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Optical Fiber connector: An optical fibre connector terminates the end of an optical fiber, and enables quicker connection

and disconnection than splicing. The connectors mechanically couple and align the cores of fibers so that light can pass. Connector Types: In todays local area networks (LANs), there are two primary legacy optical fiber connector types (the ST-style and the SC Duplex) and two primary small form factor (SFF) connectors (MT-RJ and LC). All four of these connector types have been in use for several years and have a proven track record for the performance and reliability desired for local area networks. However, there are some significant differences between these connector types.

The ST-style Connector: This connector type, sometimes referred to as the BIFOC connector, is a simplex fiber connector that means one fiber in one ferrule with one 2.5mm cylindrical ferrule. To get a duplex ST-style connection, four connectors and two adapters are required. The housing of the ST includes a push-and-twist, springloaded latching mechanism that is relatively large by todays standards, particularly when consideration for finger space (the space around the connector that is needed to get fingers in to grip, push and twist the connector) is considered. This connector was one of the first highperformance, robust optical fiber connectors and, as such, was widely adopted in the telco market. This popularity spilled over into the LANs that incorporated optical fiber cabling and was

widely used. To this day, it is still a very popular optical fiber connector. The SC Duplex Connector: While the ST-style remains a completely functional connector, some of its properties are not well-suited for the LAN market. Since most all LANs are based on duplex optical fiber runs, a simplex connector is less desirable than a duplex. For this reason, the SC Duplex was introduced. While the base component (the ferrule) is the same as the ST-style, the housing is completely different. The SC connector has a housing that features a push-pull latch mechanism, making it easier to mate and de-mate, and reducing the finger space needed. The SC Duplex connector, sometimes referred to as the TIA568A connector, consists of two SC connectors yoked together, which can both be mated or de-mated with the same push or pull action.

These features helped the SC Duplex become the recommended connector in LAN standards both in North America (in EIA/TIA-568-A) and internationally (in ISO 11801). Even though this recommendation was initiated almost ten years ago, only recently has the number of SC connectors installed in LANs equalled the number of ST-style connectors. Small Form Factor Connectors: Although the SC Duplex solved some of the LAN-related issues for fiber connectivity, it didnt solve one of the most important issues: density. Because of the single-fiber ferrules, the large housings and the finger space, the fiber connection density was still twice that of traditional copper terminations (RJ-45). The industry really needed a duplex fiber connector that had the same basic size as the RJ-45 copper connector - a small form factor connector.

As the TIA-568-B standard revision was being developed, five different small form factor connector designs were considered. Today, nearly six years later, only two of these designs seem destined to survive, the MT-RJ and the LC. The MT-RJ Connector: Recognizing that fiber spacing was the limiting factors in fiber connection density, the MT-RJ connector was developed with a single, two-fiber ferrule. The ferrule itself (called an MT ferrule) has a rectangular cross-section with two fibers spaced 700m apart and two guide pin holes. This makes the MT-RJ the small form factor connector with the highest fiber density. The housing around the MT-RJ has a slightly smaller cross-section than the RJ-45, so an MT-RJ connector can fit in the same port space as an RJ-45. It also features an RJ-style latch, so its just as easy to mate and de-mate as

an RJ-45 plug. When combined with the no-epoxy/no-polish termination technology (discussed later), this connector type offers high density and ease-of-installation advantages. The LC Connector: Recognizing that fiber ferrule size was the limiting factor in fiber connection density, the LC connector was developed using a reduced-diameter, simplex fiber ferrule. Instead of the 2.5mm ferrule, the LC connector uses a 1.25mm cylindrical ferrule. The smaller ferrule allows for a smaller housing and thus a smaller connector. Small enough that two LC connectors yoked together take up about the same port space as an RJ-45. The LC connectors also feature a latching mechanism similar to the RJ-45, and the smaller ferrule also reduces the time

required for the polishing step epoxy/polish connector termination. Optical Fibre Couplers:

