Optical Fiber Communications

Chapter 1
Overview of Optical Fiber
Communications

Dr Hardeep Singh
ECED
 Overview of optical fiber
communication
Introduction:
• Optical communication methods were of special interest among the
many systems that people tried to use.
• One of the earliest known optical transmission links was a fire signal
method used by Greeks in the eighth century for sending alarms,
calls for help, or announcements od certain events.
• Improvements of these optical transmission systems were not
pursued very actively because of technology limitations at the time.
• For example, speed of sending information over the communication
link was limited since 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 atmospheric effects such as fog and rain made the
transmission path unreliable.
 Motivations for light wave communications: The path to optical
Networks
• 1980 most communication technologies involved some type if
electrical transmission mechanism.
• And the era of electrical communication started in 1837 with
invention of the telegraphy.
• In 1876 Alexander Graham Bell developed a fundamentally
different, easily useable device that could transmit the entire
voice signal in an analog form.
• The basic motivations behind each new system application
were:
– To improve the transmission fidelity so that fewer distortions or errors
occur in the received message.
– To increase the data rate or capacity of communication link so that
more information can be sent.
– To increase the transmission distance between in- line repeater or
amplification stations so that messages can be sent farther without
the need to restore the signal amplitude or fidelity periodically along
its path.
The regions of the electromagnetic spectrum used for radio and optical fiber
communications.
 Advantages of Optical Fibers
• Long distance transmission
• Large information capacity
• Small size and low weight
• Immunity to electrical interference
• Enhanced safety
• Increase signal security
 Optic spectral Bands
Electromagnetic Energy:
• Telecommunication system use some form of electromagnetic energy to transmit signals.
• Electromagnetic energy is combination of electrical and magnetic fields and includes
power, radio waves, microwaves, infrared light, visible light, ultraviolet light, x-ray and
gamma rays.
 Optic spectral Bands
Electromagnetic Energy:
• Planck’s Law
𝐸 = ℎ𝑣
• Where h= 6.63×10-34 J-s =4.14 × 10-15 eV-s is planks constant.
• Energy in electron volts is given by:
1.2406
𝐸 𝑒𝑣 =
𝜆(𝜇𝑚)
 Optic spectral Bands
Windows and spectral bands:
• Figure shows the operating range of optical fiber systems and the characteristics of the
four key components of link: optical fiber, light source, photodetectors, and optical
amplifiers.
• The dashed vertical lines indicate the centers of the three main traditional operating
wavelength ands if optical fiber system, which are the shirt wavelength region, O-band
and C-band.
 Optic spectral Bands
Windows and spectral bands:
 Decibel Units

Periodically placed amplifiers compensate for energy losses along a link

• dB units defined by:
𝑃2
𝑃𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟 𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜 𝑖𝑛 𝑑𝐵 = 10 log
𝑃1
• Where 𝑃1 and 𝑃2 are the electrical or optical power levels of a signal at points 1 and 2, and
log is base 10 logarithm.
• Decibel is to measure the changes in the strength of a signal one merely adds or subtracts
the decibel numbers between two different points.
• Power in dBm is:
𝑃(𝑖𝑛 𝑚𝑊)
𝑃𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟 𝑙𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑙 𝑖𝑛 𝑑𝐵𝑚 = 10 log
1 𝑚𝑊
• Important rule of thumb relationship to remember for optical fiber communications is 0 dBm-
1mW. Therefore positive values of dBm are grater than 1mW and negative values are less than
1mW
 Network Information Rates
• To handle the continuous rising demand for high bandwidth services from users ranging
from individuals to large businesses and research organizations, telecommunication
companies worldwide are implementing increasingly sophisticated digital multiplexing
techniques that allow a larger number of independent information streams to share the
same physical transmission channel simultaneously.
Telecom signal multiplexing:
• The table shows the 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 transmission line.
• This scheme is know as time division multiplexing.
• Where in N independent information streams, each using at a data rate R b/s are
interleaved electrically into a single information streams, each running at a data rate of R
b/s are interleaved electrically into a single information stream operating at higher rate of
N* R b/s.
Digital transmission hierarchy used in the (a) North American (b)European based
telephone networks
Digital multiplexing levels used in north America, Europe, and japan
 SONET/ SDH Multiplexing Hierarchy
• With advent of high capacity fiber optic transmission line in the 1980, 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.
• These standards define a synchronous frame structure for sending multiplexed digital
traffic over optical fiber trunk lines.
• The table shows commonly used SDH and SONET signals levels, the line rate and the
popular numerical name for that rate.
Thank You