Introduction

The last thirty years, the need for high-speed access networks, driven by the increasing amount of bandwidth required by each customer, from home users who require fast internet, high quality audio and video services to large businesses and organizations who require reliable, high-capacity networks to interconnect their home offices to their company network. Telecommunication companies used various key technologies to send these services from one user to another trying to achieve high-speed data rates, by using coaxial copper cable .to transport data services via cable modems or the existing copper cable infrastructure to carry voice telephony, and data rates via ADSL and VDSL modems. These current infrastructures are not wide enough to solve the problem of the increasing need for speed. This actuates to the adoption of optical fibre technology. The growth of optical fibre is enormous the last two decades and its applications are numerous. Fibre-optic cabling uses glass or plastic fibres or a combination of glass to guide light pulses from source to destination. Fibre-optic communications date back to 1790s. The guiding of light in media using the concept of refraction, the principle that makes fibre optics possible, and was first discussed in the mid of 19th century.[1] In the late 1800s, Alexander Graham Bell introduced the idea of exchanging data by the use of light. During the 1920s, researchers in the United States, demonstrated the transmission of an image through a bundle of fibres. In the 1950s, a breakthrough happened when researchers reduced the loss of light transmission and interference between the fibres by cladding the fibres.[1],
[2]

The first optical fibre link was

installed in UK in 1975, and soon after in the US and in Japan. Since then, more than 80 percent of the worlds voice and data traffic is carried over optical-fibre cable.[1]

Optic Fibre Cable Structure

Optic fibre cable is a cable that contains one or more optical fibres. Optical fibre cable is cylindrical pipe and can guide light from one end to the other. These cables carry optical signals than electrical signals compare to copper cables. A fibre optic cable is composed of two concentric layers, called the core and the cladding. Light is piped through the core. Core is the material in the centre of the fibre. Cladding surrounding the core and is the outer material that reflects the light back into the core. As shown in figure 1.1, optical fibre has an additional coating, called jacket, which protects the fibre from damage.
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Figure 1.1: Fibre Optic Cable [Available from: http://www.telebyteusa.com/foprimer/foch2.htm#2.1]

The light is guided through the core and the fibre acts as an optical waveguide. This occurs because the core and cladding have different refractive indices with core having a refractive index of n1 and the cladding having a refractive index of n2 ( always n1 > n2). measuring the speed of light.
[4]

The index of refraction is a way of

Fibre Cable Diameter

Fibre optic cables have small diameters. As shown in figure 1.2, the diameter sizes of the core and cladding are measured with in microns. Human hair has a diameter of 100 microns. Core size expressed first and then the cladding size. For example, 50/125 indicates a core diameter of 50 microns and a cladding diameter of 125 microns. The larger the core the more light can be coupled. The more light can be coupled into the core the more light will reach the Receiver and lower the BER is. [3] Although, large diameter cores could possibly cause receiver fill problems.

Figure 1.2: Core and cladding diameters (sizes in microns) [Available from:
http://www.telebyteusa.com/foprimer/foch2.htm#2.1]

Composition of Fibre
The material from which the fibre optic cables are made of are three:
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Glass: Has the lowest attenuation and has the most wide spread use. A glass fibre optic cable has a glass core and a glass cladding; it comes at the highest cost.

Plastic: Has the highest attenuation but has the lowest cost. A plastic optic fibre cable has a plastic core and plastic cladding and is the thickest. The main use of plastic fibres is in short distance applications (several hundred meters).

Plastic Clad Silica (PCS): Is the less popular fibre optic cable. It has glass core and plastic gladding. The attenuation lies between glass and plastic. [5]

Optic Fibre Cable Type

Lasers or light emitting diodes (LEDs) generate the light pulses that are used to represent the transmitted data as bits on the media. Electronic devices that called photodiodes detect the light pulses and convert them to voltages that can be reconstructed into data frames. [6] An optical fibre guides light waves in distinct patterns called modes. Mode describes the way the wave travels through the fibre. Fibre optic cables can be classified into two types:
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Mono-mode Step Index Multimode

