OPTICAL & WIRELESS

COMMUNICATION

MODULE-1
 Optical Fiber Modes and Configurations
• Fiber Types:An optical fiber is a dielectric waveguide that
operates at optical frequencies
• This fiber waveguide is normally cylindrical in form.
• It confines electromagnetic energy in the form of light to
within its surfaces and guides the light in a direction parallel
to its axis
• The propagation of light along a waveguide can be described
in terms of a set of guided electromagnetic waves called the
modes of the waveguide.
• These guided modes are referred to as the bound or trapped
modes of the waveguide.
• Each guided mode is a pattern of electric and magnetic field
distributions that is repeated along the fiber at equal intervals
 CONT…,
• single solid dielectric cylinder of radius a and index
of refraction n1 shown in Fig.
• This cylinder is known as the core of the fiber.
• The core is surrounded by a solid dielectric
cladding,
• which has a refractive index n2 that is less than n1
The cladding reduces scattering loss, it adds
mechanical strength to the fiber
• In standard optical fibers the core material is highly
pure silica glass (SiO2) compound
 CONT…,

• The refractive index of the core is uniform

throughout and undergoes an abrupt change (or
step) at the cladding boundary. This is called a step-
index fiber
• The core refractive index is made to vary as a
function of the radial distance from the center of the
fiber. This type is a graded-index fiber
 CONT…,
• Both the step- and the graded-index fibers can be
further divided into single-mode and multimode
classes. As the name implies, a single-mode fiber
sustains only one mode of propagation, whereas
multimode fibers contain many hundreds of modes
 CONT…,
• Multimode fibers offer several advantages compared
with single-mode fibers
• The larger core radii of multimode fibers make it
easier to launch optical power into the fiber and
facilitate the connecting together of similar fibers.
• Light can be launched into a multimode fiber using a
light-emittingdiode (LED) source.
• whereas single-mode fibers must generally be excited
with laser diodes.
• Although LEDs have less optical output power than
laser diodes they are easier to make, are less
expensive, require less complex circuitry, and have
 CONT..,
• A disadvantage of multimode fibers is that they suffer from
intermodal dispersion
• When an optical pulse is launched into a fiber, the optical
power in the pulse is distributed over all the modes of the
fiber.
• Each of the modes that can propagate in a multimode fiber
travels at a slightly different velocity.
• This means that the modes in a given optical pulse arrive at
the fiber end at slightly different times,
• Thus causing the pulse to spread out in time as it travels
along the fiber.
• This effect, which is known as intermodal dispersion or
intermodal distortion, can be reduced by using a graded-
index profile in a fiber core
 Rays and Modes
• The electromagnetic light field that is guided along
an optical fiber can be represented by a
superposition of bound or trapped modes

