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Gerd Keiser

Fiber Optic
Communications
Fiber Optic Communications
Gerd Keiser

Fiber Optic Communications

Gerd Keiser
Newton Center, MA, USA

ISBN 978-981-33-4664-2 ISBN 978-981-33-4665-9 (eBook)

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-33-4665-9

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature
Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether
the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse
of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and
transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar
or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication
does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant
protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book
are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or
the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any
errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional
claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
The registered company address is: 152 Beach Road, #21-01/04 Gateway East, Singapore 189721,
Singapore
To
Ching-Yun, Nishla, Keith, Kai, and Neyla
for their loving patience and encouragement
Preface

The discipline of optical fiber communications has undergone a fascinating journey

in the past several decades and is still growing rapidly worldwide. Especially exciting
during this time was the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physics received by Sir Charles Kuen
Kao for his pioneering insight, in the 1960s, into using glass fibers as a data transmis-
sion medium and for his enthusiastic international promotions in the further devel-
opment of low-loss fibers. As a result of the promotions by Kao, the first ultrapure
fiber was fabricated in 1970, only four years after his prediction. Modern sophis-
ticated telecom networks based on optical fiber technology now have become an
integral and indispensable part of society. Applications include services such as
database queries, home shopping, interactive video, remote education, telemedicine
and e-health, high-resolution editing of home videos, blogging, and large-scale high-
capacity e-science and grid computing. Due to the importance of these networks to
modern life, the communication services are expected to always be available and to
function properly. Such stringent demands require careful engineering in all tech-
nological aspects ranging from component development through system design and
installation to network operation and maintenance.
To master the skills needed to work in the optical fiber communications disci-
pline, this book presents the fundamental principles for understanding and applying
a wide range of optical fiber technologies to modern communication networks. The
sequence of topics takes the reader systematically from the underlying principles of
photonic components and optical fibers through descriptions of the architectures and
performance characteristics of complex optical networks to essential measurement
and test procedures required during network installation, operation, and mainte-
nance. By mastering these fundamental topics, the reader will be prepared not only
to contribute to disciplines such as current device, communication link, or equip-
ment designs, but also to understand quickly any further technology developments
for future enhanced networks.
To accomplish these objectives, the sequence of chapters addresses the following
topics:

vii
viii Preface

• Chapter 1 gives the motivations and advantages for using optical fibers, the spectral
bands of interest, methods used to boost the transmission capacity of an optical
fiber, and what standards are being applied.
• Despite its apparent simplicity, an optical fiber is one of the most important
elements in a fiber link. Chapter 2 gives details on the physical structures,
constituent materials, and lightwave propagation mechanisms of optical fibers.
• Chapter 3 gives details on the attenuation behavior and signal dispersion char-
acteristics of the wide variety of common optical fibers. In addition, the chapter
discusses international standards for manufacturing optical fibers.
• Chapter 4 addresses the structures, light-emitting principles, operating character-
istics of light sources, and optical signal modulation techniques.
• How to couple the light source to a fiber is described in Chap. 5, as well as how
to join two fibers in order to ensure a low optical power loss at the joints.
• Chapter 6 covers the structures and performances of photodetectors. Because an
optical signal generally is weakened and distorted at the end of link, the photode-
tector must possess a high sensitivity, have a fast response time, and add minimum
noise effects to the system. In addition, its size must be compatible with that of
the fiber output.
• The lightwave receiver detects an arriving optical signal and converts it into an
electrical signal for information processing. Chapter 7 describes receiver princi-
ples and functions, which include signal detection statistics and eye diagram error
measurements schemes.
• Chapter 8 discusses digital link design methods including power budgets and
bandwidth limitations. In addition, the topics include power penalties, basic
coherent detection schemes, and details of error control methods for digital
signals.
• Chapter 9 examines the concepts of analog links for sending radio frequency (RF)
signals at microwave frequencies over optical fibers. An expanding application
of these techniques is for broadband radio-over-fiber networks.
• Chapter 10 addresses wavelength division multiplexing (WDM), examines the
functions of a generic WDM link, and discusses international standards for
different WDM schemes. It also includes descriptions of passive WDM devices,
such as fiber Bragg gratings, thin-film filters, and various types of gratings.
• Chapter 11 describes the concepts for creating optical amplification and the appli-
cations of these devices. Among the topics are semiconductor optical amplifiers,
doped fiber amplifiers, and Raman amplification schemes.
• Chapter 12 is devoted to the origins and effects of nonlinear processes in optical
fibers. Some of these nonlinear effects degrade system performance and need to
be controlled, whereas others can have beneficial uses.
• Chapter 13 is devoted to optical networking concepts for long distance, metro, data
center, and access networks. Among the topics are optical add/drop multiplexing
and optical cross-connects, wavelength routing, optical packet switching, optical
burst switching, and passive optical networks.
Preface ix

• Chapter 14 discusses performance measurement and monitoring. The topics

include measurement standards, test instruments for fiber link characteriza-
tion, evaluation of link performance through eye pattern measurements, error
monitoring, network maintenance, and fault management.

Use of This Book

This book provides the basic material for a senior-level or postgraduate course in the
theory and application of optical fiber communication technology. It also will serve
well as a working reference for practicing engineers dealing with the design and
development of components, transmission equipment, test instruments, and cable
plants for optical fiber communication systems. The background required to study
the book is that of typical senior-level engineering students. This includes intro-
ductory electromagnetic theory, calculus and elementary differential equations, and
basic concepts of optics as presented in a basic physics course. Concise reviews of
several background topics, such as optics concepts, electromagnetic theory, and basic
semiconductor physics, are included in the main body of the text.
To assist readers in learning the material and applying it to practical designs,
147 examples and 75 drill problems are given throughout the book. A collection of
187 homework problems is included to help test the reader’s comprehension of the
material covered and to extend and elucidate the text.
Numerous references are provided at the end of each chapter as a start for delving
deeper into any given topic. Because optical fiber communications bring together
research and development efforts from many different scientific and engineering
disciplines, there are hundreds of articles in the literature relating to the material
covered in each chapter. Even though not all these articles can be cited in the refer-
ences, the selections represent some of the major contributions to the fiber optics
field and can be considered as a good introduction to the literature. Supplementary
material and references for up-to-date developments can be found in specialized
textbooks and various conference proceedings.
To help the reader understand and use the material in the book, Appendix A
gives an overview of the international system of units and a list of various standard
physical constants. Appendix B presents a brief review of the concept of decibels.
Appendices C through E provide listings of acronyms, Roman symbols, and Greek
symbols, respectively, that are used in the book.

Newton Center, USA Gerd Keiser

Acknowledgements

For preparing this textbook on Fiber Optic Communications, I am extremely grateful

to the numerous people worldwide with whom I had countless discussions over the
years and who helped me in many different ways. The list of these people is too long
to include here, but I truly appreciate their help. In addition, I would like to thank
Loyola D’Silva of Springer for his assistance and expert guidance, together with the
other editorial and production team members of Springer, to produce the book. As
a final personal note, I am grateful to my wife Ching-Yun and my family members
Nishla, Keith, Kai, and Neyla for their patience and encouragement during the time
I devoted to writing this book.

xi
Contents

1 Perspectives on Lightwave Communications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

1.1 Reasons for Fiber Optic Communications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.1.1 The Road to Optical Networks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.1.2 Benefits of Using Optical Fibers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.2 Optical Wavelength Bands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.2.1 Electromagnetic Energy Spectrum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.2.2 Optical Windows and Spectral Bands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
1.3 Decibel Notation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
1.4 Digital Multiplexing Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
1.4.1 Basic Telecom Signal Multiplexing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
1.4.2 Multiplexing Hierarchy in SONET/SDH . . . . . . . . . . . 16
1.4.3 Optical Transport Network (OTN) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
1.5 Multiplexing of Wavelength Channels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
1.5.1 Basis of WDM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
1.5.2 Polarization Division Multiplexing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
1.5.3 Optical Fibers with Multiple Cores . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
1.6 Basic Elements of Optical Fiber Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
1.7 Evolution of Fiber Optic Networks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
1.8 Standards for Fiber Optic Communications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
1.9 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
2 Optical Fiber Structures and Light Guiding Principles . . . . . . . . . . . 31
2.1 The Nature of Light . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
2.1.1 Polarization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
2.1.2 Linear Polarization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
2.1.3 Elliptical Polarization and Circular Polarization . . . . . 36
2.1.4 Quantum Aspects of Light . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

xiii
xiv Contents

2.2 Basic Laws and Definitions of Optics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

2.2.1 Concept of Refractive Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
2.2.2 Basis of Reflection and Refraction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
2.2.3 Polarization Characteristics of Light . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
2.2.4 Polarization-Sensitive Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
2.3 Optical Fiber Configurations and Modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
2.3.1 Conventional Fiber Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
2.3.2 Concepts of Rays and Modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
2.3.3 Structure of Step-Index Fibers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
2.3.4 Ray Optics Representation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
2.3.5 Lightwaves in a Dielectric Slab Waveguide . . . . . . . . . 55
2.4 Modes in Circular Waveguides . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
2.4.1 Basic Modal Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
2.4.2 Cutoff Wavelength and V Number . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
2.4.3 Optical Power in Step-Index Fibers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
2.4.4 Linearly Polarized Modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
2.5 Single-Mode Fibers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
2.5.1 SMF Construction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
2.5.2 Definition of Mode–Field Diameter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
2.5.3 Origin of Birefringence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
2.5.4 Effective Refractive Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
2.6 Graded-Index (GI) Fibers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
2.6.1 Core Structure of GI Fibers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
2.6.2 GI Fiber Numerical Aperture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
2.6.3 Cutoff Condition in GI Fibers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
2.7 Optical Fiber Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
2.7.1 Glass Optical Fibers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
2.7.2 Standard Fiber Fabrication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
2.7.3 Active Glass Optical Fibers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
2.7.4 Plastic Optical Fibers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
2.8 Photonic Crystal Fiber Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
2.8.1 Index-Guiding PCF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
2.8.2 Photonic Bandgap Fiber . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
2.9 Optical Fiber Cables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
2.9.1 Fiber Optic Cable Structures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
2.9.2 Designs of Indoor Optical Cables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
2.9.3 Designs of Outdoor Optical Cables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
2.10 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Appendix: The Fresnel Equations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Contents xv

3 Optical Signal Attenuation and Dispersion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

3.1 Fiber Attenuation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
3.1.1 Units for Fiber Attenuation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
3.1.2 Absorption of Optical Power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
3.1.3 Scattering Losses in Optical Fibers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
3.1.4 Fiber Bending Losses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
3.1.5 Core and Cladding Propagation Losses . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
3.2 Optical Signal Dispersion Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
3.2.1 Origins of Signal Dispersion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
3.2.2 Modal Delay Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
3.2.3 Factors Contributing to Dispersion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
3.2.4 Group Delay Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
3.2.5 Material-Induced Dispersion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
3.2.6 Effects of Waveguide Dispersion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
3.2.7 Dispersion Behavior in Single-Mode Fibers . . . . . . . . 119
3.2.8 Origin of Polarization-Mode Dispersion . . . . . . . . . . . 120
3.3 Design and Characteristics of SMFs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
3.3.1 Tailoring of Refractive Index Profiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
3.3.2 Concept of Cutoff Wavelength . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
3.3.3 Standards for Dispersion Calculations . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
3.3.4 Definition of Mode-Field Diameter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
3.3.5 Bending Loss in Single-Mode Fibers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
3.4 ITU-T Standards for Fibers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
3.4.1 Recommendation G.651.1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
3.4.2 Recommendation G.652 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
3.4.3 Recommendation G.653 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
3.4.4 Recommendation G.654 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
3.4.5 Recommendation G.655 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
3.4.6 Recommendation G.656 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
3.4.7 Recommendation G.657 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
3.5 Designs and Use of Specialty Fibers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
3.6 Character of Multicore Optical Fibers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
3.7 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
4 Light Sources for Fiber Links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
4.1 Basic Concepts of Semiconductor Physics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
4.1.1 Semiconductor Energy Bands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
4.1.2 Intrinsic and Extrinsic Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
4.1.3 Concept of a pn Junction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
4.1.4 Direct Bandgap and Indirect Bandgap . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
4.1.5 Fabrication of Semiconductor Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
xvi Contents

4.2 Principles of Light-Emitting Diodes (LEDs) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158

4.2.1 LED Structures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
4.2.2 Semiconductor Materials for Light Sources . . . . . . . . . 161
4.2.3 LED Quantum Efficiency and Output Power . . . . . . . . 166
4.2.4 Response Time of an LED . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
4.3 Principles of Laser Diodes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
4.3.1 Modes and Threshold Conditions in Laser
Diodes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
4.3.2 Laser Diode Rate Equations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
4.3.3 External Differential Quantum Efficiency . . . . . . . . . . 183
4.3.4 Laser Resonant Frequencies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
4.3.5 Structures and Radiation Patterns of Laser
Diodes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
4.3.6 Lasers Operating in a Single Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
4.3.7 Modulation of Laser Diodes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
4.3.8 Laser Output Spectral Width . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
4.3.9 External Laser Light Modulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
4.3.10 Lasing Threshold Temperature Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
4.4 Output Linearity of Light Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
4.5 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
5 Optical Power Coupling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
5.1 Source-to-Fiber Power Coupling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210
5.1.1 Light Source Emission Patterns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210
5.1.2 Calculation of Power Coupling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212
5.1.3 Optical Coupling Versus Wavelength . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218
5.1.4 Equilibrium Numerical Aperture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
5.2 Coupling Improvement with Lensing Schemes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220
5.3 Losses Between Fiber Joints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
5.3.1 Mechanical Misalignment Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226
5.3.2 Fiber Variation Losses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232
5.3.3 Single-Mode Fiber Losses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234
5.3.4 Preparation of Fiber End Faces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235
5.4 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
6 Photodetection Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241
6.1 Operation of Photodiodes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242
6.1.1 The pin Photodetector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242
6.1.2 Basics of Avalanche Photodiodes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249
6.2 Noise Effects in Photodetectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250
6.2.1 Signal-to-Noise Ratio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250
6.2.2 Sources of Photodetector Noise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251
6.2.3 Signal-to-Noise Ratio Limits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254
6.2.4 Noise-Equivalent Power and Detectivity . . . . . . . . . . . 256
Contents xvii