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A fiber optic coupler is a device used in optical fiber systems with one or more input fibers and one or several output fibers. Light entering an input fiber can appear at one or more outputs and its power distribution potentially depending on the wavelength and polarization. Such couplers can be fabricated in different ways, for example by thermally fusing fibers so that their cores get into intimate contact. If all involved fibers are single-mode (supporting only a single mode per polarization direction for a given wavelength), there are certain physical restrictions on the performance of the coupler. In particular, it is not possible to combine two or more inputs of the same optical frequency into one single-polarization output without

significant excess losses. However, such a restriction does not occur for different input wavelengths: there are couplers which can combine two inputs at different wavelengths into one output without exhibiting significant losses. Such couplers are used. Wavelength-sensitive couplers are used as multiplexers in wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) telecom systems to combine several input channels with different wavelengths, or to separate channels. A coupler is passive and bidirectional. Because the coupler is not a perfect device, excess losses can occur. These losses within fibers are internal to the coupler and occur from scattering, absorption, reflections, misalignments, and poor isolation. Excess loss does not include losses from connectors attaching fibers to the ports. Further, since most couplers

contain an optical fiber at each port, additional loss can occur because of diameter and NA mismatches between the coupler port and the attached fiber. Some fiber optic data links require more than simple point-to-point connections. These data links may be of a much more complex design that requires multi-port or other types of connections. Figure 4-23 shows some example system architectures that use more complex link designs. In many cases these types of systems require fiber optic components that can redistribute (combine or split) optical signals throughout the system One type of fiber optic component that allows for the redistribution of optical signals is a fiber optic coupler. A fiber optic coupler is a device that can distribute the optical signal (power) from one fiber among two or more fibers. A fiber optic

coupler can also combine the optical signal from two or more fibers into a single fiber. Fiber optic couplers attenuate the signal much more than a connector or splice because the input signal is divided among the output ports. For example, with a 1 X 2 fiber optic coupler, each output is less than one-half the power of the input signal (over a 3 dB loss). Fiber optic couplers can be either active or passive devices. The difference between active and passive couplers is that a passive coupler redistributes the optical signal without optical-to-electrical conversion. Active couplers are electronic devices that split or combine the signal electrically and use fiber optic detectors and sources for input and output. A basic fiber optic coupler has N input ports and M output ports. N and M typically range from 1 to 64. The number

of input ports and output ports vary depending on the intended application for the coupler. Types of fiber optic couplers include optical splitters, optical combiners, X couplers, star couplers, and tree couplers. Figure 4-24. - Basic passive fiber optic coupler design. X coupler combines the functions of the optical splitter and combiner. The X coupler combines and divides the optical power from the two input fibers between the two output fibers. Another name for the X coupler is the 2 X 2 coupler. Star and tree couplers are multiport couplers that have more than two input or two output ports. A star coupler is a passive device that distributes optical power from more than two input ports among several output ports. A tree coupler is a passive device that splits the

optical power from one input fiber to more than two output fibers. A tree coupler may also be used to combine the optical power from more than two input fibers into a single output fiber. Fiber optic couplers should prevent the transfer of optical power from one input fiber to another input fiber. Directional couplers are fiber optic couplers that prevent this transfer of power between input fibers. Many fiber optic couplers are also symmetrical. A symmetrical coupler transmits the same amount of power through the coupler when the input and output fibers are reversed. Passive fiber optic coupler fabrication techniques can be complex and difficult to understand. Some fiber optic coupler fabrication involves beam splitting using microlenses or graded-refractive-index (GRIN) rods and beam splitters or optical