• The factor is the component of the wave

propagation constant and is the main
parameter of interest in describing fiber modes.
• For guided modes, can assume only certain
discrete values,
• which are determined from the requirement that the
mode field must satisfy Maxwell’s equations
 CONT..,
• Theoretically studying the propagation characteristics of
light in an optical fiber is the geometrical optics or ray-
tracing approach.
• This method provides a good approximation to the light
acceptance and guiding properties of optical fibers
• when the ratio of the fiber radius to the wavelength is
large. This is known as the small-wavelength limit.
• The advantage of the ray approach is that, compared
with the exact electromagnetic wave (modal) analysis, it
gives a more direct physical interpretation of the light
propagation characteristics in an optical fiber.
 CONT…,
• The family of plane waves corresponding to a particular mode
forms a set of rays called a ray congruence.
• Each ray of this particular set travels in the fiber at the same
angle relative to the fiber axis
• An important case is the analysis of single-mode or few-mode
fibers, which must be dealt with by using electromagnetic
theory.
• Problems involving coherence or interference phenomena
must also be solved with an electromagnetic approach.
• In addition, a modal analysis is necessary when a knowledge
of the field distribution of individual modes is required.
• This arises, for example, when analyzing the excitation of an
individual mode or when analyzing the coupling of power
between modes at waveguide imperfections
 CONT…,
• Another discrepancy between the ray optics
approach and the modal analysis occurs when an
optical fiber is uniformly bent with a constant radius
of curvature
• Wave optics correctly predicts that every mode of
the curved fiber experiences some radiation loss.
• Ray optics, on the other hand, erroneously predicts
that some ray congruences can undergo total internal
reflection at the curve and, consequently, can remain
guided without loss
 Step-Index Fiber Structure
• Light propagation in an optical waveguide by
considering the step-index fiber. In practical step-
index fibers the core of radius a has a refractive
index n1, which is typically equal to 1.48. This is
surrounded by a cladding of slightly lower index n 2,
where
 Ray Optics Representation
• The two types of rays that can propagate in a fiber are
meridional rays and skew rays.
• Meridional rays are confined to the meridian planes of
the fiber, which are the planes that contain the axis of
symmetry of the fiber (the core axis).
• Meridional rays can be divided into two general
classes: bound rays that are trapped in the core and
propagate along the fiber axis according to the laws of
geometrical optics, and unbound rays that are
refracted out of the fiber core
• Skew rays are not confined to a single plane, but
instead tend to follow a helical-type path along the
 CONT…,
• Skew rays are more difficult to track as they travel
along the fiber because they do not lie in a single
plane. Although skew rays constitute a major
portion of the total number of guided rays, their
analysis is not necessary to obtain a general picture
of rays propagating in a fiber
 Cont…,
• A greater power loss arises when skew rays are included in
the analyses because many of the skew rays that geometric
optics predicts to be trapped in the fiber are actually leaky
rays
• The meridional ray is shown in Fig. for a step-index fiber.
• The light ray enters the fiber core from a medium of
refractive index n at an angle with respect to the fiber
axis
• And strikes the core-cladding interface at a normal angle .
• If it strikes this interface at such an angle that it is totally
internally reflected
• Then the meridional ray follows a zigzag path along the
fiber core, passing through the axis of the guide after each
 CONT…,

• The numerical aperture is related to the acceptance

angle, it is commonly used to describe the light
acceptance or gathering capability of a fiber and to
calculate source-to-fiber optical power coupling
problems
 Mode Theory for Circular Waveguides
• In optical wireless communication refers to the
propagation of electromagnetic waves in circular
waveguides,
• In this theory, the light waves are treated as modes,
which are specific field patterns that can propagate
through the waveguide.
• Circular waveguides support different
electromagnetic field configurations known as
modes.
• These are solutions to Maxwell’s equations with
specific boundary conditions (like the circular
geometry
 Cont…,
• Modes are classified as
• TE (Transverse Electric),
• TM (Transverse Magnetic), and HE (Hybrid
Electric) modes.
• TE modes: No electric field component in the
direction of propagation.
• TM modes: No magnetic field component in the
direction of propagation.
• HE modes: Both electric and magnetic field
components in the direction of propagation
(common in optical fibers).
 Cont…,
• Single-mode fibers allow only one mode to
propagate, minimizing dispersion and loss, making
them ideal for long-distance, high-bandwidth
communication.
• Multimode fibers allow multiple modes, but this
can lead to modal dispersion, where different modes
travel at different speeds, limiting bandwidth over
longer distances.
 Cont…,
• Core of this waveguide is a dielectric slab of index
n1 that is sandwiched between two dielectric layers
that have refractive indices n2 < n1 These
surrounding layers are called the cladding
• Figure 2.19 shows the field patterns of several of the
lower-order transverse electric (TE) modes
 Cont…,
• The plots show that the electric fields of the guided
modes are not completely confined to the central
dielectric slab (i.e., they do not go to zero at the
guide-cladding interface), but, instead, they extend
partially into the cladding
 Cont…,
• For low-order modes the fields are tightly
concentrated near the center of the slab (or the axis
of an optical fi ber), with little penetration into the
cladding region.
• For higher-order modes the fields are distributed
more toward the edges of the guide and penetrate
farther into the cladding region.
• Guided modes in the fiber occur when the values
for satisfy the condition
 Cont…,