6.3 Response Times of Photodiodes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257

6.3.1 Photocurrent in the Depletion Layer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257
6.3.2 Response Time Characteristics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259
6.4 Comparisons of Photodetectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262
6.5 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266
7 Optical Receiver Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267
7.1 Basic Receiver Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268
7.1.1 Transmitting Digital Signals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
7.1.2 Sources of Detection Errors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270
7.1.3 Receiver Front-End Amplifiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274
7.2 Performance Characteristics of Digital Receivers . . . . . . . . . . . . 276
7.2.1 Determining Probability of Error . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276
7.2.2 Specifying Receiver Sensitivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282
7.2.3 The Basic Quantum Limit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285
7.3 Principles of Eye Diagrams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287
7.3.1 Features of Eye Patterns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287
7.3.2 BER and Q-Factor Measurements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290
7.4 Burst-Mode Receivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291
7.5 Characteristics of Analog Receivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294
7.6 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301
8 Digital Optical Fiber Links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303
8.1 Basic Optical Fiber Links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304
8.1.1 Signal Formats for Transporting Information . . . . . . . 306
8.1.2 Considerations for Designing Links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308
8.1.3 Creating a Link Power Budget . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309
8.1.4 Formulating a Rise-Time Budget . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314
8.1.5 Transmission at Short Wavelengths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319
8.1.6 Attenuation Limits for SMF Links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320
8.2 Concepts of Link Power Penalties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322
8.2.1 Power Penalties from Chromatic Dispersion . . . . . . . . 322
8.2.2 Power Penalties Arising from PMD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325
8.2.3 Extinction Ratio Power Penalties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326
8.2.4 Modal Noise Power Penalties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327
8.2.5 Power Penalties Due to Mode-Partition Noise . . . . . . . 328
8.2.6 Chirping-Induced Power Penalties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330
8.2.7 Link Instabilities from Reflection Noise . . . . . . . . . . . . 331
8.3 Detection and Control of Errors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333
8.3.1 Concept of Error Detection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334
8.3.2 Codes Used for Linear Error Detection . . . . . . . . . . . . 335
8.3.3 Error Detection with Polynomial Codes . . . . . . . . . . . . 335
8.3.4 Using Redundant Bits for Error Correction . . . . . . . . . 339
xviii Contents

8.4 Coherent Detection Schemes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340

8.4.1 Fundamental Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341
8.4.2 Homodyne Detection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343
8.4.3 Heterodyne Detection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344
8.4.4 SNR in Coherent Detection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344
8.4.5 BER Comparisons in Coherent Detection . . . . . . . . . . 346
8.5 Higher-Order Signal Modulation Formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352
8.5.1 Concept of Spectral Efficiency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352
8.5.2 Phase Shift Keying or IQ Modulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352
8.5.3 Differential Quadrature Phase-Shift Keying . . . . . . . . 353
8.5.4 Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) . . . . . . . . . 354
8.6 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 355
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361
9 Analog Optical Fiber Channels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363
9.1 Basic Elements of Analog Links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 364
9.2 Concept of Carrier-to-Noise Ratio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365
9.2.1 Carrier Power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 366
9.2.2 Photodetector and Preamplifier Noises . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367
9.2.3 Effects of Relative Intensity Noise (RIN) . . . . . . . . . . . 368
9.2.4 Limiting C/N Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369
9.3 Multichannel Amplitude Modulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 371
9.4 Spurious-Free Dynamic Range . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 374
9.5 Radio-Over-Fiber Links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 376
9.6 Microwave Photonics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 377
9.7 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 378
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 381
10 Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 383
10.1 Concepts of WDM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 384
10.1.1 WDM Operational Principles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 384
10.1.2 Standards for WDM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 387
10.2 Passive Optical Couplers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 389
10.2.1 The 2 × 2 Fiber Coupler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 390
10.2.2 Scattering Matrix Analyses of Couplers . . . . . . . . . . . . 396
10.2.3 Basis of the 2 × 2 Waveguide Coupler . . . . . . . . . . . . . 398
10.2.4 Principal Role of Star Couplers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 402
10.2.5 Mach–Zehnder Interferometry Techniques . . . . . . . . . 405
10.3 Nonreciprocal Isolators and Circulators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 409
10.3.1 Functions of Optical Isolators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 409
10.3.2 Characteristics of Optical Circulators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 411
10.4 WDM Devices Based on Grating Principles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 412
10.4.1 Grating Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 412
10.4.2 Optical Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413
10.4.3 WDM FBG Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 416
Contents xix

10.5 Dielectric Thin-Film Filter (TFF) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 418

10.5.1 Applications of Etalon Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 419
10.5.2 TFF Applications to WDM Links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 422
10.6 Arrayed Waveguide Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 423
10.7 WDM Applications of Diffraction Gratings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 428
10.8 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 430
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 434
11 Basics of Optical Amplifiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 437
11.1 Fundamental Optical Amplifier Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 438
11.1.1 General Applications of Optical Amplifiers . . . . . . . . . 438
11.1.2 Amplifier Classifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 440
11.2 Semiconductor Optical Amplifiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 441
11.2.1 External Pumping of Active Medium . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 442
11.2.2 Amplifier Signal Gain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 445
11.2.3 SOA Bandwidth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 447
11.3 Erbium-Doped Fiber Amplifiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 448
11.3.1 Basics of Fiber Amplifier Pumping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 448
11.3.2 Construction of an EDFA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 451
11.3.3 EDFA Power-Conversion Efficiency and Gain . . . . . . 452
11.4 Noises Generated in Optical Amplifiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 455
11.5 Optical Signal-To-Noise Ratio (OSNR) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 458
11.6 Fiber Link Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 460
11.6.1 Power Amplifier Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 460
11.6.2 Use of In-Line Amplifiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 461
11.6.3 Optical Amplifier as a Preamplifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 463
11.7 Raman Optical Amplifiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 464
11.7.1 Principle of Raman Gain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 464
11.7.2 Pump Lasers for Raman Amplifiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 466
11.8 Multiband Optical Amplifiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 467
11.9 Overview of Optical Fiber Lasers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 468
11.10 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 470
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 474
12 Nonlinear Processes in Optical Fibers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 477
12.1 Classifications of Nonlinearities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 478
12.2 Effective Length and Effective Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 479
12.3 Stimulated Raman Scattering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 481
12.4 Stimulated Brillouin Scattering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 484
12.5 Self-Phase Modulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 486
12.6 Cross-Phase Modulation in WDM Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 488
12.7 Four-Wave Mixing in WDM Channels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 489
12.8 Mitigation Schemes for FWM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 491
12.9 Basic Optical Wavelength Converters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 492
12.9.1 Wavelength Converters Using Optical Gatings . . . . . . 493
12.9.2 Wavelength Converters Based on Wave-Mixing . . . . . 494
xx Contents

12.10 Principles of Solitons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 495

12.10.1 Structures of Soliton Pulses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 495
12.10.2 Fundamental Parameters for Solitons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 499
12.10.3 Width and Spacing of Soliton Pulses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 501
12.11 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 503
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 505
13 Fiber Optic Communication Networks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 507
13.1 Concepts of Optical Networks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 508
13.1.1 Terminology Used for Networks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 508
13.1.2 Generic Network Categories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 509
13.1.3 Layered Structure Approach to Network
Architectures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 512
13.1.4 Optical Layer Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 513
13.2 Common Network Topologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 514
13.2.1 Performance of Passive Linear Buses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 516
13.2.2 Performance of Star Networks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 517
13.3 Basic SONET/SDH Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 519
13.3.1 SONET/SDH Frame Formats and Speeds . . . . . . . . . . 519
13.3.2 Optical Interfaces in SONET/SDH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 522
13.3.3 SONET/SDH Rings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 524
13.3.4 SONET/SDH Network Architectures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 527
13.4 High-Speed Lightwave Transceivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 529
13.4.1 Links Operating at 10 Gb/s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 530
13.4.2 Transceivers for 40 Gb/s Links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 533
13.4.3 Transceivers for 100 Gb/s Links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 534
13.4.4 Links Operating at 400 Gb/s and Higher . . . . . . . . . . . 535
13.5 Schemes for Optical Add/Drop Multiplexing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 535
13.5.1 Configurations of OADM Equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 536
13.5.2 Reconfiguring OADM Equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 537
13.6 Optical Switching Architectures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 542
13.6.1 Concept of an Optical Crossconnect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 543
13.6.2 Considerations for Wavelength Conversion . . . . . . . . . 545
13.6.3 Methodologies for Wavelength Routing . . . . . . . . . . . . 547
13.6.4 Optical Packet Switching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 548
13.6.5 Optical Burst Switching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 549
13.6.6 Elastic Optical Networks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 551
13.7 WDM Network Implementations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 552
13.7.1 Long-Distance WDM Networks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 552
13.7.2 Metro WDM Networks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 554
13.7.3 Data Center Networks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 555
13.8 Passive Optical Networks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 556
13.8.1 Basic Architectures for PONs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 557
13.8.2 Active PON Modules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 559
13.8.3 Controlling PON Traffic Flows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 561
Contents xxi

13.8.4 Protection Switching for PON Configurations . . . . . . . 563

13.8.5 WDM PON Architectures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 564
13.9 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 566
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 572
14 Basic Measurement and Monitoring Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 577
14.1 Overview of Measurement Standards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 579
14.2 Survey of Test Equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 580
14.2.1 Lasers Used for Test Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 582
14.2.2 Optical Spectrum Analyzer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 582
14.2.3 Multipurpose Test Equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 583
14.2.4 Optical Attenuators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 584
14.2.5 OTN Tester for Performance Verification . . . . . . . . . . . 584
14.2.6 Visual Fault Indicator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 585
14.3 Optical Power Measurement Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 585
14.3.1 Physical Basis of Optical Power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 585
14.3.2 Optical Power Meters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 587
14.4 Characterization of Optical Fibers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 587
14.4.1 Refracted Near-Field Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 587
14.4.2 Transmitted Near-Field Technique . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 588
14.4.3 Optical Fiber Attenuation Measurements . . . . . . . . . . . 588
14.5 Concept of Eye Diagram Tests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 592
14.5.1 Standard Mask Testing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 594
14.5.2 Stressed Eye Opening . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 595
14.5.3 BER Contours . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 596
14.6 Optical Time-Domain Reflectometer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 596
14.6.1 OTDR Trace Characterization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 597
14.6.2 Attenuation Measurements with an OTDR . . . . . . . . . 599
14.6.3 OTDR Dead Zone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 600
14.6.4 Locating Fiber Faults . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 601
14.6.5 Measuring Optical Return Loss . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 602
14.7 Optical Performance Monitoring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 603
14.7.1 Network Management Systems and Functions . . . . . . 604
14.7.2 Optical Layer Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 606
14.7.3 Fundamental OPM Function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 608
14.7.4 OPM Architecture for Network Maintenance . . . . . . . 609
14.7.5 Detecting Network Faults . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 610
14.8 Optical Fiber Network Performance Testing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 611
14.8.1 BER Measurements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 612
14.8.2 OSNR Measurements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 613
14.8.3 Q Factor Estimation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 615
14.8.4 OMA Measurement Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 616
14.8.5 Measurement of Timing Jitter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 618
14.9 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 619
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 622
xxii Contents

Appendix A: International Units and Physical Constants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 623

Appendix B: Decibels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 625
Appendix C: Acronyms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 627
Appendix D: List of Important Roman Symbols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 635
Appendix E: List of Important Greek Symbols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 639
About the Author

Dr. Gerd Keiser is a research professor at Boston University and a consultant for
the telecom and biophotonics industries at PhotonicsComm Solutions. Previously, he
was involved with developing and implementing telecom technologies at Honeywell,
GTE, and General Dynamics. His technical achievements at GTE earned him the
prestigious Leslie Warner Award. In addition, he has served as an adjunct professor
of Electrical Engineering at Northeastern University, Boston University, and Tufts
University, and was an industrial advisor to the Wentworth Institute of Technology.
Formerly, he was a visiting chair professor in the Electronics Engineering Depart-
ment at the National Taiwan University of Science and Technology. He also was a
visiting researcher at the Agency for Science, Technology, and Research (A*STAR)
in Singapore and at the University of Melbourne, Australia. He is an IEEE life fellow,
an OSA fellow, and a SPIE fellow. In addition, he has served as an associate editor
and reviewer of several technical journals and is the author of five postgraduate-level
books. He received his B.A. and M.S. degrees in mathematics and physics from
the University of Wisconsin and a Ph.D. in Physics from Northeastern University.
His professional experience and research interests are in the general areas of optical
networking and biophotonics.

xxiii
Chapter 1
Perspectives on Lightwave
Communications

Abstract The concept of using optical fibers for communications proposed by Kao
and Hockman in 1966 spawned an entire new industry based on photonics technology.
This chapter describes the motivations and the progressive successes behind optical
fiber communications. The discussion notes that many innovative optical fiber and
photonic component developments were created to achieve high-speed links. In addi-
tion, a great deal of effort was expended in devising installation procedures, creating
network test and monitoring equipment, and formulating a variety of international
standards.

People have considered using optical methods for communicating over long distances
ever since ancient times. In the era around 1000 BC the Greeks and Romans used
optical transmission links employing methods such as smoke signals and beacon
fires for sending alarms, calls for help, or announcements of certain events. Improve-
ments of these optical transmission systems were not pursued very actively due to
technological limitations at the time. For example, the speed of sending information
over the communication link was limited because the transmission rate depended
on how fast the senders could move their hands, the optical signal receiver was the
error-prone human eye, line-of-sight transmission paths were required, and atmo-
spheric effects such as fog and rain made the transmission path unreliable. Thus it
turned out to be faster, more efficient, and more dependable to send messages by a
courier over the road network [1].
Subsequently, no significant advances for optical communications appeared until
the invention of the laser in the early 1960s. With the potential of high-speed laser-
based transmission capacities in mind, experiments using atmospheric optical chan-
nels then were carried out. However, the high cost of developing and implementing
such systems, together with the limitations imposed on the atmospheric optical chan-
nels by rain, fog, snow, and dust, make such extremely high-speed links economically
unattractive.
At the same time it was recognized that an optical fiber could provide a more
reliable transmission channel because it is not subject to adverse environmental
conditions [2, 3]. Initially, the extremely large losses of more than 1000 dB/km made
optical fibers appear impractical. This changed in 1966 when Kao and Hockman [4]

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021 1
G. Keiser, Fiber Optic Communications,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-33-4665-9_1
2 1 Perspectives on Lightwave Communications

speculated that the high losses were a result of impurities in the fiber material, and
that the losses potentially could be reduced significantly in order to make optical
fibers a viable transmission medium. In 2009 Charles K. C. Kao was awarded the
Nobel Prize in Physics for his pioneering insight and his enthusiastic international
follow-ups in promoting the further development of low-loss optical fibers. These
efforts led to the first ultrapure fiber being fabricated in 1970, only four years after
Kao and Hockman’s prediction [5]. This breakthrough led to a series of technology
developments related to optical fibers. These events finally allowed practical optical
fiber based lightwave communication systems to start being fielded worldwide in
1978.
The goal of this book is to describe the various technologies, implementation
methodologies, and performance measurement techniques that make fiber optic
telecom systems possible. The reader can find additional information on the theory
of light propagation in fibers, the design of links and networks, and the evolution of
optical fibers, photonic devices, and optical fiber communication systems in a variety
of reference books [6], tutorial papers [7-12], textbooks [13-20], and conference
proceedings [21-23].
This chapter is organized as follows:
• Section 1.1 gives the motivations behind the development of optical fiber
transmission systems.
• Section 1.2 defines the different spectral bands that describe various operational
wavelength regions used in optical communications.
• Section 1.3 reviews decibel notation for expressing optical power levels.
• Section 1.4 illustrates the basic hierarchy for electrically multiplexing digitized
information streams used on optical links.
• Section 1.5 describes basic optical multiplexing methods for greatly increasing
the information-handling capacity of optical links.
• Section 1.6 introduces the functions and implementation considerations of the
key elements used in optical fiber links.
• Section 1.7 describes the evolution and advances in fiber optic telecom networks
that have resulted from the progressive introduction of emerging technologies.
• Section 1.8 lists the main classes of standards related to optical communication
components, system operations, and installation procedures.
Next, Chaps. 2–12 describe the purpose and performance characteristics of the
major elements in an optical link. These elements include optical fibers, light sources,
photodetectors, passive optical devices, optical amplifiers, and active optoelectronic
devices used in multiple-wavelength networks. Chapters 13 and 14 show how the
elements are put together to form links and networks and explain measurement
methodologies used to evaluate the performance of lightwave components and links.
1.1 Reasons for Fiber Optic Communications 3

