Optical

communication
Introduction
Optical communication is any form of telecommunication
that uses light as the medium of transmission.

An optical communication system consists of a

transmitter, which encodes a message into an optical
signal, a channel, which carries the signal to its
destination, and a receiver, which reproduces the
message from the received optical signal.
 Optical fiber is the most common medium for modern digital
optical communication.
Optical Fiber communication: The History
Fiber Optic communications has only been practical since about
1970, when glass fiber was finally made with low enough loss to be
useful.
The invention of the laser diode, at about the same time, helped to
make fiber optic communications practical.
Optical communication however, dates from at least 1880, when
Alexander Graham Bell transmitted telephone messages using a
beam of light in air.
His invention was called the Photophone.
The first uses for optical fiber were not in communication at all,
because the early fibers were too lossy.
Bundles of fibers were used for medical imaging to view
inaccessible parts of the human body.
Introduction : Fiber Optic
Fiber optic system is a communication system that carry
information through a guided fiber cable.

The transmitters in optical fiber links are generally light-

emitting diodes (LEDs) or laser diodes.

Infrared light, rather than visible light is used more commonly,

because optical fibers transmit infrared wavelengths with less
attenuation and dispersion

Light frequencies used in fiber optic system are between 1014

and 4 X 1014 Hz.

Thus, the higher the carrier frequency, the wider the

information carrying capacity.
Element in An Optic Fiber
Communication Link
Driving circuitry also known as electrical transmit. It serves as an
electrical interface between the input circuitry and the light source.
It is used to drive the light source.

Light Source This light source can be either an light emitting diode
(LED) or laser (light amplifier by stimulated emission of radiation).
Light source is to convert electrical energy to optical energy, where
the amount of light emitting is proportional to the amount of drive
current.
 Light source-to-fiber couple This is an interface to couple the light
emitting by the source into the optical fiber cable.

Fiber optic It is long strand of glass or plastic fiber used to transfer

signal in a form of light from a point to another point. Most fiber
caldes have a circular cross section with a diameter of only a
fraction of an inch (its baize is almost same as size human hair)
 Fiber to-detector coupler This is an interface between fiber and
light detector to couple as much light as possible from the fiber
cable into the light detector.
Light detector The commonly used light detector or photo sensor
is either a PIN (p type-intrinsic-n type) diode or an APD (avalanche
photodiode). Consequently a current to voltage converter (IVC) is
required which transform variations of detector current to output
signal voltage variations.
Characteristics
The characteristics of light transmission through a glass fiber
depend on many factors:-
Composition of fiber
Amount and type of light introduced into fiber.
Diameter and length of fiber.
 The fiber optic consists of three part:
1. The core where the light is passing through
2. The cladding which surrounds the core with a lower
refractive index. Its main purpose is:
i) Provide total internal reflection and reduce scattering
loss resulting from dielectric discontinuities at cone
surface.
ii) Add mechanical strength to the fiber
iii) Protect the core from absorbing surface contaminants.

3. Protective jacket / coating. This is the outer coating made

of specially formulated plastic coating that provides a first
level shock and abrasion resistance for the fiber.
Propagation modes
In reality, optical fiber is a waveguide.
Hence, light can propagate in a number of specific mode.
If the diameter of the fiber is relatively large, light entering at
different angles will excite different modes.
On the other hand, a fiber that is sufficiently narrow may
support only one mode.

In optics, the numerical aperture (NA) of an optical system is

a dimensionless number that characterizes the range of angles
over which the system can accept or emit light.
Cont: Propagation modes
Mono mode / Single mode
Fiber that has a very small core diameter of about 8m
to 12m diameter.
Only a single path of light as it propagate down the
cable.
All light rays follow approximately same amount of
time to travel the length of the cable.
Model dispersion is zero. Model dispersion is a
difference in the length of time it takes that various
light rays to exit the fiber.
 Multi mode
The centre core is larger from 50m to 100m.
It has a large light to-fiber aperture and allows more light to
enter the cable.
Light rays are propagated down the cable in a zig-zag pattern,
continuously reflecting off the interface boundary resulting many
paths.
Or light is propagated down the fiber by refraction, which result
in a continuous bending of the light rays at many different
angles.
Result: all light rays do not follow the same path
Model dispersion is present.
Advantages and Disadvantages
of Fiber Optics:
Advantages
Bandwidth Capable of transmitting several gigabits per
second over hundreds of kilometers. Thousand of voice
channels can now be multiplexed together and sent over a
single fiber strand.
Less loss Exhibit less than a few tenths of a decibel of loss
perkilometer.
Noise immunity and safety Immune to inductive coupling or
crosstalk from adjacent copper or fiber channels. It is not
affected by electromagnetic interference (EMI) or
electrostatic interference.
 Security Since light does not radiate from a fiber optic cable,
it is nearly impossible to secretly tap into it without detection.

Flexibility The surface of glass fiber is much more refined

than ordinary glass. This, coupled with its small diameter,
allows it to be flexible enough to wrap around a pencil.

Reliability It is more resistant to corrosion caused by

environmental extremes such as temperature, corrosive gas
and liquids. Once install, a longer lifespan is expected.
 Disadvantages

Interfacing cost Conversion of electronic facilities to optics to

interface with fiber and splicing are costly and can be a tedious task.