• At the limit of propagation when a mode is

no longer properly guided and is called being cut
off.
• Thus unguided or radiation modes appear for
frequencies below the cutoff point where

• Wave propagation can still occur below cutoff for

those modes where some of the energy loss due to
radiation is blocked by an angular momentum
barrier that exists near the core-cladding interface.
 Cont…,
• These propagation states behave as partially
confined guided modes rather than radiation modes
and are called leaky mode.
• These leaky modes can travel considerable distances
along a fiber but lose power through leakage or
tunneling into the cladding as they propagate
 problems
• Cutoff condition is the V number defined by
 problem
• Number of modes M in a multimode step-index
fiber when V is large is
problem
Problem
problem
problem
problem
 Single-Mode Fibers
Construction
• Single-mode fibers are constructed by letting the
dimensions of the core diameter be a few wavelengths
(usually 8–12) and by having small index differences
between the core and the cladding.
• V = 2.4, it can be seen that single-mode propagation is
possible for fairly large variations in values of the physical
core size a and the core-cladding index differences
• However, in practical designs of single-mode fibers the
core-cladding index difference varies between 0.2 and 1.0
percent,
• And the core diameter should be chosen to be just below
the cutoff of the first higher-order mode; that is, for V
 Mode-Field Diameter
• A fundamental parameter of a single-mode fiber is
the mode-field diameter (MFD).
• This parameter can be determined from the mode-
field distribution of the fundamental fiber mode and
is a function of the optical source wavelength, the
core radius, and the refractive index profile of the
fiber
• For example, at V = 2 only 75 percent of the optical
power is confined to the core.
• This percentage increases for larger values of V and
is less for smaller V values.
 Cont…,
The MFD is an important
parameter for single-mode
fiber because it is used to
predict fiber properties
such as splice loss,
bending loss, cutoff
wavelength, and
waveguide dispersion
 Cont…,
• A standard technique to find the MFD is to measure
the far-field intensity distribution E2 (r) and then
calculate the MFD using the Petermann II equation
problem
problem
 Propagation Modes in Single-Mode Fibers
• The horizontal (H) and the vertical (V) polarizations
as shown in Fig.
• Either one of these two polarization modes
constitutes the fundamental HE11 mode.
• In general, the electric field of the light propagating
along the fiber is a linear superposition of these two
polarization modes and depends on the polarization
of the light at the launching point into the fiber.
• In ideal fibers with perfect rotational symmetry, the
two modes are degenerate with equal propagation
constants (kx = ky), and any polarization state
injected into the fiber will propagate unchanged
 Cont…,
• Imperfections break(asymmetrical lateral stresses,
noncircular cores, and variations in refractive-index
profiles) the circular symmetry of the ideal fiber and
lift the degeneracy of the two modes.
• The modes propagate with different phase
velocities, and the difference between their
effective refractive indices is called the fiber
birefringence,
 Cont…,
• If light is injected into the fiber so that both modes are excited, then
one will be delayed in phase relative to the other as they propagate.
• When this phase difference is an integral multiple of , the two
modes will beat at this point and the input polarization state will be
reproduced. The length over which this beating occurs is the fiber beat
length,
problem
 Fiber Materials
• In selecting materials for optical fibers, a number of
requirements must be satisfied
1. It must be possible to make long, thin, flexible