1.1 Reasons for Fiber Optic Communications

1.1.1 The Road to Optical Networks

Figure 1.1 shows the schematic of a generic optical fiber structure. Most other fiber
constructions are based on material, size, and layering variations of this fundamental
configuration. A standard fiber consists of a solid glass cylinder called a core. The
core is the region in which light propagates along the fiber. This is surrounded by a
dielectric cladding, which has a different material property from that of the core in
order to achieve light guiding in the fiber. A standard cladding diameter is 125 μm
for most types of fibers. A polymer buffer coating with a nominal 250 μm diameter
surrounds these two layers to protect the fiber from mechanical stresses and environ-
mental effects. Finally an outer protective polymer jacket with a nominal 900 μm
diameter encapsulates the fiber. Chaps. 2 and 3 give details on the structural and
performance characteristics of common optical fibers.
The first generation optical fiber had a 50 μm core diameter and a 125 μm cladding
diameter. Six such buffered fibers were enclosed in a single optical cable, which was
used in the first installed optical fiber links in the late 1970s. These commercial links
were used for transmitting telephony signals at about 6 Mb/s over distances of around
10 km. As research and development progressed, the sophistication and capabilities
of these systems increased rapidly during the 1980s to create links carrying aggre-
gate data rates beyond terabits per second over distances of hundreds of kilometers.
These achievements were based on new technology developments using single-mode
optical fiber with nominally 9 μm core diameters.
Starting in the 1990s there was a burgeoning demand on communication network
assets for bandwidth-hungry services such as database queries, home shopping,
high-definition interactive video, remote education, telemedicine and e-health, high-
resolution editing of home videos, blogging, and large-scale high-capacity e-science
and Grid computing. This demand was fueled by the rapid proliferation of personal
computers (PCs) and sophisticated smart phones coupled with a phenomenal increase
in their storage capacity and processing capabilities. Furthermore, the widespread

2a 125 μm

n1 n2< n 1 250 μm 900 μm

Core Cladding Buffer coating Outer jacket

Fig. 1.1 Schematic of a generic optical fiber structure; nominal core diameters are 2a = 9 μm for
single-mode and 50 μm for multimode fibers
4 1 Perspectives on Lightwave Communications

availability and continuous expansion of the Internet, and an extensive choice of

remotely accessible application programs and information databases, resulted in a
dramatic rise in PC and mobile device usage. To handle the ever-increasing demand
for high-bandwidth services in locations ranging from homes and mobile devices to
large businesses and research organizations, telecom companies worldwide greatly
enhanced the capacity of fiber lines. This was accomplished by adding more inde-
pendent signal-carrying wavelengths on individual fibers, increasing the transmission
speed of information being carried by each wavelength, and utilizing more advanced
signal modulation techniques with improved spectral efficiency.

1.1.2 Benefits of Using Optical Fibers

The advantages of optical fibers compared to copper wires include the following:
Long Distance Transmission Optical fibers have lower transmission losses compared
to copper wires. Consequently data can be sent over longer distances, thereby
reducing the number of intermediate repeaters needed to boost and restore signals
in long transmission spans. This reduction in equipment and components decreases
system cost and complexity.
Large Information Capacity Optical fibers have wider bandwidths than copper
wires, so that more information can be sent over a single physical line. This prop-
erty decreases the number of physical lines needed for sending a given amount of
information.
Small Size and Low Weight The low weight and the small dimensions of fibers
offer a distinct advantage over heavy, bulky wire cables in crowded underground city
ducts or in ceiling-mounted cable trays. This feature also is of importance in aircraft,
satellites, and ships where small, low-weight cables are advantageous.
Immunity to Electrical Interference An especially important feature of an optical
fiber relates to the fact that it is a dielectric material, which means it does not conduct
electricity. This makes optical fibers immune to the electromagnetic interference
effects seen in copper wires, such as inductive pickup from other adjacent signal-
carrying wires or coupling of electrical noise into the line from any type of nearby
electronic equipment.
Enhanced Safety Optical fibers offer a high degree of operational safety because
they do not have the problems of ground loops, sparks, and potentially high voltages
inherent in copper lines. However, precautions with respect to possible high-intensity
laser light emissions need to be observed to prevent eye damage.
Increased Signal Security An optical fiber offers a high degree of data security
because the optical signal is well confined within the fiber and an opaque coating
around the fiber absorbs any light signal emissions. This feature is in contrast to
copper wires where electrical signals potentially could be tapped off easily. Thus
1.1 Reasons for Fiber Optic Communications 5

optical fibers are attractive in applications where information security is important,

such as financial, legal, government, and military systems.

1.2 Optical Wavelength Bands

1.2.1 Electromagnetic Energy Spectrum

All communication systems use some form of electromagnetic energy to transmit

signals. The spectrum of electromagnetic (EM) radiation is shown in Fig. 1.2. Elec-
tromagnetic energy is a combination of electrical and magnetic fields and includes
power, radio waves, microwaves, infrared light, visible light, ultraviolet light, X rays,
and gamma rays. Each discipline takes up a portion (or band) of the electromagnetic
spectrum. The fundamental nature of all radiation within this spectrum is that it can
be viewed as electromagnetic waves that travel at the speed of light, which is about c
= 3 × 108 m/s in a vacuum. Note that the speed of light s in a material is smaller by
the refractive-index factor n than the speed c in a vacuum, as described in Chap. 2.
For example, n ≈ 1.45 for silica glass, so that the speed of light in this material is
about s = c/n = 2 × 108 m/s.
The physical properties of the waves in different parts of the spectrum can be
measured in several interrelated ways. These are the length of one period of the
wave, the energy contained in the wave, or the oscillating frequency of the wave.

Fiber optics
0.8 - 1.6 µm Visible light
Radio Microwaves X rays

Infrared Ultraviolet
Frequency (Hz)

106 108 1010 1012 1014 1016 1018

Photon energy (eV)

10-5 10-3 0.1 10 103
Wavelength (m)

1000 1 10-2 10-4 10-6 10-8

Fig. 1.2 The spectrum of electromagnetic radiation

6 1 Perspectives on Lightwave Communications

Whereas electrical signal transmission tends to use frequency to designate the signal
operating bands, optical communication generally uses wavelength to designate the
spectral operating region and photon energy or optical power when discussing topics
such as signal strength or electro-optical component performance. However, note that
in some cases the units of optical frequency are used, for example, when dealing with
nonlinear effects in fibers.
As can be seen from Fig. 1.2, there are three different ways to measure the physical
properties of a wave in various regions in the EM spectrum. These measurement units
are related by some simple equations. First of all, in a vacuum the speed of light c is
equal to the wavelength λ (Greek letter lambda) times the frequency ν (Greek letter
nu), so that

c = λv (1.1)

where the frequency ν is measured in cycles per second or hertz (Hz).

Example 1.1 Two commonly used wavelength regions in optical communications

fall in spectral bands centered around 1310 and 1550 nm. What are the frequencies
of these two wavelengths?

Solution Using c = 2.99793 × 108 m/s, then from Eq. (1.1) the corresponding
frequencies are ν(1310 nm) = 228.85 THz and ν(1550 nm) = 193.41 THz.

An important concept in optical communications is the relationship between the

width of a narrow wavelength band λ centered around λ and its corresponding
frequency band ν. This can be found by differentiating the rearranged Eq. (1.1)
given by ν = c/λ, which yields ν = c λ/λ2 . More details on this relationship and
its applications are given in Chap. 10.
The relationship between the energy E of a photon and its frequency (or
wavelength) is determined by the equation known as Planck’s Law

E = hv = hc/λ (1.2)

where the parameter

h = 6.63 × 10−34 J-S = 4.14 × 10−15 eV-s

is Planck’s constant. The unit J means joules and the unit eV stands for electron volts,
which is equal to 1.60218 × 10−19 J. In terms of wavelength (measured in units of
μm), the energy in electron volts is given by

1.2406
E(eV ) = (1.3)
λ(μm)

Example 1.2 Show that photon energies decrease with increasing wavelength. Use
wavelengths at 850, 1310, and 1550 nm.
1.2 Optical Wavelength Bands 7

Solution Using Eq. (1.3) yields E(850 nm) = 1.46 eV, E(1310 nm) = 0.95 eV, and
E(1550 nm) = 0.80 eV.

Figure 1.2 shows the optical spectrum ranges from about 5 nm in the ultraviolet
region to 1 mm for far-infrared radiation. In between these limits is the 400-to-
700 nm visible band. Optical fiber communication uses the near-infrared spectral
band ranging from nominally 770–1675 nm.
The Telecomunications Sector of The International Telecommunications Union
(ITU-T) has designated six spectral bands for use in optical fiber communications
within the 1260-to-1675 nm region [24]. These long-wavelength band designa-
tions arose from the attenuation characteristics of optical fibers and the performance
behavior of an erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA), as described in Chaps. 3 and
10, respectively. Figure 1.3 shows and Table 1.1 defines the regions and the origins
of their designations, which are known by the letters O, E, S, C, L, and U.
Traditionally fiber optic telecommunications organizations expressed interest in
transmitting high-capacity information over long distances. Thus the emphasis was

Optical frequency (THz)

300 238 220 238 193 179

T-Band O-Band E-Band S-Band C-Band L-Band U-Band

1000 1260 1360 1460 1530 1565 1625 1675

Wavelength (nm)

Proposed by NICT Japan Defined by ITU-T 1550 nm/193 THz: widely used

Fig. 1.3 Designations of spectral bands used for optical fiber communications

Table 1.1 Spectral band designations used in optical fiber communications

Name Designation Spectrum (nm) Origin of name
Thousand band T-band 1000–1260 Thousands of potential additional
transmission channels
Original band O-band 1260–1360 Original region used for single-mode fiber
links
Extended band E-band 1360–1460 Link use can extend into the region for fibers
with low water content
Short band S-band 1460–1530 Wavelengths are shorter than the C-band but
higher than the E-band
Conventional band C-band 1530–1565 Wavelength region used by EDFAs
Long band L-band 1565–1625 Gain of an EDFA decreases steadily to 1 at
1625 nm in this band
Ultra-long band U-band 1625–1675 Region beyond the response capability of an
EDFA
8 1 Perspectives on Lightwave Communications

on using the 1260–1675 nm spectral region, because optical fibers exhibit low optical
power losses in this range. Then in 2012 the National Institute of Information and
Communications Technology (NICT) of Japan proposed using the 1000–1260 nm
spectral band, which is designated as the T-band. Here the symbol “T” stands for
“thousand.” The motivation for examining this spectral band was for addressing the
rapidly increasing need for moderate distance links within data centers, the develop-
ments of Internet of Things (IoT), and the support of fifth-generation (5G) wireless
systems [25]. Although the optical signal attenuation in standard telecom fibers is
higher in the T-band compared to the ITU-T bands, the losses are tolerable for the
relatively short transmission distances of up to several kilometers used for applica-
tions in the T-band. However, other fiber types with potentially lower losses in the
T-band are being considered.
The 770-to-910 nm band is used for shorter-wavelength multimode fiber systems.
Thus this region is designated as the short-wavelength or multimode fiber band.
Later chapters describe the operational performance characteristics and applications
of optical fibers, electro-optic components, and other passive optical devices for use
in the short- and long-wavelength bands.

1.2.2 Optical Windows and Spectral Bands

Figure 1.4 shows the operating range of optical fiber systems and the characteristics
of the four key components of a link: the optical fiber, light sources, photodetectors,
and optical amplifiers. Here the dashed vertical lines indicate the centers of the three
main legacy operating wavelength bands of optical fiber systems, which are the short-
wavelength region, the O-band, and the C-band. One of the principal characteristics
of an optical fiber is its attenuation as a function of wavelength, as shown at the top
in Fig. 1.4. Early applications in the late 1970s made exclusive use of the 770-to-
910 nm wavelength band where there was a low-loss window and GaAlAs optical
sources and silicon photodetectors operating at these wavelengths were available.
Originally this region was referred to as the first window because around 1000 nm
there was a large attenuation spike due to absorption by water molecules. As a result
of this spike, early fibers exhibited a local minimum in the attenuation curve around
850 nm.
By reducing the concentration of hydroxyl ions (OH–) and metallic impurities
in the fiber material, in the 1980s manufacturers could fabricate optical fibers with
very low losses in the 1260-to-1675 nm region. This spectral band is called the long-
wavelength region. Because the glass still contained some water molecules, initially
a third-order absorption spike remained around 1400 nm. This spike defined two
low-loss windows, these being the second window centered at 1310 nm and the third
window centered at 1550 nm. These two windows now are called the O-band and
C-band, respectively.
The desire to use the low-loss long-wavelength regions prompted the develop-
ment of InGaAsP-based light sources, InGaAs photodetectors, and InGaAsP optical
1.2 Optical Wavelength Bands 9

Fig. 1.4 Characteristics and operating ranges of the four key optical fiber link components

amplifiers that can operate in the 1310 and 1550 nm regions. In addition, doping
optical fibers with rare-earth elements such as Pr, Th, and Er creates optical fiber
amplifiers (called PDFA, TDFA, and EDFA devices, respectively). These devices
and the use of Raman amplification gave a further capacity boost to high-capacity
long-wavelength systems.
Special material-purification processes can eliminate almost all water molecules
from the glass fiber material, thereby dramatically reducing the water-attenuation
10 1 Perspectives on Lightwave Communications

peak around 1400 nm. This process opens the E-band (1360-to-1460 nm) transmis-
sion region to provide around 100 nm more spectral bandwidth in these specially
fabricated fibers than in conventional single-mode fibers.
Systems operating at 1550 nm provide the lowest attenuation, but the signal disper-
sion as a function of distance in a standard silica fiber is larger at 1550 nm than at
1310 nm. Manufacturers overcame this limitation first by creating dispersion-shifted
fibers for single-wavelength operation and then by devising non-zero dispersion-
shifted fiber (NZDSF) for use with multiple-wavelength implementations. The latter
fiber type has led to the widespread use of multiple-wavelength S-band and C-band
systems for high-capacity, long-span terrestrial and undersea transmission links.
These links routinely carry traffic at 10 Gb/s over nominally 90 km distances between
amplifiers or repeaters. By 2010 links operating at 100 Gb/s were being installed and
in 2017 the IEEE P802.3bs Task Force ratified the 400GbE (Gigabit Ethernet) stan-
dard. This standard established the foundation for industrial deployment of 400GbE
in the global network [26–28].