mixers. These beam splitter devices divide the optical beam into two or more separated beams. Fabrication of fiber optic couplers may also involve twisting, fusing, and tapering together two or more optical fibers. This type of fiber optic coupler is a fused biconical taper coupler. Fused biconical taper couplers use the radiative coupling of light from the input fiber to the output fibers in the tapered region to accomplish beam splitting. LED coupling In Single Mode Fiber: In the early years of optical fiber applications, LED's were traditionally only considered for multimode-fiber systems.However,around 1985 researchers recognized that edge-emitting LED's can launch sufficient optical power into a single mode fiber for transmission at data rates unto 560Mb/s over several kms.The interest in this arouse because of the advantage and

reliability advantages of LED's over laser diodes. Investigators have used edge emitting LED's rather than surface-emitting LEDs because the edge-emitter s have a laser like output pattern in the direction perpendicular to the junction plane. To rigorously evaluate the coupling between an LED and a single-mode fiber we need to use the formalism of electromagnetic theory rather than geometric optics, because of the monomode nature of the fiber. Here we will use the analysis of Reigth and Shumate to look at the following two cases: (a) direct coupling of an LED into a singlemode fiber. (b) coupling into a single-mode fiber from a multimode flylead attached to the LED.

The efficiency of direct coupling of a source into an optical fiber is affected by three different factors. These factors are : geometrical losses, Fresnel losses and angular losses. GEOMETRICAL LOSSES: The light emitted by a source of area (A source) can be butt-coupled into an optical fiber which is larger the the source area. The light incident outside the core area will not be guided by the fiber. There is three possible configurations for emitter and fiber area: First, if the source dimensions (H, L) are smaller than fiber core diameter, all the light will be coupled into the fiber. - Second, if the source is larger than fiber core area , the geometrical factor for

coupling efficiency is given by the ratio of light captured by the fiber.

- Third, if fiber core diameter is larger than one side of the source, but is smaller than second side. That can happened with laser diodes that are typically 1 m height by some hundred microns long. FRESNEL LOSSES: The light incident on an interface between two dielectric media of different refractive index is partially transmitted and partially reflected (assuming linear, homogeneous and isotropic media). The proportion of light reflected and transmitted depends on light polarisation and incidence angle and can be calculated from. Fresnel equations based on electromagnetic theory. In this document, we do not present the

development leading to the result we need, for a complete theoretical treatment, refer to references [1] or [2]. The power reflectance at normal incidence is then given by:

Coupling Improvement: Practically much of the light emitted from LEDs is not coupled into the narrow acceptance angle of the fiber. It has been found that greater coupling efficiency may be obtained if lenses are used to collimate the emission from the LED, particularly when the fiber core diameter is significantly larger than the width of the emission region There are several lens coupling configurations which include spherically polished structures, spherical ended or tapered fiber coupling, truncated

spherical micro lenses, GRIN-rod lenses and integral lens structures. It consists of a planar surface emitting structure with the spherical ended fiber attached to the cap by epoxy resin. An emitting diameter of 35 m is fabricated into the device and light is coupled into fibers with core diameters or 75 m and 110 m. For increased coupling efficiency. Transmitter and Receiver requirements in WDM Network: In fiber-optic communications, wavelengthdivision multiplexing (WDM) is a technology which multiplexes a number of optical carrier signals onto a single optical fiber by using different wavelengths (i.e. colours) of laser light. This technique enables bidirectional communications over one strand of fiber, as well as multiplication of capacity.

The term wavelength-division multiplexing is commonly applied to an optical carrier (which is typically described by its wavelength), whereas frequency-division multiplexing typically applies to a radio carrier (which is more often described by frequency). Since wavelength and frequency are tied together through a simple directly inverse relationship, the two terms actually describe the same concept. A WDM system uses a multiplexer at the transmitter to join the signals together, and a demultiplexer at the receiver to split them apart. With the right type of fiber it is possible to have a device that does both simultaneously, and can function as an optical add-drop multiplexer. The optical filtering devices used have conventionally been etalons, stable solid-state singlefrequency FabryProt interferometers in the form of thin-film-coated optical glass.