fibers from the material.
2. The material must be transparent at a particular
optical wavelength in order for the fiber to guide
light efficiently.
3. Physically compatible materials that have slightly
different refractive indices for the core and
cladding must be available.
 Cont…,
Glass Fibers:-
• Glass is made by fusing mixtures of metal oxides,
sulfides, or selenides
• Optical fibers are made consists of the oxide
glasses. the most common is silica (SiO2), which has
a refractive index ranging from 1.458 at 850 to
1.444 at 1550 nm.
• To produce two similar materials that have slightly
different indices of refraction for the core and
cladding, either fluorine or various oxides (referred
to as dopants), such as B2O3, GeO2, or P2O5, are
added to the silica
 Cont…,
• The addition of GeO2 or P2O5 increases the
refractive index, whereas doping the silica with
fluorine or B2O3 decreases it.
• Since the cladding must have a lower index than the
core, examples of fiber compositions are
• 1. GeO2–SiO2 core; SiO2 cladding
• 2. P2O5–SiO2 core; SiO2 cladding
• 3. SiO2 core; B2O3–SiO2 cladding
• 4. GeO2–B2O3–SiO2 core; B2O3– SiO2 cladding
 Cont…,
• Desirable properties are a resistance to deformation at temperatures as
high as 1000°C, a high resistance to breakage from thermal shock
because of its low thermal expansion,
• Good chemical durability, and high transparency in both the visible
and infrared regions of interest to fiber optic communication systems
 Cont…,
Active Glass Fibers
• Rare-earth elements (atomic numbers 57–71) into a
normally passive glass gives the resulting material
new optical and magnetic properties.
• These new properties allow the material to perform
amplification, attenuation, and phase retardation on
the light passing through it.
• 45–47 Doping (i.e., adding impurities) can be
carried out for silica, and halide glasses
 Cont..,
• Core material: Active glass fibers are typically
made of silica (SiO₂) or other glass materials. The
core is doped with rare-earth ions such as erbium
(Er³⁺), ytterbium (Yb³⁺), neodymium (Nd³⁺), or
thulium (Tm³⁺).
• Cladding: The core is surrounded by a cladding
layer, which has a lower refractive index to keep
light confined in the core by total internal reflection.
 Cont..,
• Applications:
• Fiber lasers: Active glass fibers are widely used in
high-power fiber lasers,
• Optical amplifiers:, helping to maintain signal
integrity without converting the light into an
electrical signal.
• Sensing and monitoring: Active glass fibers can be
used in optical sensors, for example, in detecting
environmental changes like temperature and strain.
 Cont…,
Plastic optical fibers
• Plastic optical fibers made from polymer materials
instead of glass, typically used for short-range data
transmission.
• They guide light, much like glass optical fibers, but are
more flexible, durable, and easier to handle, making
them suitable for consumer electronics, automotive
applications, and home networking
• Core material: The core of plastic optical fibers is
usually made from polymethyl methacrylate
(PMMA),
• PMMA acts as the medium through which light is
 Cont…,
• Cladding material: The core is surrounded by a
cladding made from a different type of polymer,
often fluorinated polymers,
• Protective coatings: Outer layers to shield the fiber
from mechanical damage and environmental factors.
• Higher attenuation: Plastic optical fibers have
greater signal loss per distance unit compared to
glass fibers, typically limiting their range to around
100 meters
• Larger core size: POF have a much larger core
diameter (typically 0.5 mm to 1 mm) compared to
glass fibers (around 8–62.5 µm).
 Cont…,
• Applications:-Home and office networking,
Automotive applications, Consumer electronics
• Limitations:-Short range(100meters), Lower
bandwidth
 Comparison with Glass Fibers:

• Attenuation: Glass fibers have much lower

attenuation than POF, making them ideal for long-
distance communication.
• Core Size: The larger core size of POF makes it
easier to work with, but glass fibers, with their
smaller core sizes, support higher bandwidth and
longer distances.
• Durability: POF is more rugged and flexible than
glass, but more prone to breakage when bent or
handled improperly.
 Attenuation and Dispersion
• The basic attenuation mechanisms in a fiber are
absorption, scattering, and radiative losses of the
optical energy.
• Absorption is related to the fiber material, whereas
scattering is associated both with the fiber material
and with structural imperfections in the optical
waveguide.
• Attenuation owing to radiative effects originates
from perturbations (both microscopic and
macroscopic) of the fiber geometry.
 Cont…,
• As light travels along a fiber, its power decreases
exponentially with distance.
• If P(0) is the optical power in a fiber at the origin (at
z = 0), then the power P(z) at a distance z farther
down the fiber is

• Is the fiber attenuation coefficient given in units of,

for example, km-1. Note that the units for can
also be designated by nepers.
 Cont…,
• To express the attenuation coefficient in units of
decibels per kilometer, denoted by dB/km
 problem
• Optical powers are commonly expressed in units of
dBm, which is the decibel power level referred to 1
mW. Consider a 30-km long optical fiber that has an
attenuation of 0.4 dB/km at 1310 nm. Suppose we
want to find the optical output power Pout if 200
µW of optical power is launched into the fiber
• Solution
• Total Attenuation (A)=Attenuation per km×Length
of fiber
 Cont…,
• Convert the input power to dBm
• The optical input power is 200 µW. We
need to convert this to dBm using the formula

Calculate the output power in dBm

• The optical output power Pout after the fiber can be found by
subtracting the total attenuation from the input power in dBm:
• To convert the output power from dBm back to µW,
we use the reverse of the dBm formula:
 Absorption
• Absorption is caused by three different mechanisms:
1. Absorption by a t o m i c d e f e c t s in the glass
composition.
2. Extrinsic absorption by i m p u r i t y a t o m s in
the glass material.
3. Intrinsic absorption by the basic
c o n s t i t u e n t a t o m s of the fiber material.
Atomic defects(defects include missing molecules,
high-density clusters of atom groups, or oxygen
defects in the glass structure) are imperfections in the
atomic structure of the fiber material.
 Cont…,
• Absorption losses negligible. However, they can be
significant if the fiber is exposed to ionizing
radiation,
• The basic response of a fiber to ionizing radiation is
an increase in attenuation owing to the creation of
atomic defects, or attenuation centers, that absorb
optical energy.
• The higher the radiation level, the larger the
attenuation
 Cont…,

• The dominant absorption factor in silica fibers is the

presence of minute quantities of impurities in the fiber
material.
• These impurities include OH- (water) ions that are
dissolved in the glass and transition metal ions such
 Cont….,
• By Reducing the residual OH content of fibers to
below 1 ppb, standard commercially available
single-mode fibers have nominal attenuations of 0.4
dB/km at 1310 nm (in the O-band) and less than
0.25 dB/km at 1550 nm (in the C-band).
• Further elimination of water ions diminishes the
absorption peak around 1440 nm and thus opens up
the E-band for data transmission, as indicated by the
dashed line
Cont…,
 Cont…,
• Intrinsic absorption:- it is defined as the absorption
that occurs when the material is in a perfect state
with no density variations, impurities, or material
inhomogeneities.
• Intrinsic absorption results from electronic
absorption bands in the ultra violet region and from
atomic vibration bands in the near-infrared region
• Absorption occurs when a photon interacts with an
electron in the valence band and excites it to a
higher energy level
• The ultraviolet loss
 Cont…,
• In the near-infrared region above 1.2 mm, the optical
waveguide loss is predominantly determined by the
presence of OH ions and the inherent infrared absorption of
the constituent material
• An interaction between the vibrating bond and the
electromagnetic field of the optical signal results in a
transfer of energy from the field to the bond, thereby giving
rise to absorption.
• This absorption is quite strong because of the many bonds
present in the fiber
• empirical expression for the infrared absorption
 Cont….,

Optical fiber attenuation characteristics

problem
 Scattering Losses
• Scattering losses in glass arise from microscopic
variations in the material density, from
compositional fluctuations, and from structural
inhomogeneities or defects occurring during fiber
manufacture
• Since glass is made up of several oxides, such as
SiO2, GeO2, and P2O5, compositional fluctuations
can occur
• Effects give rise to refractive-index variations and
cause a R a y l e i g h - t y p e s c a t t e r i n g o f
the light
 Cont…,
• The expressions for scattering-induced attenuation