Mono-mode optical fibre (single-mode optical fibre, SMF) carries a single ray of light (mode), usually emitted from a laser. This type of fibre can transmit optical pulses for very long distances. This occurs because the laser light is uni-directional and can travel down the centre of the fibre. Also is suited for long distance applications up to 100km-62.14 miles. [6] A typical single-mode optical fibre has a core diameter between 8 to 10 microns and a cladding diameter of 125 microns, is thereby characterized as having lower attenuation and less time dispersion. Less time dispersion means higher bandwidth (about 50 times more distance than multimode), but is the most costly for a premise environment, and for this reason it has been used more with Wide Area Networks. [1] Multimode optical fibre (MMF) uses LED emitters that do not create a single light wave. Light from a LED enters the multimode fibre at different angles, as shown in figure 1.3. This figure illustrates a multimode fibre optic cable with step index profile. The light entering the fibre at different angles takes different amounts of time to travel down the fibre, which results greater dispersion and therefore, loss of signal. This is known as modal dispersion. As the length of fibre increases, modal dispersion increases. Used for long distance applications, but shorter than single mode, up to 2km. Typical multimode optical fibre has a core diameter, larger than single-mode, 50, 62.5, 100 microns and a cladding diameter 125 microns. This type of fibre optic is more popular in campus environment and MTU applications. Also, is less expensive than single-mode, but with having higher attenuation and more time dispersion. [6]

Figure 1.3: Transmission in a multimode step index fibre [Available from:

http://www.fiberoptics4sale.com/Merchant2/multimode-fiber.php]

Multimode graded index fibre has a higher refractive index in the core that gradually reduces as it extends from the cylindrical axis outward. The figure 1.4 illustrates the transmission in a multimode graded index fibre. As shown, there is no sharp discontinuity in the indices of refraction between core and cladding and the paths appear to follow a series of ellipses. Core is much larger than the singlemode fibre. Attenuation and time dispersion are more limited than with a step index. This type of fibre uses the same diameters for core and cladding and is the most popular and most widely used in premise environment. Glass is usually used to fabricate this type of fibre cable.
[15]

Figure 1.4: Transmission in multimode graded index fibre [Available from:

http://www.ciscopress.com/articles/article.asp?p=170740&seqNum=5] The ITU has defined a series of several standards related to the characteristics of multimode and single-mode fibre optic cables:
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ITU G.651: Covers multimode graded-index fibre optic cable having 50 micron core diameter and a 125 micron cladding diameter.

ITU G.652: Covers single-mode NSDF (non dispersion shifted fibre) cable. This cable supports the following distances and data rates: 1000km at 2.5 Gbps, 60km at 10 Gbps, and 3km at 40 Gbps.

ITU G.653: Covers single-mode dispersion shifted optical fibre. At this cable attenuation and dispersion are minimized, so longer distance is possible

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ITU G654: Covers non-zero dispersion shifted fibre which is used for submarine applications. ITU G.655: Covers single-mode NZ-DSF (nonzero dispersion shifted fibre) cable. This cable supports the following distances and data rates: 6000km at 2.5 Gbps, 400km at 10 Gbps, and 25km at 40 Gbps. This the latest development in fibre optic cable.

ITU G.656: Covers non-zero dispersion Wideband Optical Transport fibre which has low chromatic dispersion and supports CWDM systems as well as the addition of a further 40 channels in DWDM systems. [7]

Fibre Optic Communication System

A fibre optic data link, as shown in figure 1.5, consists of the following components to transfer information from the source user to the destination user:
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Transmitter: Produces and encodes the light signals Optical fibre: Transfers the light signal over a distance Optical regenerator: Necessary to boost the light signal for long distances Optical receiver: Receives and decodes the light signal

Figure 1.5: Model of fibre optic data link [Available from:

http://www.telebyteusa.com/foprimer/foch2.htm#2.1]

