 In figure, we can see that along with input and output fibres, we have two more channels
namely, (i) Instrumental Channel (C1) and (ii) Irrigation channel (C2) used for the following
purposes.

Instrumentation channel (C1):

It is used to insert or take the surgical instruments needed for operation.
Irrigation channel (C2):
It is used to blow air or this is used to clear the blood in the operation region, so that the
affected parts of the body can be clearly viewed.

Problems:
1. Calculate the numerical aperture of an optical fibre whose core and cladding are
mad of materials of refractive index 1.6 and 1.5 respectively.
Given data
Refractive index of core n1 = 1.6
Refractive index of cladding n2 = 1.5
Formula
Numerical aperture of the optical fibre is given by

𝑁. 𝐴 = √𝑛12 − 𝑛22

Solution:

𝑁. 𝐴 = √(1.6)2 − (1.5)2

= √2.56 − 2.25
= 0.55677
Numerical aperture of the optical fibre = 0.55677 (no unit)
2. A silica optical fibre has a core refractive index of 1.50 and a cladding refractive
index of 1.47. Calculate the critical angle at the core cladding interface.
Given data
n1 = 1.50; n2 = 1.47
Formula:
𝑛
Critical angle 𝜙𝑐 = sin−1 ( 𝑛 1)
2
Solution:
1.47
𝜙𝑐 = sin−1 ( )
1.50
𝜙𝑐 = 78.52
𝜙𝑐 = 78°31′
The critical angle at the core- cladding interface 𝝓𝒄 = 𝟕𝟖°𝟑𝟏′

3. A fibre cable has an acceptance angle of 30° and a core index of refraction of 1.4.
Calculate the refractive index of the cladding.
Given data
Acceptance angle im = 30°
Refractive index of core n1 = 1.4
Solution:
𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑖𝑚 = √𝑛12 − 𝑛22
Squaring on both sides we get,
𝑠𝑖𝑛2 𝑖𝑚 = 𝑛12 − 𝑛22
𝑛22 = 𝑛12 − sin 𝑖𝑚
𝑛2 = √1.42 − 𝑠𝑖𝑛2 300
𝑛2 = √1.96 − 0.25
𝑛2 = √1.71
𝑛2 = 1.308
The refractive index of cladding n2 = 1.308