1/20/2009

SIES Graduate School of Technology

FIBER OPTIC 
FIBER OPTIC
COMMUNICATION

Chapter 1
INTRODUCTION TO FIBER OPTIC 
COMMUNICATION

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OUTLINE
• 1.1 History of fiber optics
• 1.2 Fundamental elements of communication systems
• 1.3 Communication system applications in the
electromagnetic
l i spectrum
• 1.4 Advantages & Disadvantages of fiber optics
• 1.5 Elements of Fiber Optic Communication Link
• 1.6 A Generalized Fiber Optic System
p Windows
• 1.7 Fiber Optic
• 1.8 Fiber better than Co‐axial Cable….
• 1.9 Fiber optic generations
• 1.10 Fiber Optic technology development
• 1.11 Optical Fiber Link Evolution
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1.1 History of Fiber Optics
John Tyndall successfully demonstrated how light could be guided in a
stream of falling water in 1870 .

Total Internal reflection is the basic idea of fiber optic 
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1.1 History of Fiber optics
During 1930, other ideas were developed with this fiber optic
such as transmitting images through a fiber.
During the 1960s, Lasers were introduced as efficient light
sources
In 1970s All glass fibers experienced excessive optical loss,
loss the
loss of the light signal as it traveled the fiber limiting
transmission distance.

This motivated the scientists to develop glass fibers that

include a separating glass coating. The innermost region was
used to transmit the light, while the glass coating prevented
the light from leaking out of the core by reflecting the light
within the boundaries of the core.

Today, you can find fiber optics used in variety of applications

such as medical environment to the broadcasting industry. It is
used to transmit voice, television, images and data signals
through small flexible threads of
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1.2 Fundamental elements of communication 
systems

Encoding Decoding
Modulation Demodulation

Information 
Transmitter Channel Receiver Destination
Source

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1.3 Communication system applications in the
electromagnetic spectrum

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1.4 Advantages & Disadvantages of Fiber optics
‰ Enormous capacity: 1.3 µm ... 1.55 µm allocates bandwidth of
37 THz !!
‰ Low transmission loss: Optical fiber loss 0.2 dB/km, Coaxial 
cable loss 10 … 300 dB/km!
‰ Cables and equipment have small size and weight ….aircrafts, 
Cables and equipment have small size and weight ….aircrafts
satellites, ships 
‰ Immunity to interference and crosstalk. 
‰ Electrical isolation …Not affected by EMI & RFI 
‰ Signal security ..banking, computer networks, military   systems
‰ System reliability & ease of maintenance
‰ Silica fibers have abundant raw material

‰ Fiber is expensive as compared to copper cable.
‰ Connectors have high loss (expensive also) & installation time 
‰ Lines must be placed 
‰ Repairs are not easily made 
‰ Each splice causes a  loss in excess of 0.1 dB
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1.5 Elements of Fiber Optic Communication Link

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1.5 Elements of Fiber Optic Communication Link

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1.6 A Generalized Fiber Optic System

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1.7 Fiber Optic Windows

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1.8 Fiber better than Co‐axial Cable….

14

A
tt
e
12 Coaxial Line
Effective attenuation of a
n
u
1‐km length
g of coaxial line
8
at
io and glass fiber.
n
d
4
B Glass Fiber
/
K
m
0
0.1 0.5 1 5 10 50 100 500 1000
FREQUENCY (MHz/ Mbps) GKB 12

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1.9 Fiber optic generations

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1.10 Fiber Optic technology development

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1.11 Optical Fiber Link Evolution
Launched

power spectra LED

P OEO OEO OEO
Transmitter Receiver
λ Repeater Repeater Repeater

1.3 μm
Multi-mode laser
P OEO OEO
Transmitter Receiver
λ repeater repeater

Single-mode laser
P 1.55 μm OEO
Transmitter Receiver
λ repeater
WDM at λ1, λ2,... λn
P Multi λ- WDM- WDM- Multi λ-
MUX Fiber-amplifier
Fiber amplifier DEMUX
,λ1 ,λ2 ,...λn Transmitter
EDFA/Raman
Receiver

Multi-mode fiber
Single-mode fiber
OEO Opto-electro-optical
Repeater
repeater

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