• For multicomponent glasses the scattering at a

wavelength

• Structural inhomogeneities and defects created during

fiber fabrication can also cause scattering of light out of
the fiber.
• These defects may be in the form of trapped gas
bubbles, unreacted starting materials, and crystallized
 Cont….,
• Combining the infrared, ultraviolet, and scattering
losses, we get the results shown in Fig1 for
multimode fibers and fig 2 for single-mode fibers.

fig1 fig 2
 Bending Losses
• Radiative losses occur whenever an optical fiber undergoes a bend of
finite radius of curvature
• Fibers can be subject to two types of curvatures:
• (a) macroscopic bends having radii that are large compared with the
fiber diameter, such as those that occur when a fiber cable turns a
corner, and
• (b) random microscopic bends of the fiber axis that can arise when
the fibers are incorporated into cables.
• large-curvature radiation losses, which are known as macrobending
losses or simply bending losses.
• For slight bends the excess loss is extremely small and is essentially
unobservable.
• As the radius of curvature decreases, the loss increases exponentially
until at a certain critical radius the curvature loss becomes observable
 Cont…,
• At a certain critical distance xc from the center of the fiber,
the field tail would have to move faster than the speed of
light to keep up with the core field.
• Since this is not possible, the optical energy in the field tail
beyond xc radiates away
• The amount of optical radiation from a bent fiber depends
on the field strength at xc and on the radius of curvature R
• The following expression has been derived for the effective
number of modes Meff that are guided by a curved
multimode fiber of radius a:
 Cont….,

• Microbends are repetitive small-scale fluctuations in the radius of

curvature of the fiber axis
• They are caused either by nonuniformities in the manufacturing of the
fiber or by nonuniform lateral pressures created during the cabling of
the fiber.
• The latter effect is often referred to as cabling or packaging losses
Cont…,
problem
 Core and Cladding Losses
• Since the core and cladding have different indices of
refraction and therefore differ in composition, the
core and cladding generally have different
attenuation coefficients, denoted α 1and , α2
respectively
• The loss for a mode of order (n, m) for a step-index
waveguide is
 Signal Dispersion in Fibers
• Signal dispersion is a consequence of factors such as
intermodal delay (also called intermodal dispersion),
intramodal dispersion, polarization-mode dispersion,
and higher-order dispersion effects.
• These distortions can be explained by examining the
behavior of the group velocities of the guided modes,
• where the group velocity is the speed at which energy
in a particular mode travels along the fiber
• Intermodal delay (or simply modal delay) appears
only in multimode fibers.
• Modal delay is a result of each mode having a
different value of the group velocity at a single
 Cont…,
Intramodal dispersion or chromatic dispersion is
pulse spreading that takes place within a single
mode.
• The phenomenon also is known as group velocity
dispersion
• Intramodal dispersion depends on the wavelength,
its effect on signal distortion increases with the
spectral width of the light source
• FIG, illustrate ,If the peak wavelength of an LED is
850 nm, a typical source spectral width would be 36
nm; that is, such an LED emits most of its light in
the 832-to-868-nm wavelength band.
 Cont….,
• The two main causes of intramodal dispersion are as follows:
1. Material dispersion arises due to the variations of the refractive
index of the core material as a function of wavelength.pulse
spreading occurs even when different wavelengths follow the same
path.
2. Waveguide dispersion causes pulse spreading because only part of
the optical power propagation along a fiber is confined to the core.
Within a single propagating mode, the cross-sectional distribution of
light in the optical fiber varies for different wavelengths.
Shorter wavelengths are more completely confined to the
fiber core,
whereas a larger portion of the optical power at longer
wavelengths propagates in the cladding, as shown in Fig
Cont…,
 Cont…,
• Polarization-mode dispersion:-results from the fact
that light-signal energy at a given wavelength in a
single-mode fiber actually occupies two orthogonal
polarization states or modes
• each mode will travel at a slightly different velocity.
The resulting difference in propagation times
between the two orthogonal polarization modes will
cause pulse spreading
 Modal Delay
• Intermodal dispersion or modal delay appears only in
multimode fibers.
• This signal-distorting mechanism is a result of each
mode having a different value of the group velocity at a
single frequency
• Variation in the group velocities of the different modes
results in a group delay spread, which is the intermodal
dispersion
• The maximum pulse broadening arising from the
modal delay is the difference between the travel time
Tmax of the longest ray congruence paths (the highest-
order mode) and the travel time Tmin of the shortest ray
congruence paths (the fundamental mode)
 Cont…,
• This broadening is simply obtained from ray tracing
and for a fiber of length L is given by