Strength Fiber has a tensile strength of approximately 1 lb, as

compared to coax cable at 180 lb. Hence, the fiber need to
surrounded with stranded Kevlar and a protective PVC jacket to
increase the pulling strength up to 500 lb.

Remote powering of devices It is necessary to provide electrical

power to a remote device. This cannot be achieved through the
fiber hence need to include metallic conductor in the cable
assembly.
Comparison : Singlemode and multimode
In singlemode, there is a minimum model dispersion. So
attenuation is lower compared to multimode fiber.
Due to accuracy in reproducing transmitted pulses at the
receive end, large bandwidth and higher information
transmission rates are possible with singlemode fiber,
compared to multimode.
Monomode normally works with laser as its light source
as a highly directive light source is needed due to small
centre core, normally works with LEDs as light source.
Multimode fibers are inexpensive and simple to
manufacture compared to singlemode.
 In application, singlemode fiber cables are normally used in long
distance telecommunication, whereas multimode cables are used in
short distance.
Advantages of singlemode
Increased bandwidth capacity
A single-mode optical fiber cable Supports A higher bandwidth
of a multi-mode fiber optic cable in Quebec. The main
objective of the United Nations of a fiber optic cable (OU All
Other Communication System) is to allow a maximum OR of
data bits to be transferred between the issuer and Fewer
Errors with the receiver. The Core Narrow limiter single-mode
fiber dispersion / distortion of the light (or multi-path effect),
AND the bandwidth capacity of reducing the cable.
Used for Longer Transmission Distances
Simple single-mode fiber optics cables used to pay HAVE
configured Wide Area Networks (WAN), Metropolitan
Networks (MAN) and campus networks. A remote support its
transmission UNTIL 50 times that of a multi-mode fiber. Use
SMF EST generally UN For the transmission of data over a
long distance.
Advantage (cont)
Limited Data Dispersion & External Interference
Rays of light parallel to the axis of core single mode fiber. This
contrasts with a possible multi-mode fiber, the light rays from
all sides and directions. The single input mode of the SMF limit
light scattering, which in turn eliminates waste and speeds
data transfer increases. A single cable mode is immune to
external noise, including electromagnetic interference (EMI)
and radio frequency interference (RFI).
Increased Transmission Speeds
Single-mode fiber optic cables provide higher speeds
minimized because of their capacity and more bandwidth
interference from outside. can support a single strand of
optical fiber to transmit up to 10 Gbps (gigabytes of data per
second).
Fiber optic application
Long-haul backbone public and private networks
High resolution image and digital video
Computer networks, wide area and local area
Shipboard communication
Aircraft communication and control
Attenuation in Fiber optic
When light travels in a fiber optic cable in a long run, light tend
to attenuate.

Attenuation is the condition where the signal becoming weaker

when it travel from the source to destination.

The possiblities of attenuation adverse effect on performance of

the fibre optic cable:
Reducing the system bandwidth
Lower the information transmission rate
Reduce efficiency
Reduce overall system capacity
Loss in Optical communication
Cable losses
Depend on cable length, material and material purity.
Given in dB/km

P = Pt X 10 Al/10

Connector losses
Connector used to connect two sections of cable.
If conncetion not perfect, light energy can escape.
Resulting in a reduction in optical power.

Source to cable interface loss

Mechanical interface used to house the light source and
attach it to the cable is seldom perfect.
A small percentage of optical poweris not coupled into the
Size of a Fibre Optic Cable
The size of the fiber optic does effected the amount of light
that can going through the fiber optic cable.

The size of the fiber optic cable can be determined by

calculating the radius/diameter of the fiber optic cable by
using the formula:

rmax =

= wavelength
N.A = Numerical aperture (The opening angle of the cable)
Cont-
Source to cable interface loss
Mechanical interface used to house the light source and
attach it to the cable is seldom perfect.
A small percentage of optical poweris not coupled into the
cable, representing a power loss to the system of several
Cable to light detector interface loss
Mechanical interface used to house the light detector and
attach it to the cable is also not perfect.
Therefore, prevents a small percentage of the power leaving
the cable from entering the light detector.
This represent a loss to the system usually of a few tenths of a
dB.
Splicing loss
When the cable be fused together and the slices are not
perfect.
Cont-
Splicing loss
When the cable be fused together and the slices are not
perfect.

Cable bends
When the cable bent at too large an angle, the internal
characteristics of the cable can change dramatically.
Total reflections for some of the light rays may no longer be
achieved resulting in refraction.
Light refracted at the core/cladding interface enters the
cladding, resulting in a net loss to the signal of a few tenths of
a dB to several dB.
Example 1 :
Determine the optical power at 80 km from a 0.23 mW light
source for a single mode optical cable with 0.3 dB/km loss.

P = Pt X 10 Al/10
Example 2:
Determine the optical power received in dBm and watts for a 35 km
optical fibre link with the following parameters:

Pr = Pt losses

LED output power of 38 mW

Five 7 km sections of optical cable each with a loss of 0.7 dB/km
Four cable-to-cable connectors with a loss of 5 dB each
Cable splices loss of 0.14 dB
Light source-to-fibre interface loss of 2.3 dB
Fibre-to-light detector loss of 2.7 dB
Losses due to cable bends of 0.2 dB
Example 3:
Find the the maximum core diameter for a single mode fiber
with a numerical aperture of 0.2, if it is to be used with
infrared light with a wavelength of 750 nm?

0.383
rmax =
.