Transmitter serves two functions. First, it must be a source of the light launched into the fibre optic
cable. Second, it must modulate this light to represent the binary data that it receives from the source. Must have compatible physical dimensions with the size of the optical fibre cable being used, otherwise, light wont be coupled into the cable. Also it must be able to generate enough optic power so the optimal bit error rate (BER) can be reached. The optical source should be easily modulated with an electrical signal and must be capable of high-speed modulation. Otherwise the bandwidth benefits of fibre optic cable will be lost. [3] Transmitters are usually semiconductor devices such as light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and laser diodes (LDs). LEDs are simpler and generate incoherent, lower power light and are used to drive MMF systems. LEDs provide higher reliability, while LDs provide very high speeds, higher coupling efficiency to the optic fibre cable, but cost much more. LDs are more complex and generate coherent, higher power light and are used to drive SMF systems. The most common wavelengths of light signals are 850 nm, 1.300 nm, and 1.550 nm. [8]

Optical regenerator consists of optical fibres with a special coating (doping). When the degraded
signal comes into the doped coating, the energy from the laser allows the doped molecules to become

lasers themselves. With this method the incoming signal is upgraded with the same characteristics of the incoming weak signal. One or more optical regenerators spliced along the cable to boost the degraded signal so the signal could travel over long distances (about 1km).
[9]

Optical receiver serves two functions. It must detect the light coupled out of the fibre-optic cable and
convert the light into an electrical signal. The receiver uses a photocell or photodiode to detect the light. The receiver can serve a number of functions, such as clock recovery for synchronous signalling, error detection and correction, and decoding. The demodulation performance of the receiver is measured by the BER (bit error rate) that delivers to the user. [8]

Fibre Connectors
Optical fibres are connected to the terminal equipment by optical fibre connectors. Terminating and splicing fibre-optic cabling is crucial for the transmission of light down the fibre and requires special training and equipment. Three common errors of fibre optic termination and splicing are: Misalignment, End gap, End finish. [10]The most important optical fibre connectors are the following:
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Straight-Tip (ST): These connectors are widely used with multimode fibre, a very common bayonet style connector.

Subscriber Connector (SC): a connector which widely used with single-mode fibre and uses a push-pull mechanism to ensure positive insertion.

Lucent Connector (LC): used with single-mode and multimode fibre and provides highdensity connections and accurate alignment.

Ferrule Connector (FC): used with single-mode fibre and provides precise positioning of the fibre. MT-RJ: used with single-mode and multimode fibre and provides duplex connections.[10]

WDM (Wavelength Division Multiplexing)

Wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) is a type of multiplexing in which multiple optical signal channels are carried across a single strand of fibre at different wavelengths of laser light (colours) simultaneously. These channels are called lambda circuits.
[11]

WDM is the basic technology for

optical communication networks. WDM and FDM (Frequency Division Multiplexing) are both based on the same principles, but WDM refers to wavelengths of light in optical fibre, while FDM refers to electrical analog transmission. WDM is one of the most promising concepts for high capacity communications. Each communication channel is allocated to a different wavelength and multiplexed onto a single fibre (multiplexing). At the destination wavelengths are separated to different locations (demultiplexing), as shown in figure 1.6. To avoid any inter-channel interference the wavelengths in WDM must be properly spaced.[12]

Figure 1.6: Concept of Wavelength Division Multiplexing [Available from:

http://www.stealth.net/service/wave] There are three different wavelength patterns of WDM that are used today:
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Broad Wavelength Division Multiplexing (often called WDM) Coarse Wavelength Division Multiplexing (CWDM) Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM)

Broad WDM utilizes two wavelengths, one wavelength at 1310 nm and one wavelength at 1550 nm, and is very simple to implement. Also utilizes multiplexers and demultiplexers with low insertion loss. Off-the-shelf optical transmitters can be used and they do not need to be tightly controlled.[12] CWDM provides multiple wavelengths spaced at 20nm. Utilize 18 CWDM wavelengths (as specified by ITU-T G694.2) from 1297 nm to 1611 nm. Compared to DWDM, has lower equipment costs because transmitters, multiplexers, and demultiplexers do not need to be tightly controlled. CWDM systems designed for local and metropolitan area networks. [12] DWDM offers 40 to 160 DWDM wavelengths in the C- and L-bands (C-band = 1525-1565nm, Lband = 1570-1610nm), depending on which spacing is used (as specified by ITU-T G694.1) using the range 1530-1625nm. DWDM systems usually use 100 GHz (0.8nm) spacing, which provides 40 channels. Although, the use of 50 GHz (0.4nm) spacing provides 80 channels is more common. Some systems uses 25 GHz (0.2nm) spacing offering 160 channels and is referred to as Ultra-Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (UDWDM).
[13]