1.3 Decibel Notation

As the following chapters of this book describe, a critical consideration when

designing and implementing an optical fiber link is to establish, measure, and/or
interrelate the optical signal levels at each of the elements of a transmission link.
Thus it is necessary to know parameter values such as the optical output power from
a light source, the power level needed at the receiver to properly detect a signal,
and the amount of optical power lost at each of the constituent elements of the
transmission link.
Reduction or attenuation of signal strength arises from various loss mechanisms in
a transmission medium. For example, electric power is lost through heat generation
as an electric signal flows along a wire, and optical power is attenuated through
scattering and absorption processes in a glass or plastic fiber or in an atmospheric
channel. To compensate for these energy losses, amplifiers are used periodically
along a channel path to boost the signal level, as shown in Fig. 1.5.
A standard and convenient method for measuring attenuation through a link or
a device is to reference the output signal level to the input level. For guided media
such as an optical fiber, the signal strength normally decays exponentially. Thus
for convenience one can designate signal attenuation or amplification in terms of a
logarithmic power ratio measured in decibels (dB). The dB unit is defined by

P2
Power ratio in dB = 10 log (1.4)
P1

where P1 and P2 are the electrical or optical power levels of a signal at points 1 and
2 in Fig. 1.6, and log is the base-10 logarithm. The logarithmic nature of the decibel
allows a large ratio to be expressed in a fairly simple manner. Power levels differing
1.3 Decibel Notation 11

Original Amplified
signal signal
Attenuated
signal

Signal amplitude

Transmission line
Amplifier
Point 1 Point 2 Point 3

Fig. 1.5 Periodically placed amplifiers compensate for energy losses along a link

P1

Signal amplitude P2

Point 1 Transmission line Point 2

Fig. 1.6 Example of pulse attenuation in a link. P1 and P2 are the power levels of a signal at points
1 and 2

by many orders of magnitude can be compared easily when they are in decibel form.
For example, a power reduction by a factor of 1000 is a −30 dB loss, an attenuation
of 50% is a −3 dB loss, and a 10-fold amplification of the power is a +10 dB gain.
Another attractive feature of the decibel is that to measure the changes in the strength
of a signal, one merely adds or subtracts the decibel loss or gain numbers in a series
of connected optical link elements (e.g., optical fibers, couplers, power splitters, or
amplifiers) between two different points.

Example 1.3 Assume that after traveling a certain distance in some transmission
medium, the power of a signal is reduced to half, that is, P2 = 0.5 P1 in Fig. 1.6. At
this point, using Eq. (1.4) the attenuation or loss of power is

P2 0.5P1
10 log = 10 log = 10 log 0.5 = 10(−0.3) = −3 dB
P1 P1
12 1 Perspectives on Lightwave Communications

Thus, −3 dB (or a 3 dB attenuation or loss) means that the signal has lost half its
power. If an amplifier is inserted into the link at this point to boost the signal back
to its original level, then that amplifier has a 3 dB gain. If the amplifier has a 6 dB
gain, then it boosts the signal power level to twice the original value.

Example 1.4 Consider the transmission path from point 1 to point 4 shown in
Fig. 1.7. Here the signal is attenuated by 9 dB between points 1 and 2. After getting
a 14 dB boost from an amplifier at point 3, it is again attenuated by 3 dB between
points 3 and 4. Relative to point 1, the signal level in dB at point 4 is

dB level at point 4 = (loss in line 1) + (amplifier gain) + (loss in line 2)

= (−9dB) + (14dB) + (−3dB) = +2dB

Thus the signal has a 2 dB (a factor of 100.2 = 1.58) gain in power in going from
point 1 to point 4.

Table 1.2 shows some sample values of power loss given in decibels and the
percent of power remaining after this loss. These types of numbers are important
when considering factors such as the effects of tapping off a small part of an optical
signal for monitoring purposes, for examining the power loss through some optical
element, or when calculating the signal attenuation in a specific length of optical
fiber.

+2 dB
-9 dB +14 dB -3 dB

Transmission line 1 Transmission line 2

Amplifier
Point 1 Point 2 Point 3 Point 4

Fig. 1.7 Example of signal attenuation and amplification in a transmission path

Table 1.2 Representative

Power loss (in dB) Percent of power left
values of decibel power loss
and the remaining 0.1 98
percentages 0.5 89
1 79
2 63
3 50
6 25
10 10
20 1
1.3 Decibel Notation 13

Table 1.3 Examples of

Power dBm equivalent
optical power levels and their
dBm equivalents 200 mW 23
100 mW 20
10 mW 10
1 mW 0
100 μW −10
10 μW −20
1 μW −30
100 nW −40
10 nW −50
1 nW −60
100 pW −70
10 pW −80
1 pW −90

Because the decibel is used to refer to ratios or relative units, it gives no indication
of the absolute power level. However, a derived unit can be used for this purpose. Such
a unit that is particularly common in optical fiber communications is the dBm (simply
pronounced dee bee em). This unit expresses the power level P as a logarithmic ratio
of P referred to 1 mW. In this case, the power in dBm is an absolute value defined by

P(in mW)
Power level (in dBm) = 10 log (1.5)
1 mW
An important rule-of-thumb relationship to remember for optical fiber communi-
cations is 0 dBm = 1 mW. Therefore, positive values of dBm are greater than 1 mW
and negative values are less than 1 mW.

Example 1.5 Consider three different light sources having the following optical
output powers: 50, 1, and 50 mW. What are the power levels in dBm units?

Solution Using Eq. (1.5) to express the light levels in dBm units shows that the
output powers of these sources are −13 dBm, 0 dBm, and +17 dBm, respectively.

Example 1.6 Consider a product data sheet for a photodetector that states that an
optical power level of −32 dBm is needed at the photodetector to satisfy a specific
performance requirement. What is the power level in nW (nanowatt) units?

Solution Equation (1.5) shows that −32 dBm corresponds to a power in nW of

P = 10−32/10 mW = 0.631 μW = 631 nW

Table 1.3 lists some examples of optical power levels and their dBm equivalents.
14 1 Perspectives on Lightwave Communications

1.4 Digital Multiplexing Techniques

To handle the continuously rising demand for high-bandwidth services from users
ranging from individuals to large businesses and research organizations, telecom
companies worldwide are implementing increasingly sophisticated digital multi-
plexing techniques that allow a larger number of independent information streams to
share the same physical transmission channel simultaneously. This section describes
some common electrical digital signal multiplexing techniques [29–32].

1.4.1 Basic Telecom Signal Multiplexing

Table 1.4 gives examples of information rates for some typical telecom services.
To send these services from one user to another, network providers combine the
signals from many different users and send the aggregate signal over a single trans-
mission line. This scheme is known as time-division-multiplexing (TDM) wherein
N independent information streams, each running at a data rate of R b/s, are inter-
leaved electrically into a single information stream operating at a higher rate of N
× R b/s. To get a detailed perspective of this methodology, this section looks at the
multiplexing schemes used in telecommunications.
Early applications of fiber optic transmission links were mainly for large capacity
telephone lines. These digital links consisted of time-division-multiplexed 64-kb/s
voice channels. The multiplexing was developed in the 1960s and is based on what
is known as the plesiochronous digital hierarchy (PDH). Figure 1.8 shows the
digital transmission hierarchies used in the North American and the European-based
telephone networks.
The fundamental building block in the North American network is a 1.544 Mb/s
transmission rate known as a DS1 rate, where DS stands for digital system. It is
formed by time-division-multiplexing twenty-four voice channels, each digitized at
a 64 kb/s rate (which is referred to as DS0). Framing bits, which indicate where an
information unit starts and ends, are added along with these voice channels to yield
the 1.544 Mb/s bit stream. Framing and other control bits that may get added to an

Table 1.4 Examples of

Type of service Data rate
information rates for some
typical services Video on demand/interactive video 1.5–6 Mb/s
Video games 1–2 Mb/s
Remote education 1.5–3 Mb/s
Electronic shopping 1.5–6 Mb/s
Data transfer or telecommuting 1–3 Mb/s
Video conferencing 0.384–2 Mb/s
Voice (single phone channel) 33.6–56 kb/s
1.4 Digital Multiplexing Techniques 15

(a)

E4 Mux
Four to
2.048 Mb/s 139.264 Mb/s
E3 Mux
Thirty inputs to
64 kb/s 34.368 Mb/s 139.264 Mb/s
inputs E2 Mux Four
to 34.368 Mb/s
E1 Mux 8.44 Mb/s Four inputs
to 8.44 Mb/s
2.048 Mb/s inputs (b)

Fig. 1.8 Digital transmission hierarchies used in the a North American and b European-based
telephone networks

information unit in a digital stream are called overhead bits. At any multiplexing
level a signal at the designated input rate is combined with other input signals at the
same rate.
In describing North American telephone network data rates, one sees terms such
as T 1, T 3, and so on. Often the terms Tx and DSx (e.g., T 1 and DS1 or T 3 and DS3)
are used interchangeably. However, there is a subtle difference in their meaning.
Designations such as DS1, DS2, and DS3 refer to a service type; for example, a
user who wants to send information at a 1.544 Mb/s rate would subscribe to a DS1
service. Abbreviations such as T 1, T 2, and T 3 refer to the data rate the transmission
line technology uses to deliver that service over a physical link. For example, the
DS1 service is transported over a physical wire or optical fiber using electrical or
optical pulses sent at a T 1 = 1.544 Mb/s rate.
Telephone networks in other countries use either European- or Japanese-based
multiplexing hierarchies. Similar to the North American hierarchies, basic 64 kb/s
channels are combined but at different multiplexed bit-rate levels as shown in
Table 1.5. Most countries outside of North America and Japan (such as in Europe,
South and Central America, Africa, Australia, and most of Asia) use the European-
based multiplexing hierarchy labeled by E1, E2, E3, and so on. Figure 1.8b shows
the number of channels multiplexed at each bit-rate level up to E4. For example,
multiplexing thirty 64 kb/s channels and adding required overhead bits results in a
2.048 Mb/s E1 rate.
16 1 Perspectives on Lightwave Communications

Table 1.5 Digital multiplexing levels used in North America, Europe, and Japan
Multiplexing level Number of 64 kb/s channels Bit rate (Mb/s)
North America Europe Japan
DS0 1 0.064 0.064 0.064
DS1 24 1.544 1.544
E1 30 2.048
48 3.152 3.152
DS2 96 6.312 6.312
E2 120 8.448
E3 480 34.368 32.064
DS3 672 44.736
1344 91.053
1440 97.728
E4 1920 139.264
DS4 4032 274.176
5760 397.200

The TDM scheme is not restricted to multiplexing voice signals. For example, at
the DS1 or E1 level, any 64 kb/s digital signal of the appropriate format could be
transmitted as one of the 24 or 30 input channels shown in Fig. 1.8. As noted there
and in Table 1.5, the main multiplexed rates for North American applications are
designated as DS1 (1.544 Mb/s), DS2 (6.312 Mb/s), and DS3 (44.736 Mb/s).

Example 1.7 As can be seen from Fig. 1.8, at each multiplexing level some overhead
bits are added for synchronization purposes. What is the overhead for T 1?

Solution At T 1 the overhead is 1544 kb/s − 24 × 64 kb/s = 8 kb/s.

1.4.2 Multiplexing Hierarchy in SONET/SDH

With the advent of high-capacity fiber optic transmission lines in the 1980s, service
providers established a standard signal format called synchronous optical network
(SONET) in North America and synchronous digital hierarchy (SDH) in other parts of
the world [33–35]. These standards define a synchronous frame structure for sending
multiplexed digital traffic over optical fiber trunk lines. The basic building block
and first level of the SONET signal hierarchy is called the Synchronous Transport
Signal—Level 1 (STS-1), which has a bit rate of 51.84 Mb/s. Higher-rate SONET
signals are obtained by byte-interleaving N of these STS-1 frames (where one byte
is a group of 8 bits), which then are scrambled and converted to an Optical Carrier—
Level N (OC-N) signal. Thus the OC-N signal will have a line rate exactly N times
1.4 Digital Multiplexing Techniques 17

Table 1.6 Common SDH and SONET line rates and their popular numerical name
SONET level Electrical level SDH level Line rate (Mb/s) Popular rate name
OC-1 STS-1 – 51.84 –
OC-3 STS-3 STM-1 155.52 155 Mb/s
OC-12 STS-12 STM-4 622.08 622 Mb/s
OC-48 STS-48 STM-16 2488.32 2.5 Gb/s
OC-192 STS-192 STM-64 9953.28 10 Gb/s
OC-768 STS-768 STM-256 39,813.12 40 Gb/s

that of an OC-1 signal. For SDH systems the fundamental building block is the
155.52 Mb/s Synchronous Transport Module—Level 1 (STM-1). Again, higher-
rate information streams are generated by synchronously multiplexing N different
STM-1 signals to form the STM-N signal. Table 1.6 shows commonly used SDH
and SONET signal levels, the line rate, and the popular numerical name for that
rate. Note that although SONET rates can be defined for data rates beyond 40 Gb/s,
emerging requirements for efficient transport of information from high bandwidth
data services requires a new technology such as Sect. 1.4.3 describes.

1.4.3 Optical Transport Network (OTN)

In the early days of telecommunications, for decades network traffic consisted prin-
cipally of voice calls that were transported over networks in which the connections
between endpoints followed a predictable connection scheme. When data services
emerged, adaptations were developed to map the data traffic onto SONET/SDH
networks to provide a single transport network. However, this scheme became
increasingly difficult to implement beyond 40 Gb/s because voice and data have
inherently different transport requirements. Whereas aggregated voice traffic follows
a predictable connection pattern, data services and applications have bursty, unpre-
dictable traffic patterns with widely varying demands on bandwidth and data trans-
mission performance. Consequently, the telecom industry developed a new tech-
nology known as the Optical Transport Network for transmission rates of 40 Gb/s
and above. The ITU has standardized OTN as G.709. Chapter 13 gives more details
on OTN and its applications.

1.5 Multiplexing of Wavelength Channels

The burgeoning development of consumer equipment such as powerful laptop PCs,

tablet computers, 4G and 5G smart phones, high-definition TV sets, and control
18 1 Perspectives on Lightwave Communications

consoles for 3D online games has created a growing demand for more band-
width from applications such as video-on-demand, cloud computing, online gaming,
music streaming, and social networking. To accommodate this growing bandwidth
demand, network providers are continuously seeking new methods for increasing
the information-handling capacity of optical links. This is especially important in
the links running between a customer and a nearby traffic switching facility (known
as the central office). These methods include wavelength division, polarization divi-
sion, mode division, and space division multiplexing techniques that combine many
individual information channels onto a single fiber.