• The root-mean-square (rms) value of the time delay

is a useful parameter for assessing the effect of
modal delay in a multimode fiber

• Here L is the fiber length and NA is the numerical

problems
 Group Delay
• Consider an electrical signal that modulates an optical source. For this
case, assume that the modulated optical signal excites all modes
equally at the input of the fiber.
• Each waveguide mode thus carries an equal amount of energy through
the fiber.
• Furthermore, each mode contains all the spectral components in the
wavelength band over which the source emits.
• As the signal propagates along the fiber, each spectral component can
be assumed to travel independently and to undergo a time delay or
group delay per unit length τg /L in the direction of the propagation
given by
 Cont…,
• Since the group delay depends on the wavelength,
each spectral component of any particular mode
takes a different amount of time to travel a certain
distance.
• As a result of this difference in time delays, the
optical signal pulse spreads out with time as it is
transmitted over the fiber
• the total delay difference over a distance L is
 Cont…,

The factor D is designated as the dispersion.

It defines the pulse spread as a function of wave
length and is measured in picoseconds per kilometer
per nanometer . It is a result of material and
waveguide dispersion
 Material Dispersion
• Material dispersion occurs because the index of refraction varies as a
function of the optical wavelength

• Material dispersion is, therefore, an intramodal dispersion effect and is

of particular importance for single-mode wave guides and for LED
systems (since an LED has a broader output spectrum than a laser
• To calculate material-induced dispersion, we consider
a plane wave propagating in an infinitely extended
dielectric medium that has a refractive index n(λ)
equal to that of the fiber core. The propagation
constant β is thus given as
group delay resulting from material dispersion

• pulse spread for a source of spectral width

is found by differentiating this group
delay with respect to wavelength and multiplying by
 Cont….,

Material dispersion as a function of optical

wavelength for pure silica and
 Waveguide Dispersion
• Waveguide dispersion in optical fibers is one of the
types of dispersion that affects how light pulses
spread out as they travel along the fiber.
• It arises due to the physical structure and design of
the optical fiber.
• first consider the group delay—that is, the time
required for a mode to travel along a fiber of length
L.
• To make the results independent of fiber
configuration, we shall express the group delay in
terms of the normalized propagation constant b
defined as
Cont…,
 Polarization-Mode Dispersion
• The effects of fiber birefringence on the polarization
states of an optical signal are another source of pulse
broadening
• Cause of PMD
• Core non-circularity: The fiber core may not be perfectly
circular, which introduces birefringence, causing different
propagation speeds for different polarization states.
• Intrinsic birefringence: Due to imperfections in the
manufacturing process, fibers may have an intrinsic
difference in refractive indices for the two orthogonal
polarization states.
• In addition, external factors, such as bending, twisting, or
pinching of the fiber, can also lead to birefringence
 Cont….,
• Polarization refers to the electric field orientation of
a light signal, which can vary significantly along the
length
• signal energy at a given wavelength occupies two
orthogonal polarization modes.
• A varying birefringence along its length will cause
each polarization mode to travel at a slightly
different velocity. The resulting difference in
propagation times ΔτPMD between the two
orthogonal polarization modes will result in pulse
spreading. This is the polarization-mode dispersion
(PMD)
• PMD for long fiber lengths is in terms of the mean value of
the differential group delay
• This can be calculated according to the relationship
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