The ITU-T G694.1 has also defined a 12.5 GHz

(0.1nm) spacing, which provides 320 channels. Although, this spacing requires complex equipment, which means higher costs and more problems at high data bit rates. DWDM systems can operate over 150km distance, providing 14 Tbits/sec total bit rate (more than 13million telephone channels). The high capacity and amplification capabilities of DWDM design provides the use of DWDM in metropolitan and wide area applications and also is possible to use signals in different rate and different format (ATM, SONET, IP, Ethernet). [12],[13]

Fibre Optics Benefits and Drawbacks

Fibre optic systems have many advantages compare to other traditional wire technologies. The most important benefit of using this technology is the large capacity of fibre optic cable to carry high speed signals, up to 30 Tbit/s, over long distances without using repeaters. Light signal travels faster than electrical signals, which means faster transmission and reception. Data transmission is much more efficient because of the structure and the design that fibre optic cables have, compare to coaxial and cooper cables. These cables have higher information distortion due to electromagnetic interference. Also, metal wires can create sparks cause in some cases fire. Since optical fibres use light than electricity, the danger of an electric fire is avoided providing physical network security. Fibre optics provides less signal degradation, no crosstalk between cables, low loss of signal which results less retransmission. [14] A great disadvantage of a fibre optic system is the high cost of investment. It is more difficult and expensive to implement a fibre cable than a copper or coaxial wire. It is more difficult and expensive to install and construct a fibre, so it is more expensive to maintain. The data rates are much higher than the other wire technologies, but in practise these data rates are limited by the devices that convert electrical to optical signals and not by the cables bandwidth. [14]

Conclusion
Telecommunication networks based on fibre optic technology have become a major information system, encircling the globe with high-capacity links. Carriers use optical fibre to satisfy increasing bandwidth demands, such as voice, data, video and other digital services over long distances. Despite the high cost of installing fibre optic system, local exchange carriers are more comfortable and willing to replace their existing infrastructures which use today with fibre, and take advantage the special characteristics of the fibre cable eliminating the limitations of the old technology. Cable television companies use fibre to deliver digital video providing high-definition television (HDTV). Fibre optics is also been important for a huge number of other applications, such as in medicine, transportation, military, space and also in industrial sector. As the implementation of fibre advances all over the world, the cost is reducing because of the rapidly increase in use of fibre optics. Furthermore, as the technology involves day by day, future enhancements in fibre optics promising lower prices, more reliable links, higher data rates, and even more efficient and effective transmission.

References
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[10]: Cisco, (2009), OSI Physical Layer, Physical Media-Connecting Communication, Media Connectors, [Online], Available from: file:///C:/CISCO_CCNA/Exploration1_English/theme/hybrid/theme_onepage/main.html?level=page &css=blackonwhite.css&mediapres=choice&cid=0600000000&l1=en&l2=none&chapter=intro [Accessed 22nd November 2010] [11]: Sheldon Tom, (2001), WDM (Wavelength Division Multiplexing), [Online], Available from: http://www.linktionary.com/w/wdm.html [Accessed 22nd November 2010] [12]: Motorola, (2010), WDM/CWDM/DWDM: Segmentation Primer-Maximizing for Revenue, Wavelength Division Multiplexing, [Online], Available from: http://www.motorola.com/staticfiles/VideoSolutions/ultrabroadbandsolutions/pdf/WDM_%20CWDM_DWDM_Segmentation_Primer.pdf [Accessed 23rd November 2010] [13]: Meynell Kevin, Report on Technical Issues, Earnest Technical Report, p. 11, March 2008 [14]: Freudenrich Craig, (2010), How Fiber Optics Work, Advantages of Fiber Optics, [Online], Available from: http://communication.howstuffworks.com/fiber-optic-communications/fiberoptic4.htm [Accessed 23rd November 2010] [15]: Cisco Press, (2010), Fibre-Optic Technologies, Propagation Modes, [Online], Available from: http://www.ciscopress.com/articles/article.asp?p=170740&seqNum=5, [Accessed 24th November 2010]