The concept was first published in 1970, and by 1978 WDM systems were being realized in the laboratory. The first WDM systems combined only two signals. Modern systems can handle up to 160 signals and can thus expand a basic 10 Gbit/s system over a single fiber pair to over 1.6 Tbit/s. WDM systems are popular with telecommunications companies because they allow them to expand the capacity of the network without laying more fiber. By using WDM and optical amplifiers, they can accommodate several generations of technology development in their optical infrastructure without having to overhaul the backbone network. Capacity of a given link can be expanded simply by upgrades to the multiplexers and demultiplexers at each end.

This is often done by use of optical-toelectrical-to-optical (O/E/O) translation at the very edge of the transport network, thus permitting interoperation with existing equipment with optical interfaces. Most WDM systems operate on singlemode fiber optical cables, which have a core diameter of 9 m. Certain forms of WDM can also be used in multi-mode fiber cables (also known as premises cables) which have core diameters of 50 or 62.5 m. Early WDM systems were expensive and complicated to run. However, recent standardization and better understanding of the dynamics of WDM systems have made WDM less expensive to deploy. Optical receivers, in contrast to laser sources, tend to be wideband devices. Therefore the demultiplexer must provide

the wavelength selectivity of the receiver in the WDM system. WDM systems are divided into different wavelength patterns, conventional/coarse (CWDM) and dense (DWDM). Conventional WDM systems provide up to 8 channels in the 3rd transmission window (C-Band) of silica fibers around 1550 nm. Dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) uses the same transmission window but with denser channel spacing. Channel plans vary, but a typical system would use 40 channels at 100 GHz spacing or 80 channels with 50 GHz spacing. Some technologies are capable of 12.5 GHz spacing (sometimes called ultra dense WDM). Such spacings are today only achieved by Free space technology. New amplification options (Raman amplification) enable the extension of the

usable wavelengths to the L-band, more or less doubling these numbers. Coarse wavelength division multiplexing (CWDM) in contrast to conventional WDM and DWDM uses increased channel spacing to allow less sophisticated and thus cheaper transceiver designs. To provide 8 channels on a single fiber CWDM uses the entire frequency band between second and third transmission window (1310/1550 nm respectively) including both windows (minimum dispersion window and minimum attenuation window) but also the critical area where OH scattering may occur, recommending the use of OH-free silica fibers in case the wavelengths between second and third transmission window should also be used. Avoiding this region, the channels 47, 49, 51, 53, 55, 57, 59, 61 remain and these are the most commonly used.

WDM, DWDM and CWDM are based on the same concept of using multiple wavelengths of light on a single fiber, but differ in the spacing of the wavelengths, number of channels, and the ability to amplify the multiplexed signals in the optical space. EDFA provide an efficient wideband amplification for the C-band, Raman amplification adds a mechanism for amplification in the L-band. For CWDM wideband optical amplification is not available, limiting the optical spans to several tens of kilometres. We consider broadcast WDM networks with nodes equipped with rapidly tunable transmitters and slowly tunable receivers. The rapidly tunable transmitters provide all-optical paths among the network nodes by creating logical connections that can be changed on a packet-by-packet basis. The ability of receivers to tune, albeit slowly, is

invoked only for reallocating the bandwidth in response to changes in the overall pattern. Since this variation in trac is expected to take place over larger time scales, receiver retuning will be a relatively infrequent event, making slowly tunable devices a cost effective solution. Assuming an existing assignment of receive wavelengths and some information regarding the new trac demands, we present two approaches to obtaining a new wavelength assignment such that (a) the new trac load is balanced across the channels, and (b) the number of receivers that need to be retuned is minimized. One of our contributions is an approximation algorithm for the load balancing problem that provides for tradeo selection, using a single parameter , between these connecting goals. This algorithm leads to a scalable approach to recon guring the network since, in addition to providing

guarantees in terms of load balancing, for certain values of parameter, the expected number of retunings scales with the number of channels, not the number of nodes in the network.

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