1.5.1 Basis of WDM

The basis of wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) is to use multiple sources

operating at slightly different wavelengths to transmit several independent informa-
tion streams simultaneously over the same fiber. Figure 1.9 shows the basic WDM
concept. Here N independent optically formatted information streams, each trans-
mitted at a different wavelength, are combined by means of an optical multiplexer
and sent over the same fiber. Note that each of these streams could be at a different
data rate. Each information stream maintains its individual data rate after being
multiplexed with the other traffic streams, and still operates at its unique wavelength.
Although researchers started looking at WDM techniques in the 1970s, during the
ensuing years it generally turned out to be easier to transmit only a single wavelength
on a fiber using high-speed electronic and optical devices, than to invoke the greater
system complexity called for in WDM. However, a dramatic surge in WDM popu-
larity started in the early 1990s owing to several factors. These include new fiber
types that provide better performance of multiple-wavelength operation at 1550 nm,
advances in producing WDM devices that can combine and separate closely spaced
wavelengths, and the development of optical amplifiers that can boost optical signal

λ1

λ2 λ1, λ2, …, λN

Single fiber
output line
λN

Individual fiber Optical

input lines multiplexer

Fig. 1.9 Basic concept of wavelength division multiplexing

1.5 Multiplexing of Wavelength Channels 19

levels completely in the optical domain. Chapter 10 presents further details on WDM
concepts and components

1.5.2 Polarization Division Multiplexing

As Sect. 3.2.8 describes, signal energy at a given wavelength occupies two orthogonal
polarization modes. The basis of polarization division multiplexing (PDM) is to
impose independent optical signal streams on the two orthogonal polarization states,
thereby doubling the transmission capacity of an optical fiber. The PDM method
generally is used with phase modulation or optical quadrature amplitude modulation
(QAM) techniques thus allowing data rates of 100 Gb/s or more to be sent over a single
optical fiber in a WDM link. A challenge with implementing PDM is to mitigate the
problems of polarization-mode dispersion (see Sect. 3.2.8), polarization-dependent
loss, and cross-polarization modulation. This challenge is addressed through the
use of advanced coding techniques, such as polarization-multiplexed differential
quadrature phase-shift keying (PM-DQPSK) modulation formats (see Sect. 13.4.2).

1.5.3 Optical Fibers with Multiple Cores

Another concept for increasing optical fiber capacity is the technique of space division
multiplexing (SDM) through the use of fibers with multiple cores. In such fibers, each
core provides a spatially isolated transmission path for independent groups of WDM
optical signals. SDM simply multiplies the transmission capacity per fiber by the
number of fiber cores. This condition holds, provided that each SDM channel (each
fiber core) acts independently and has transmission characteristics that are equivalent
to the performance of conventional single-core fibers. For example, the capacity of
a seven-core fiber would be seven times that of a single-core fiber. Section 3.6 gives
some examples of multiple-core optical fibers.

1.6 Basic Elements of Optical Fiber Systems

Similar to electrical communication systems, the basic function of an optical fiber link
is to transport a signal from communication equipment (e.g., a computer, telephone,
or video device) at one location to corresponding equipment at another location with
a high degree of reliability and accuracy. Figure 1.10 shows the main constituents of
an optical fiber communications link. The key sections are a transmitter consisting
of a light source and its associated drive circuitry, a cable offering mechanical
and environmental protection to the optical fibers contained inside, and a receiver
20 1 Perspectives on Lightwave Communications

Information Information
sources Optical connecters recipients

Cabled optical fibers Video

Video

Audio Optical Optical Audio

transmitter receiver
Optical amplifier
Data Data
Passive or active optical devices
(optical filters, couplers, switches)

Fig. 1.10 Main constituents of an optical fiber communications link

consisting of a photodetector plus amplification and signal-restoring circuitry. Addi-

tional components include optical amplifiers, connectors, splices, couplers, regener-
ators (for restoring the signal-shape characteristics), and other passive components
and active photonic devices.
The cabled fiber is one of the most important elements in an optical fiber link
as is described in Chaps. 2 and 3. In addition to protecting the glass fibers during
installation and service, the cable may contain copper wires for powering optical
amplifiers or signal regenerators, which are needed periodically in long-distance
links for amplifying and reshaping the signal. A variety of fiber types with different
performance characteristics exist for a wide range of applications. To protect the glass
fibers during installation and service, there are many different cable configurations
depending on whether the cable is to be installed inside a building, underground
in ducts or through direct-burial methods, outside on poles, or under water. Very
low-loss optical connectors and splices are needed in all categories of optical fiber
networks for joining cables and for attaching one fiber to another.
Analogous to copper cables, the installation of optical fiber cables can be either
aerial, in ducts, undersea, or buried directly in the ground, as illustrated in Fig. 1.11.
As Chap. 2 describes, the cable structure will vary greatly depending on the specific
application and the environment in which it will be installed. Owing to installa-
tion and/or manufacturing limitations, individual cable lengths for in-building or
terrestrial applications will range from several hundred meters to several kilometers.
Practical considerations such as reel size and cable weight determine the actual length
of a single cable section. The shorter segments tend to be used when the cables are
pulled through ducts. Longer lengths are used in aerial, direct-burial, or underwater
applications.
Workers can install optical fiber cables by pulling or blowing them through ducts
(both indoor and outdoor), laying them in a trench outside, plowing them directly
into the ground, suspending them on poles, or laying or plowing them underwater.
Although each method has its own special handling procedures, they all need to
adhere to a common set of precautions. These include avoiding sharp bends of the
1.6 Basic Elements of Optical Fiber Systems 21

Fig. 1.11 Optical fiber cables can be installed on poles, in ducts, and underwater, or they can be
buried directly in the ground

cable, minimizing stresses on the installed cable, periodically allowing extra cable
slack along the cable route for unexpected repairs, and avoiding excessive pulling
or hard yanks on the cable. For direct-burial installations a fiber optic cable can be
plowed directly underground or placed in a trench that is filled in later.
Transoceanic cable lengths can be many thousands of kilometers long and include
periodically spaced (on the order of 60–100 km) optical repeaters to boost the signal
level. The cables are assembled in onshore factories and then are loaded into special
22 1 Perspectives on Lightwave Communications

cable-laying ships. Splicing together individual cable sections forms continuous

transmission lines for these long-distance links.
Once the cable is installed, a transmitter can be used to launch a light signal into the
fiber. Chapter 4 describes transmitter configurations and Chap. 5 discusses methods
and devices for connecting sources and other photonic devices to fibers. In general,
the transmitter consists of a light source that is dimensionally compatible with the
fiber core and it contains associated electronic control and modulation circuitry.
Semiconductor light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and laser diodes are suitable sources.
For these devices the light output amplitude can be modulated rapidly by simply
varying the input current at the desired transmission rate, thereby producing a time-
varying optical signal. The electric input signals to the transmitter circuitry for driving
the optical source can be either of an analog or digital form. The functions of the
associated transmitter electronics are to set and stabilize the source operating point
and output power level. For high-rate systems (usually greater than about 2.5 Gb/s),
direct modulation of the source can lead to unacceptable optical signal distortion. In
this case, an external modulator is used to vary the amplitude of a continuous light
output from a laser diode source. In the 770-to-910 nm region the light sources are
generally alloys of GaAlAs. At longer wavelengths (1260–1675 nm) an InGaAsP
alloy is the principal optical source material.
After an optical signal is launched into a fiber, it will become progressively atten-
uated and distorted with increasing distance because of light scattering, absorption,
and dispersion mechanisms in the glass material. As Chap. 6 discusses, at the desti-
nation of an optical fiber transmission line, there is a receiving device that interprets
the information contained in the optical signal. Inside the receiver is a photodiode
that detects the weakened and distorted optical signal emerging from the end of an
optical fiber and converts it to an electrical signal (referred to as a photocurrent).
The receiver also contains electronic amplification devices and circuitry to restore
signal fidelity. Silicon photodiodes are used in the 770-to-910 nm region. The primary
material in the 1260-to-1675 nm region is an InGaAs alloy.
The design of an optical receiver is inherently complex and can have rather sophis-
ticated functions because it has to interpret the content of the weakened and degraded
signal received by the photodetector. Chapters 6–8 discuss basic receivers for digital
and analog applications. The principal figure of merit for a receiver is the minimum
optical power necessary at the desired data rate to attain either a given error proba-
bility for digital systems or a specified signal-to-noise ratio for an analog system. The
ability of a receiver to achieve a certain performance level depends on the photode-
tector type, the effects of noise in the system, and the characteristics of the successive
amplification stages in the receiver.
Included in any optical fiber link are various passive and active optical devices that
assist in controlling and guiding the light signals. Chapter 10 describes a variety of
such components. Passive devices are optical components that require no electronic
control for their operation. Among these are optical filters that select only a narrow
spectrum of desired light, optical splitters that divide the power in an optical signal
into a number of different branches, optical multiplexers that combine signals from
1.6 Basic Elements of Optical Fiber Systems 23

two or more distinct wavelengths onto the same fiber (or that separate the wave-
lengths into individual channels at the receiving end) in multiple-wavelength optical
fiber networks, and couplers used to tap off a certain percentage of light, usually for
performance monitoring purposes. In addition, modern sophisticated optical fiber
networks contain a wide range of active optical components, which require an elec-
tronic control for their operation. These include light signal modulators, tunable
(wavelength-selectable) optical filters, reconfigurable elements for adding and drop-
ping wavelengths at intermediate nodes, variable optical attenuators, and optical
switches.
Chapters 11 through 13 address factors associated with implementing optical
telecom networks. After an optical signal has traveled a certain distance along a
fiber, it becomes greatly weakened due to power loss along the fiber. Therefore,
when setting up an optical link, engineers formulate a power budget and add ampli-
fiers or repeaters when the path loss exceeds the available power margin. The peri-
odically placed amplifiers merely give the optical signal a power boost, whereas a
repeater also will attempt to restore the signal to its original shape. Prior to 1990, only
repeaters were available for signal amplification. For an incoming optical signal, a
repeater performs photon-to-electron conversion, electrical amplification, retiming,
pulse shaping, and then electron-to-photon conversion. This process can be fairly
complex for high-speed multiple-wavelength systems. Thus researchers expended a
great deal of effort to develop all-optical amplifiers, which boost the light power level
completely in the optical domain. Optical amplification mechanisms for WDM links
include the use of devices based on rare-earth-doped lengths of fiber and distributed
amplification by means of a stimulated Raman scattering effect.
The installation and operation of an optical fiber communication system require
measurement techniques for verifying that the specified performance characteristics
of the constituent components are satisfied. Chapter 14 addresses these techniques.
In addition to measuring optical fiber parameters, system engineers are interested
in knowing the characteristics of passive splitters, connectors, and couplers, and
electro-optic components, such as sources, photodetectors, and optical amplifiers.
Furthermore, when a link is being installed and tested, operational parameters that
should be measured include bit error rate, timing jitter, and signal-to-noise ratio as
indicated by the eye pattern. During actual operation, measurements are needed for
maintenance and monitoring functions to determine factors such as fault locations
in fibers and the status of remotely located optical amplifiers.

1.7 Evolution of Fiber Optic Networks

Optical networking technology has made tremendous advances since the first basic
links were installed to carry live traffic around 1978. The initial installations oper-
ated at 6.3 Mb/s over distances of about 10 km using simple on-off keying (OOK)
modulation in the transmitter. As shown in Fig. 1.12, there has been a steady 40–
50% growth per year in link data rates and transmission distances since then. Until
24 1 Perspectives on Lightwave Communications

10T
10 Tb/s
1T 100 Gb/s MQAM
On-off keying (OOK) 1000 km 400 Gb/s
modula on 40 Gb/s DP-QPSK to 1Tb/s
100G 1000 km MQAM
10 Gb/s DPSK
1000 km
Bit rate (b/s)

10G 2.5 Gb/s Advanced

400 km
modula on
1G
155 Mb/s
20 km
45 Mb/s 622 Mb/s
100M 20 km 80 km

10M
Single wavelength WDM
1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020
Year

Fig. 1.12 Evolution in optical communication network capacities

about 1995, an optical fiber typically carried data on a single wavelength using OOK
modulation. Progressively higher data transmission rates were achieved mainly by
developing more efficient data routing and switching equipment and taking advantage
of improvements in silicon device technology for laser drivers. Then in the mid-1990s
the use of wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) allowed a significant increase
in link capacity by sending information on several wavelengths simultaneously over
an individual optical fiber. In addition, the development and deployment of optical
amplifiers enabled carriers to send information over longer distances without the
need for intermediate repeater stations.
Initially, to send data the telecom companies (carriers) used simple OOK modu-
lation at the transmitter and direct detection schemes at the receiver. This changed
starting in 2005 with the introduction of advanced modulation techniques to increase
spectral efficiency, coherent detection to enable multilevel demodulation, sophisti-
cated digital signal processing (DSP) to compensate for optical signal impairment,
and forward error correction (FEC) processing to reduce signal-to-noise ratio require-
ments. Differential phase-shift keying (DPSK) modulation schemes introduced in
2005 allowed transmissions at 40 Gb/s per wavelength. Dual polarization quadra-
ture phase-shift keying (DP-QPSK) modulation with a coherent receiver started being
implemented in 2011 for 100 Gb/s per wavelength transmission. The next step starting
in 2017 was to use higher-order modulation techniques, such as 16QAM and 64QAM
(quadrature amplitude modulation), to achieve from 400 Gb/s to 10 Tb/s and beyond
[36–39] (see Chap. 13 for more details on these techniques).
1.8 Standards for Fiber Optic Communications 25

1.8 Standards for Fiber Optic Communications

To allow components and equipment from different vendors to interface with one
another, numerous international standards have been developed [40, 41]. The three
basic classes for fiber optics are primary standards, component testing standards, and
system standards.
Primary standards refer to measuring and characterizing fundamental physical
parameters such as attenuation, bandwidth, operational characteristics of fibers, and
optical power levels and spectral widths. In the USA the main organization involved in
primary standards is the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). This
organization carries out fiber optic and laser standardization work. Other national
organizations include the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) in the United Kingdom
and the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) in Germany.
Component testing standards define tests for fiber-optic component perfor-
mance and establish equipment-calibration procedures. Several different organiza-
tions are involved in formulating testing standards, some very active ones being the
Fiber Optic Association (thefoa.org), the Telecommunication Sector of the Inter-
national Telecommunication Union (ITU-T), and the International Electrotechnical
Commission (IEC).
System standards refer to measurement methods for links and networks. The major
organizations are the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), the Institute for
Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE), and the ITU-T. Of particular interest for
fiber optics system are test standards and recommendations from the ITU-T. Within
the G series (in the number range G.650 and higher) the recommendations relate to
fiber cables, optical amplifiers, wavelength multiplexing, optical transport networks
(OTN), system reliability and availability, and management and control for passive
optical networks (PON). The L and O series of the ITU-T address methods and
equipment for the construction, installation, maintenance support, monitoring, and
testing of cable and other elements in the optical fiber outside plant, that is, the fielded
cable system.

1.9 Summary

Following its introduction into telecom networks in the late 1970s, optical fiber
communications technology has experienced a dramatic increase in transmission
capacities. Starting with a humble 6 Mb/s transmission rate over a 10 km link, forty
years later in 2020 optical fiber transmission links carrying information at speeds
of 400 Gb/s and 1 Tb/s were being installed on links over hundreds of kilometers
long. Many new technology developments were created to achieve such high-speed
links and a great deal of effort also was expended in devising installation procedures,
network test and monitoring equipment, and a wide variety of international standards.
Discovering Diverse Content Through
Random Scribd Documents
 Everywhere he went there was Arab hospitality, guestings and
coffee-fires at which he preached revolt, until he had made sure of
all the clans in the ladder of his advance. On the way back, the party
was mistaken for Turks by some British aeroplanes which, swooping
low, emptied drum after drum of Lewis-gun ammunition at them.
Fortunately, the shooting was bad. (Later, in reporting the affair to
Air Vice-Marshal Sir Geoffrey Salmond, Lawrence ironically
recommended himself for the Distinguished Flying Cross, ‘for
presence of mind in not shooting down two Bristol Fighters which
were attempting to machine-gun my party from the air.’ He had
made the regulation signal agreed upon for such cases; and had
twenty automatic rifles in the party.) As soon as the aeroplanes had
disappeared, a party of Turkish policemen tried to chase them.
Next day, near Jurf, where Lawrence was going to inspect the
ground for an attack by Arab regulars—Jurf was the only water-
supply for the Turks on that part of the line—much worse happened.
A party of mixed horse and foot from the railway cut off his retreat
and more troops appeared in front. There was no escape and the
Arabs with Lawrence, taking cover, resolved to hold out to the last.
Lawrence, half-glad, saw that all was over. He decided to imitate
Farraj and end it quickly. He rode alone against the enemy. The
mounted Turks came forward to meet him, finger on trigger, calling
out ‘Testify!’ He answered: ‘There is no god but God; and Jesus is a
prophet of God’—a queer statement which no Mohammedan could
make, and yet no Christian could make either; the sort of tactless
thing that a nervous man might blurt out by mistake. They did not
shoot; they gasped, stared and cried out: ‘Aurans!’ They were
friends, a party of Arab regulars, raiding the railway, but dressed in
the uniforms of slain Turks and mounted on captured horses. Their
rifles, too, were Turkish. They had never seen Lawrence before and
had mistaken his party for members of an unfriendly Arab tribe with
whom they had just been fighting.
 The following letter was written by Lawrence from Cairo on the
fifteenth of July, 1918, to his Oxford friend Mr. V. Richards, whose
eyesight had hitherto debarred him from active service. The
hastiness of its style would probably make Lawrence repudiate it;
but the contents are valuable as contemporary evidence of his state
of mind at this critical point in the campaign.

‘15. 7. 18.
‘Well, it was wonderful to see your writing again, and
very difficult to read it: also pleasant to have a letter
which doesn’t begin “Reference your G.S. 102487b of the
45th.” Army prose is bad, and I have so much of it that it
makes me fear contamination in my own.
‘I cannot write to anyone just now. Your letter came to
me in Aba el Lissan, a little hill-fort on the plateau of
Arabia S.E. of the Dead Sea, and I carried it with me down
to Akaba, to Jidda, and then here to answer. Yet with all
that I have had it only a month, and you wrote it three
months ago. This letter will be submarined, and then it is
all over for another three years.
‘It always seemed to me that your eyes would prevent
all service for you, and that in consequence you might
preserve your continuity. For myself, I have been so
violently uprooted, and plunged so deeply into a job too
big for me, that everything feels unreal. I have dropped
everything I ever did, and live only as a thief of
opportunity, snatching chances of the moment when and
where I see them. My people have probably told you that
the job is to foment an Arab rebellion against Turkey, and
for that I have to try to hide my Frankish exterior, and be
as little out of the Arab picture as I can. So it’s a kind of
foreign stage, on which one plays day and night, in fancy
dress, in a strange language, with the price of failure on
one’s head if the part is not well filled.
 ‘You guessed rightly that the Arab appealed to my
imagination. It is the old old civilization, which has refined
itself clear of household gods, and half the trappings
which ours hastens to assume. The gospel of bareness in
materials is a good one, and it involves apparently a sort
of moral bareness too. Arabs think for the moment, and
endeavour to slip through life without turning corners or
climbing hills. In part it is a mental and moral fatigue, a
race trained out, and to avoid difficulties they have to
jettison so much that we think honourable and brave: and
yet without in any way sharing their point of view, I think
I can understand it enough to look at myself and other
foreigners from their direction, and without condemning it.
I know I’m a stranger to them, and always will be: but I
cannot believe them worse, any more than I could change
to their ways.
‘This is a very long porch to explain why I’m always
trying to blow up railway trains and bridges instead of
looking for the well at the world’s end. Anyway, these
years of detachment have cured me of any desire ever to
do anything for myself. When they untie my bonds I will
not find in me any spur to action. However, actually one
never thinks of afterwards: the time from the beginning is
like one of those dreams which seems to last for aeons,
and then you wake up with a start, and find that it has left
nothing in your mind. Only the different thing about this
dream is that so many people do not wake up in this life
again.
‘I cannot imagine what my people can have told you.5
Until now we have only been preparing the groundwork
and bases of our revolt, and do not yet stand on the brink
of action. Whether we are going to win or lose, when we
do strike, I cannot ever persuade myself. The whole thing
is such a play, and one cannot put conviction into one’s
day dreams. If we succeed I will have done well with the
materials given me, and that disposes of your “lime light.”
If we fail, and they have patience, then I suppose we will
go on digging foundations. Achievement, if it comes, will
have a great disillusionment, but not great enough to
wake me up.
[5] Mrs. Lawrence had written: ‘Ned has been in the
Hejaz fighting with the Arabs against the Turks for the
last year and more. He has been doing wonderful
things, blowing up trains, bridges, etc., and killing Turks
by the hundred. He has had all sorts of decorations,
which he ignores. He says that if any private letters are
sent giving his rank and honours he will return them
unopened.’ ...
‘Your mind has evidently moved far since 1914. That is
a privilege you have won by being kept out of the mist for
so long. You’ll find the rest of us aged undergraduates,
possibly still unconscious of our unfitting grey hair. For
that reason I cannot follow or return your steps. A house
with no action entailed, quiet, and liberty to think and
abstain as one wills—yes, I think abstention, the leaving
everything alone and watching the others still going past,
is what I would choose to-day, if things ceased driving
me. This may be only the reaction from four years’
opportunism, and is not worth trying to resolve into terms
of geography and employment.
‘Of course the ideal is that of the “lords who are” still
“certainly expected,”6 but the certainty is not for us, I’m
afraid. Also for very few would the joy be so perfect as to
be silent. Those words peace, silence, rest, and the others
take on a vividness in the midst of noise and worry and
weariness like a lighted window in the dark. Yet what on
earth is the good of a lighted window? and perhaps it is
only because one is overborne and tired. You know when
one marches across an interminable plain a hill (which is
still the worst hill on earth) is a banquet, and after searing
heat cold water takes on a quality (what would they have
said without this word before?) impossible in the eyes of a
fen-farmer. Probably I’m only a sensitized film, turned
black or white by the objects projected on me: and if so
what hope is there that next week or year, or to-morrow,
can be prepared for to-day?
[6] A reference to a previous letter of his own from
Cairo in 1915: ‘You know Coleridge’s description of the
heavenly bodies in The Ancient Mariner. “Lords that are
certainly expected” ... etc. I don’t want to be a lord or a
heavenly body, but I think that one end of my orbit
should be in a printing-shed with you. Shall we begin by
printing Apuleius’ Golden Ass, my present stand-by?’
‘This is an idiot letter, and amounts to nothing except a
cry for a further change, which is idiocy, for I change my
abode every day, and my job every two days, and my
language every three days, and still remain always
unsatisfied. I hate being in front, and I hate being back
and I don’t like responsibility, and I don’t obey orders.
Altogether no good just now. A long quiet like a purge and
then a contemplation and decision of future roads, that is
what is to look forward to.
‘You want apparently some vivid colouring of an Arab
costume, or of a flying Turk, and we have it all, for that is
part or the mise-en-scène or the successful raider, and
hitherto I am that. My bodyguard of fifty Arab tribesmen,
picked riders from the young men of the deserts, are more
splendid than a tulip garden, and we ride like lunatics and
with our Beduin pounce on unsuspecting Turks and
destroy them in heaps: and it is all very gory and nasty
after we close grips. I love the preparation, and the
journey, and loathe the physical fighting. Disguises, and
prices on one’s head, and fancy exploits are all part of the
pose: how to reconcile it with the Oxford pose I know not.
Were we flamboyant there?
‘If you reply—you will perceive I have matting of the
brain—and your thoughts are in control, please tell me of
B—, and if possible W—. The latter was the man for all
these things, because he would take a baresark beery
pleasure in physical outputs....
‘L.’
 XXIV
The plan that Lawrence had in mind for Buxton’s camel-corps was
this: it would start from the Suez Canal, across Sinai to Akaba,
arriving on the second of August. The next step was from Akaba
through the passes to Rumm. From Rumm it would make a raid on
Mudowwara which was still holding out after having been threatened
for over a year, and destroy the Turkish water-supply, thereby
completing the strangle-hold on Medina. From Mudowwara it would
go by the old Jefer and Bair route to Kissir on the railway, three
miles south of Amman, to destroy the big bridge and tunnel which
the British cavalry and camel raid had left undamaged: this would
delay the Turkish relief of Maan for three weeks, by which time
Allenby’s offensive would be beginning. The camel-corps would then
be back on Allenby’s front by way of Tafileh and Beersheba on
August the thirtieth.
Besides the Englishmen Lawrence would take his own body-guard
and pick up sponsors from other Arab tribes as he went. The ride
was a great responsibility for him. To take a large body of Christian
troops in khaki through Arab tribal territory was at least as
dangerous an adventure as the fighting that had to be done against
the Turks. He asked Buxton’s leave to address the men, without their
officers, before they started. I have had from one of them an
account of his speech, and the extraordinary impression it made on
him and his comrades. At first sight they had not trusted Lawrence
in the least, disliking his Bedouin dress and Bedouin gestures;
whispering that he was a spy and would betray them. But once he
began to talk: ‘We are about to start on a trip so long and difficult
that the Staff believe we won’t manage it ...,’ he captured their
imaginations. He knew the value of the appeal to personal vanity. He
told them that they had to ride a thousand miles in thirty days,
nearly twice the set daily march of their brigade, through desert
country, on short rations for man and beast, with two difficult night-
attacks on Turkish posts thrown in. Any delay in the march would
mean thirst or starvation, probably both, and if they wore out their
camels by careless riding they would be stranded in the desert and
would probably never return. He asked them to be very patient with
the excitable Arabs, particularly at the wells.
 THE CAMPAIGN IN THE NORTH

Buxton’s first impression of Lawrence can be given in a quotation

from a private letter that he wrote home on the fourth of August. He
was at Rumm watering the camels at the springs in the great
amphitheatre; with great difficulty, for the Beni Atiyeh tribe were
there too, watering a thousand camels a day, and jealousy for first
turn might lead to disturbance and bloodshed:

‘August 4th, 1918. 4th Anniversary of War.

‘RUMM.
‘I am sitting between two rocks with a waterproof sheet
overhead, somewhere in the middle of Arabia, between
Akaba and the Euphrates. It is a place with rocky
mountains on each side of me which last night in the
evening light became a most wonderful rosy red colour
growing purple as the shadow fell across them. The wells
are about three hundred yards up a stiff cliff, and the
difficulties of watering camels are terrific. We have been
watering camels the last thirty-six hours continuously day
and night, and I hope to get off with my column this
evening. We are here very much under sufferance of the
Sherif, and none of the inhabitants and Arabs here like us
at all, and rifles which reverberate like a battle are
continuously going off. Lawrence and his odd-looking cut-
throat band have just left us to rejoin the Sherif near
Maan, and we have now Nasir, a relation of the Sherif,
who acts as intermediary between us and the Arabs.
‘Our first night attack against the Turks will take place
about forty miles from here, two nights ahead. To-morrow
about daybreak I go on with Nasir and two or three of my
officers dressed as Arabs, or rather with Arab head-gear
and coat, to give the proper “silhouette” effect, and we do
a personal reconnaissance of the places to be attacked
 about sunset and then rejoin the column on the march
after making plans for the attack.
‘Lawrence has started all this Arab movement. He is
only a boy to look at, has a very quiet, sedate manner, a
fine head but insignificant body. He is known to every
Arab in this country for his personal bravery and train-
wrecking exploits. I don’t know whether it is his
intrepidity, disinterestedness and mysteriousness which
appeal to the Arab most, or his success in finding them
rich trains to blow up and loot. After a train success he
tells me the army is like Barnum’s show and gradually
disintegrates. At any rate it is wonderful what he has
accomplished with the poor tools at his disposal. His
influence is astounding not only on the misbeguided
natives, but also I think on his brother officers and
seniors. Out here he lives entirely with the Arabs, wears
their clothes, eats only their food, and bears all the
burdens that the lowliest of them does. He always travels
in spotless white, and in fact reminds one of a Prince of
Mecca more than anything. He will join us again later, I
hope, as his presence is very stimulating to us all and one
has the feeling that things cannot go wrong while he is
there.....’

Lawrence had ridden off not to Maan, as Buxton’s letter says, but
to Akaba where he collected his body-guard, sixty strong, and rode
with them to Guweira. El Zaagi had sorted them out in Ageyl fashion
to ride in a long line with a poet to right and a poet to left, each
among the best singers. Lawrence was on Ghazala, whose calf had
recently died and left her in great grief. Abdulla the Robber, riding
next to Lawrence, carried the calf’s dried pelt behind his saddle.
Ghazala in the middle of the singing began to tread uneasily,
remembering her grief, and stopped, gently moaning. Abdulla leaped
off his camel and spread the pelt before her. She stopped crying and
sniffed at it three or four times, then whimpering went on again.
This happened several times that day but in the end she forgot her
grief. At Guweira he left his body-guard to wait. An aeroplane took
him to Jefer—to Feisal who was there with Nuri, the Emir of the
Ruwalla. It was Nuri who had given Lawrence and Auda leave a year
before to ride through his territory on the way to Akaba. He had now
to be asked a far greater favour, the passage through his country of
British troops and armoured cars. If he consented it would mean war
with the Turks toward whom, at Feisal’s request, he had so far kept
up a show of friendship. Nuri was a hard, short-spoken old man of
seventy, and it was with great relief that Feisal and Lawrence heard
his plain ‘Yes.’ It came at the end of a great conference of all the
Ruwalla chiefs where Feisal and Lawrence in the tent at twilight sat
preaching revolt. The combination was irresistible; their method
perfected after two years was to say just enough to set the Ruwalla
imagination on fire so that the tribesmen almost believed themselves
the inventors of the idea and began spurring Feisal and Lawrence to
greater enthusiasm and more desperate action.
Lawrence’s short stay at Rumm with Buxton’s men had made him
home-sick for England. (It was an ideal England which he loved with
a perverse Anglo-Irish sentiment which was quite compatible with
being out of sympathy with most Englishmen.) So here at Jefer he
accused himself of play-acting, of continuing his cruel fraud on the
Arabs for the sake of England’s victory.
But then Nuri once more came to him with documents. The
English Government had been working with its foreign departments
still at odds together. Besides the original pledges to the Sherif
promising Arab independence and the later Sykes-Picot treaty
partitioning up the Arab area between England, France and Russia,
there were now two more statements: a promise made to seven
prominent Arabs at Cairo that the Arabs should keep such territory
as they conquered from the Turks during the war, and a promise to
the Zionists for a Jewish National Home in Palestine. Which of all
these was Nuri to believe? Once more Lawrence smiled and said,
‘The latest in date.’ Nuri took it good-humouredly and ever
afterwards helped Lawrence well, yet warned him with a smile: ‘But
if ever henceforth I fail to keep a promise,’ said Nuri, ‘it will be
because I have superseded it with a later intention.’
Lawrence’s loyalty was further tried by his discovery that
negotiations had been begun between the British Government and
the Conservative Turks about the terms of Turkey’s surrender. The
news did not come to him officially but privately through friends in
Turkey, and the Arabs had not been first consulted. This was most
unfortunate because the Conservatives, unlike their powerful
opponents the Nationalists (headed by Kemal, the present head of
the Turkish Republic), were most unwilling to allow Arab
governments to be set up in Syria. The British proposals would have
been fatal to many of the Arabs already in arms for freedom.
Lawrence therefore encouraged Feisal to begin a correspondence
with the Kemalists, so that in case Allenby’s thrust failed and a
separate peace were made by the British with the Conservative
Turks, there might still be a chance of winning and holding
Damascus by alliance with the Turkish Nationalists against the
Conservatives.
It seems that after all this Lawrence did not quite know where he
was, and the only relief as usual for his distress of mind was violent
action and a longing for death to end his shame. Yet from actual
suicide he shrank. That would be to take death far too seriously; it
would not be cowardice but a flippancy unworthy of a serious person
like himself. The most that he could allow himself was a constant
exposure to danger, leaving himself only the narrowest margin of
safety and always hoping for an accident. Accidents, however,
though numerous were never fatal; he was too scrupulous about
keeping the honourable margin. If he had not been so much in love
with the idea of death, he would have been killed a hundred times
over.
Nuri’s young nephew Bender begged Lawrence before all the
chiefs to give him a place in the body-guard. He had heard wild tales
of its excessive joys and sorrows from Rahail, his foster-brother, with
whom Lawrence had made the ride from Azrak. Lawrence did not
want Bender; a luxurious young man who was too much of a
responsibility. But Lawrence could not shame him in front of the
chiefs, so he turned the request by asking, ‘Am I a king to have
Ruwalla princes as my servants?’ Nuri’s eye met Lawrence’s in silent
approval.
From this meeting with Nuri he flew back to Guweira, and from
there decided to go forward with the armoured cars as far as Azrak
to prepare Buxton’s road. They crossed the railway safely and at Bair
met Buxton coming up with his camel-corps from the attack on
Mudowwara. He had captured the place and its garrison of about a
hundred and forty men with a loss of four killed and ten wounded;
destroyed the wells, the engine pumps and the great water-tower,
and more than a mile of rails. The only trouble was that the supply-
column that accompanied him had left the last stop, Jefer, half-
mutinous with fear of the desert and had lost, stolen or sold a third
of the rations which the baggage camels were carrying. So the force
had to be reduced by fifty of Buxton’s least needed men, a hundred
camels, and one of the two armoured cars. There was great delay at
Bair, watering at the only two wells. At one of these there were six
hundred camels of the Howeitat and Beni Sakhr, and at the other a
mob of a thousand Druses, Syrian refugees, Damascus merchants
and Armenians, all on their way to Akaba. Lawrence helped Buxton
with the watering: the Howeitat were astonished at the English,
never having imagined that there were so many of that tribe in the
world.
It was Lawrence’s thirtieth birthday and he made it the occasion
for a long self-examination, an inquiry into his personality, and his
desire to understand his personality, and the difficulties and deceits
arising from his desire to understand his personality by testing its
effect on others. His desire to be liked and his ambition to be
famous, and his cautious or shamefaced restraint of both these
impulses. His refusal to believe good of himself or his works; his
actual dislike of as much of himself as he could see and hear and
feel.
 At this point he was roused by shouts and shots. He was afraid
that a quarrel had broken out between Buxton’s men and the
tribesmen, but it was only an appeal for help against the Shammar
who some miles away had driven off eighty Howeitat camels. By the
time that he had sent in pursuit four or five relatives of the men
robbed, his train of thought was broken. They went forward then.
Lawrence’s body-guard were, for this ride, set to lead or drive the
baggage camels carrying the six thousand pounds of gun-cotton for
the blowing up of the bridge. They were disgusted at this unexciting
and menial task, particularly as their charges were very slow Somali
camels which could do no more than three miles an hour. El Zaagi
urged them on, taunting them with being coolies and drovers,
offering to buy their goods when they came to market, and made
them laugh in spite of themselves. They kept up by lengthening the
marches into the night and stealing time from the breakfast and
midday halts. They brought the caravan through without the loss of
a single beast, a fine performance for such gilded gentlemen; but
then, they were the best camel-masters for hire in all Arabia.
Lawrence was delighted with the Imperial Camel-Corps. Buxton
had revised all the hard-and-fast rules of march discipline. His men
no longer rode in line but in irregular clumps, each man picking his
easiest way over the bad ground. He had reduced and re-hung the
loads, and broken the old clockwork system of halting once every
hour. Each march his men became more workmanlike, more at home
on their animals, tougher, leaner, faster. If only the Indian camel-
men had learned to accommodate themselves in the same way to
irregular fighting, the Yarmuk bridge raid of the previous autumn
might have ended successfully.
 BUXTON’S MEN BLOWING UP MUDOWWARA STATION
Copyright

However, Kissir bridge and tunnel escaped too. On August the

twentieth they came within sight of the railway and hid in the ruins
of a Roman temple some miles off. Lawrence sent forward members
of his body-guard who were peasants of the district to scout in the
three villages between them and the bridge. They returned to say
that by bad luck Turkish tax-gatherers were in the villages that night,
measuring out the heaps of corn on the threshing-floors under guard
of troops of mounted infantry. Three such troops were in the three
villages nearest the great bridge, villages close to which they would
have to pass on their way to blow it up. And a Turkish aeroplane had
come over their column that morning and probably seen them. They
took counsel. Lawrence had no doubt that Buxton’s men could deal
with the Turkish bridge-guard and blow up the bridge. The only
question was whether the business was worth its cost in British lives.
The plan was to dismount nearly a mile from the bridge and advance
on foot. The blowing up of the bridge with three tons of gun-cotton
would wake up the whole district and Turkish patrols might stumble
on the camel-park, which would be a disaster. Buxton’s men could
not, like Arabs, scatter like a swarm of birds after the explosion, to
find their own way back. In night-fighting some of them would be
sure to be cut off. They might lose altogether fifty men. This was too
expensive. The destruction of the bridge, anyhow, was only to
frighten and disturb the Turks so that they would leave Maan alone
until August the thirtieth, when the great attack on Deraa was to be
made from Azrak. This was already the twentieth. The danger
seemed nearly over now, for the Turks had wasted the last month,
doing nothing.
Buxton’s men were most disappointed when they heard that the
raid was off, but Lawrence reassured them that the chief object of
their coming would be gained. He sent men down to the villages to
spread reports of a coming great attack on Amman, of which this
was the advance guard. It was what the Turks dreaded most; patrols
were sent up at once to report on the truth of the villagers’ wild
reports, and found the hill-top, where the raiders had been, littered
with empty meat tins, and the valley slopes cut up by the tracks of
enormous cars. Very many tracks there were; as Lawrence, with his
single car, had taken care that there should be. This alarm checked
them for a week; the destruction of the bridge would only have
added a few days more. The expedition returned by way of Azrak,
where the Englishmen bathed in the pools, and to Bair (shouting ‘Are
we well fed? No! Do we see life? Yes!’), where they found a few
more ‘iron rations’ dumped for them from Akaba. Then Buxton took
them back to Palestine. Lawrence returned with the armoured cars
to Akaba.
 XXV
At Akaba preparations for the grand expedition of all arms to cut
the railways at Deraa were complete—so complete that Dawnay and
Joyce were both for the moment on holiday. Lawrence was glad to
be there to cope with a most unexpected and absurd situation. The
Sherif, Hussein, had issued a Royal Gazette from Mecca with a
proclamation to the effect that fools were calling Jaafar Pasha the
General Officer Commanding the Arab Northern Army, whereas there
was no such rank, indeed no rank higher than captain in the Arab
Army, in which Sheikh Jaafar, like many another, was doing his duty.
Hussein had heard of Jaafar’s C.M.G. and had published this
proclamation in jealousy without warning Feisal. He intended by it to
spite the Syrian and Mesopotamian Arabs in Feisal’s army. They were
fighting, he knew, to free their own countries for self-government,
but he was aiming at a regular Arab Empire which he was ambitious
to rule from Mecca, with the spiritual leadership of the
Mohammedan world thrown in. Jaafar and all the Arab officers at
once resigned. Feisal refused the resignations, pointing out that their
commissions as officers were issued by himself and he alone was
disgraced by the proclamation. He telegraphed to Mecca resigning
command. Hussein appointed Zeid in his place. Zeid promptly
refused to take command. Hussein sent threatening messages by
cable and all military life was at an end from Akaba to Aba el Lissan.
Lawrence had to do something. The first alternative was to put
pressure on Hussein to withdraw his statement; the second to ignore
the humours of this narrow-minded old man of seventy, and carry
on; the third, to set up Feisal in independence of his father and,
when Damascus fell, try to give him a throne there. But the difficulty
was that the expedition had to start in three days’ time if it was to
reach Deraa before Allenby began his advance. The first course was
best, to avoid the appearance of dissension among the Arabs, but
might take weeks. So Allenby and the High Commissioner of Egypt
(who provided Hussein’s subsidy) were at once set to work on the
Sherif, whose answers to Feisal through them were cabled across to
Akaba in cipher. Lawrence, remembering Hussein’s trick on the
telephone, saw to it that the cable-station at Akaba only accepted
the desirable parts of the messages and made a hopeless jumble of
the others, notifying these to Mecca as ‘corrupt.’ Fortunately Hussein
instead of repeating the censored passages, toned them down until
at last there came a long message, the first half a lame apology and
withdrawal of the proclamation, the other a renewal of the offence in
a new form.

AT GUWEIRA
Copyright French Army Photo Dept.
 Lawrence suppressed this second half and took the first to Feisal
marked ‘very urgent.’ The secretary decoded it and Feisal read it
aloud to the staff about him, concealing his surprise at the meek
words of his usually obstinate and tyrannical old father. At the end
he said, ‘The telegraph has saved all our honour.’ Without Feisal the
great expedition to Deraa, which it was hoped might mean also
Damascus, would have been incomplete and Lawrence had pressed
him to come in spite of his father; Feisal having resigned his
command had offered very nobly to come under Lawrence’s. So now
he bent towards Lawrence, adding in an undertone: ‘I mean the
honour of nearly all of us.’ Lawrence said demurely, ‘I do not
understand what you mean.’ Feisal answered, ‘I offered to serve for
this last march under your orders, why was that not enough?
Because it would not go with your honour,’ said Lawrence. ‘You
always prefer mine before your own,’ Feisal murmured, then sprang
up energetically to his feet saying, ‘Now, sirs, praise God and work!’
The expedition started only a day late. Lawrence first had to
suppress a mutiny among the Arab regular soldiers who knew
something bad was happening, but had heard only the false rumour
that Feisal had deserted. He had not been seen out of his tent for a
week. The gunners thought that their officers were betraying them
and ran to turn the guns on their tents. However, Rasim had
foreseen this and, secretly collecting the breech-blocks in his own
tent, had outwitted them. At this ludicrous moment Lawrence came
smiling along and talked to the men, telling as a great joke the
whole story of Hussein’s proclamation and the resignations; they
laughed like schoolboys at the private quarrels of their leaders.
Feisal then appeared, driving through the lines in his Vauxhall car
which was painted with the holy green colour of the Prophet’s
family; and the situation was saved.
Lawrence went by armoured car to Azrak and at Bair heard the
news that the Turks at Hesa had moved suddenly to Tafileh and
were advancing south to the relief of Maan. The chief of the Beni
Sakhr who brought the news thought Lawrence mad when he
laughed aloud. But, now that the expedition had started, the Turks
might relieve Maan and take Aba el Lissan, Guweira, Akaba itself for
all he cared. The news meant that the Turks believed in the
pretended threat to Amman and were making a counter-stroke.
Every man that they sent south was a man, or rather ten men lost.
Deraa was all that mattered now. To complete the deception
Lawrence had sent thousands of his ‘horsemen of St. George’
(British sovereigns) to the Beni Sakhr tribe to purchase all the barley
on their threshing-floors for a force that would be shortly coming
along from Azrak, through their villages, towards Amman. The Turks
got the news soon, as was intended. Hornby was going in charge of
the other expedition to join up with Allenby at Jericho, so that if the
Deraa plan failed the combined parties could make the feint on
Amman a reality. But the Turkish advance on Tafileh checked him
and he had instead to defend Shobek against them.
The Deraa expedition was now assembling at Azrak and on the
twelfth of September was complete. First arrived Lawrence’s body-
guard, jolly on their well-fed camels, then two aeroplanes, then the
rest of the armoured cars and a great baggage train. Feisal brought
the Arab regular army, a thousand camel-men on Allenby’s gift-
camels; with the French Algerian gunners under Pisani. Nuri
appeared with the Ruwalla tribesmen; and Auda with Mohammed el
Dheilan and the Abu Tayi; and Fahad and Adhub with their Beni
Sakhr; and the chief of the Serahin; and many more Bedouin,
Druses and town-Syrians flocking from all directions. And the great
outlaw Tallal arrived, who had taken Lawrence spying in the Hauran
the winter before.
First of all it was necessary to cut off Deraa from Amman. For this
purpose a detachment of Indian Gurkhas on camels under their
British officer were sent to raid a block-house on the railway just
north of Amman, while a party of Egyptian camel-corps blew up
near-by bridges and rails. Two armoured cars went with them, and
local guides. The rest of the army moved up to Umtaiye, a great
rainwater-pit fifteen miles below Deraa, and waited there for news.
 Unfortunately this demolition did not come off; the Arabs between
the raiders and the line disliked the Indians, despised the Egyptians
and would not let them pass. So Lawrence went himself the next
day from Umtaiye with two armoured cars and a hundred and fifty
pounds of gun-cotton to the nearest point on the line, where there
were two good bridges to destroy and easy going for the cars. Joyce
came with him. While Joyce’s car kept the neighbouring block-house
busy, Lawrence’s ran to the biggest bridge, whose guard-garrison of
eight men made a first brave defence but then surrendered—as also
did the block-house garrison. Joyce and Lawrence then hurriedly set
about the bridge, destroying it scientifically so that the four arches
were smashed but the skeleton left tottering. The Turks would first
have the difficult task of destroying it completely before they could
begin rebuilding.
The cars then bumped off, because a large body of Turks was
seen coming up in the distance. Lawrence’s car bumped too
carelessly; at the first watercourse there was a crash and it stuck.
They hurriedly inspected the damage and found that the front
bracket of the near back-spring had broken; a hopeless break which
only a workshop could mend. The driver, Rolls, was nearly in tears
over this mishap, the first structural damage in a team of nine cars
driven for eighteen months over the maddest country. But he
realized that the fate of the whole party rested on him and said that
there was just one hope. They might jack up the fallen end of the
spring and wedge it, by balks upon the running-board, into nearly its
old position. With the help of ropes the thin angle-irons of the
running-board might carry the additional weight.
There was in each car a length of timber to help the double car-
tires over muddy places; three blocks of this would do for the proper
height. But there was no saw, so they used machine-gun bullets
instead, and soon had their three blocks. The Turks heard the
machine-gun firing and halted cautiously. Joyce’s car also heard and
came back to help; the repair was hurriedly made, only just in time.
When they got back to Umtaiye they strengthened it with telegraph-
wire and it lasted until they reached Damascus. The loss of this
bridge would keep the Turks from reinforcing Deraa from Amman
and also help Zeid and Jaafar with the Arab army at Aba el Lissan,
and Hornby at Shobek, for the Turks massing at Tafileh were delayed
until the line was mended behind them.
Meanwhile the Arab expedition moved to Tell Arar, four miles
north of Deraa, where they were to cut the northern railway to
Damascus. Lawrence and Joyce hurrying to join them in the
armoured cars arrived late because of bad going over heavy plough-
land. They watched the battle from a hill: Ruwalla horsemen dashing
towards the line over the liquorice-grown bed of a watercourse, and
a Ford car, with machine-guns, bouncing after. A Turkish guard-post
opened fire, but Pisani’s guns silenced it and the Ruwalla took it with
only one man killed. Ten miles of railway were won in only an hour’s
fighting and the Egyptians, after a halt for breakfast, began steady
demolition-work from south to north while the Arab army swarmed
over the plain. Lawrence could hardly realize the good fortune. It
was September the seventeenth, two days before Allenby could
throw forward his full power. In two days the Turks might decide to
change their dispositions to meet this new danger from the Arabs at
Deraa, but they could not do so before Allenby struck. Lawrence had
cut the one railway that connected the Turks in Amman, Maan,
Medina, Nazareth, Nablus, the Jordan valley, with their base in
Damascus and with Aleppo, Constantinople, Germany.
The Egyptians used ‘tulips,’ which were thirty-ounce charges of
gun-cotton planted beneath the centre of the central sleeper of each
ten-yard section of the track. The sleepers were hollow steel and the
explosion made them hump bud-like two feet in the air. The lift
pulled the rails three inches up, the drag pulled them six inches
together, and the chairs were inwardly warped. This threefold
distortion put them beyond repair. And it was quick work; six
hundred such charges could be laid and fired in two or three hours
and would take the Turks a week to mend. While they were busy,
eight Turkish aeroplanes flew out from Deraa and began dropping
bombs. They did not seem to notice the Egyptians on the railway but
came diving down with machine-gun fire among the Arabs. There
was no overhead cover on the plain at all, so the only thing was to
scatter and present the thinnest possible target, while Nuri Said’s
automatic guns rattled back at the aeroplanes and Pisani’s mountain-
guns fired shrapnel and made them fly too high to bomb accurately.
The question now was how to get at the Yarmuk railway-bridge
which Lawrence had failed to blow up the year before. Its
destruction would top off the cutting of the other two lines from
Deraa. The enemy aeroplanes were, however, making movement
impossible. There had been two British aeroplanes with the
expedition, but the only useful one, a Bristol Fighter, had been
damaged in an air-fight the day before and had flown back for
repairs to Jerusalem; there remained only an antiquated and almost
useless B.E.12 machine. But Junor, the pilot, had heard at Azrak
from the pilot of the returning Bristol Fighter that enemy aeroplanes
were active at Deraa and most bravely decided to take his place.
When things were at their worst at Tell Arar he suddenly sailed in
and rattled away at the eight Turkish aeroplanes with his two guns.
They scattered for a careful look and he flew westward drawing
them after him: he knew that the chance of an air-fight usually
makes aeroplanes forget their ground-target. It was deliberate self-
sacrifice on Junor’s part, for his machine was utterly useless for air-
fighting. Nuri Said hurriedly collected three hundred and fifty
regulars and marched them in small parties across the rails. He was
making for Mezerib, seven miles west from Deraa, the key to the
Yarmuk bridge. The returning aeroplanes would probably not notice
that his men were gone. Armed peasants were sent on after Nuri
Said, and half an hour later Lawrence called up his body-guard, to
follow himself.
As he did so, he heard a droning in the air and to his
astonishment Junor appeared, still alive, though surrounded by three
enemy aeroplanes, faster than his own, spitting bullets at him. He
was twisting and side-slipping splendidly, firing back. But the fight
could only end in one way. In a faint hope that he might get down
alive Lawrence rushed with his men and another British officer,
Young, to clear a landing-place by the railway. Junor was being
driven lower; he threw out a message to say that his petrol was
finished. The body-guard worked feverishly, rolling away boulders,
and Lawrence put out a landing-signal. Junor dived: the machine
took the ground beautifully but a flaw of wind then overturned it and
he was thrown out. He was up in a moment with only a cut chin,
and rescued his Lewis-gun and machine-gun and ammunition just
before one of the Turkish aeroplanes dived and dropped a bomb by
the wreck. Five minutes later he was asking for another job. Joyce
gave him a Ford car and he ran boldly down the hill until near Deraa
and blew a gap in the rails there before the Turks saw him. They
fired at him with artillery but he bumped off in the Ford, still unhurt.
Lawrence hurried forward to Mezerib with his body-guard, but an
aeroplane saw them and began dropping bombs: one, two, three
misses, the fourth fell right among them. Two camels fell, terribly
wounded, but the riders escaped unhurt and scrambled up behind
two of their friends. Another machine came by and dropped more
bombs. A shock spun Lawrence’s camel round and nearly knocked
him out of the saddle with a numbing pain in his right arm. He felt
that he was hard hit and tears came to his eyes with the pain and
the disappointment of being put out of action so soon before the
triumphant end. Blood was running down his arm. Perhaps, if he did
not look at it, he might carry on as if he were unhurt. The aeroplane
was machine-gunning them now and his camel swung round. He
clutched at the pommel and realized that his damaged arm was
there, still in working order. He had judged it blown off. He felt for
the wound, and found a very small very hot splinter of metal sticking
into his arm. He realized how bad his nerves were. This was, by the
way, the first time that he had been hit from the air, of all his twenty
or more wounds.
Mezerib surrendered after a bombardment by Pisani’s guns and
twenty machine-guns. (Tallal had previously gone forward
demanding a bloodless surrender—he knew the stationmaster—but
the Turks had fired a volley at him and at Lawrence, who came with
him, from point-blank range: they had crawled back painfully
through a field of thistles, Tallal swearing.) The station was looted by
hundreds of Hauran peasantry. Men, women and children in a frenzy
fought like dogs over every object; even doors and windows, door-
frames and window-frames, steps of the stairs, were carried off.
Others smashed and looted the wagons in the siding. Lawrence and
Young cut the telegraph, the Palestine army’s main link with home.
They cut it slowly to draw out the indignation of the German-Turkish
staff at Nazareth. The Turks’ hopeless lack of initiative made their
army a directed one, so that by destroying the telegraph Lawrence
went far towards turning them into a leaderless mob. The points
were then blown in and tulips planted all over the station track.
Among the captures were two lorries crammed with delicacies for
some German canteen. Nuri Said found an Arab prising open a tin of
bottled asparagus and cried out: ‘Pigs’ bones!’ The peasant spat in
horror and threw them down. Nuri Said picked them up and later
shared them with Lawrence, Joyce and Young. The trucks were
splashed with petrol and set on fire and the blaze that evening acted
as a beacon for hundreds and hundreds of Arab peasant rebels who
came on camel, on horse, on foot, in great enthusiasm, hoping that
this was the final release of their country.
Visitors were welcome. Lawrence’s business was to let each one
tell him all the news he wanted to tell; afterwards re-arranging it in
his mind and getting a clear picture of the whole enemy situation.
Even the magistrates of Deraa itself came offering to open the town,
but Lawrence put them off, to their disappointment. Though he
knew that the town controlled the local water-supply, the possession
of which must force the railway-station to surrender too, he would
not risk accepting the gift. If Allenby did not completely break the
Turks, Deraa might be retaken and a merciless massacre of the
Hauran peasants would follow.
The next step was to blow up Tell el Shehab bridge. There had
arrived the boy-chief of Tell el Shehab village, which crowned the
cliff above the bridge: he described the position of the large Turkish
guard at the bridge. Lawrence thought that he was probably lying,
but he went off and soon returned with his friend the commander of
the Turkish bridge-guard, an Armenian captain, who confirmed the
story. The Armenian was anxious to betray his charge; he suggested
an ambush in his own room at the village to which he would in turn
call all his lieutenants, sergeants and corporals—hated Turks—to be
trussed up by three or four waiting Arabs. The rest of the force
would be ready then to rush the leaderless guard. Lawrence agreed
and at eleven o’clock he and Nasir were close to the village with
camel-men and the body-guard bringing bags of gelatine. Lawrence
knew the bridge well since his attempt on it with Ali ibn el Hussein
and Fahad from the other side of the ravine. It was pitch-dark and
the damp air came up from the river, wetting their woollen coats.
Waiting for the Armenian to come and fetch the trussers-up they
could hear the occasional cries of the sentry challenging passers-by
on the bridge far below, and the constant roar of the waterfall, and
then the noise of a train, with the squealing of brakes as it stopped
in the station close by the bridge. After awhile the boy-chief came up
holding his brown cloak open to show his white shirt like a flag. He
whispered that the plan had failed. The train in the ravine had been
sent up with German and Turk reserves from Afuleh under a German
colonel to rescue panic-stricken Deraa. They had arrested the
Armenian captain for being absent from his post. There were dozens
of machine-guns and dozens of sentries patrolling up and down.
Nuri Said offered to take the place by main force. Surprise and
numbers were on the Arab side, but Lawrence was at his old game
of reckoning the cost and as usual found it too dear. They said good
night to the chief, thanked him, and turned back. Lawrence, Nasir
and Nuri Said sat with rifles ready on the cliff edge, waiting for their
men to get back out of danger. Lawrence’s rifle was a famous one, a
British Lee-Enfield captured at the Dardanelles and given by Enver,
the Turkish commander-in-chief, as a present to Feisal, with an
inscription on a gold plate; Feisal had given it to Lawrence. It was a
great temptation sitting there to fire a rocket pistol into the station
and scare the Germans into all-night terror. Nasir, Nuri and Lawrence
all had the same childish idea at the same moment, but managed to
restrain each other from carrying it out. Instead, some of the body-
guard were sent to blow up rails in the ravine a mile or two beyond
the bridge, Tallal providing guides. The echoing explosions gave the
Germans a bad night. Then the rest of the army moved from
Mezerib towards Nisib on their way back to Umtaiye. Before leaving
they lit a long time-fuse to a mine under the water-tower. When the
Germans came forward from Tell el Shehab—they heard that Mezerib
was empty—the mine exploded with a tremendous noise and they
cautiously retired again.
Nisib was ten miles south of Deraa. Pisani’s guns shelled the
station at two thousand yards’ range and the machine-guns
supported him. But the Turks would not surrender, returning a hot
fire from the trenches. This did not matter much, for the real
objective was not the station but a great bridge a few hundred yards
to the north, protected by a Turkish post which Nuri Said now began
to bombard. Lawrence’s men were tired out, like their camels, and
when he asked them to come forward with him against the bridge
they refused. They knew that one bullet in the gelatine that they
were carrying would blow them sky-high.
It was the first time that they had flinched. Lawrence tried to get
them forward by making jokes, but it was hopeless. At last he cast
them off and standing on the crest with bullets cracking round him
called by name the youngest and most timid of them all to come
with him to the bridge. He shook like a man in a sick dream but
obeyed quietly. They rode over the crest towards the bridge.
Lawrence then sent the young Arab back to tell the men that he
would hurt them worse than bullets if they did not join him. He
intended to go forward to see whether the guard-post was holding
out after the bombardment. While the body-guard hesitated, up
came El Zaagi with Abdulla the Robber: they were men who feared
nothing. Mad with fury that Lawrence had been betrayed these two
dashed at the shrinkers and chased them over the ridge-top, with no
more harm than six bullet-grazes. The post was indeed abandoned,
so Lawrence dismounted and signalled to Nuri Said to cease fire. He
and his body-guard crept up on foot to the bridge and piling eight
hundred pounds of explosive against the piers, which were about
five feet thick and twenty-five feet high, blew it to pieces. This was
Lawrence’s last bridge, the seventy-ninth since he started and a
most important one, for the Arab army was to wait close by at
Umtaiye until Allenby’s troops came up to join it.
The Turkish aeroplanes were a pest, Umtaiye was only twelve
miles from their aerodrome near Deraa and they kept coming over
and dropping bombs on the Arab camp. The irregulars would soon
lose their nerve and go off home unless something was done; so
Lawrence and Junor went off in two armoured cars to raid the
aerodrome. They got quite close by silencing the cars and found
three aeroplanes on the ground. One they shot to pieces; the two
others escaping flew to Deraa and returned to chase the cars with
bombs. The first dropped its four bombs all together from a height
and missed badly, but the other flew low, placing one bomb at a
time with great care. Lawrence and Junor drove slowly on over rocky
ground, quite defenceless. One bomb sent a shower of stones
through the driving slit of Lawrence’s car but only cut his knuckles.
Another tore off a front tire and nearly overturned them. But they
returned safely to Umtaiye.
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