Optical Fiber Communications Labratory

Lab Report No. 5

November 2009

Dispersion Measurement

Charles Hunter

Sahand Noorizadeh
1 Introduction

A pulse with a finite width is known to have multiple spectral components in the frequency-domain.
In a lossless medium, all the frequency components of a pulse propagate at the same velocity and
therefore the shape of the pulse remains intact throughout propagation. But in lossy media such
dielectrics and waveguides with multiple propagation modes, each spectral component travels with
a different velocity and causes the pulse width to change. This change in width is known as
dispersion. Group Velocity is a term that expresses the velocity of the spectral components as a
group (packet) and the time that this packet takes to travel a certain distance is called the Group

Delay. The parameter D is used to characterize dispersion in optical fibers.

Dispersion occurs because the refractive index of the fiber changes slightly with wavelength,

and therefore, so does the propagation velocity. This results in the higher wavelengths of the pulse
arriving at a different time than the shorter wavelengths, causing the pulse to spread in time and

decrease in amplitude. For a fiber, D depends on the change in pulse width, the distance of the

fiber, and the spectral width of the pulse and is expressed in units of picoseconds per nanometer-

Kilometer. Knowledge of D and techniques to compensate the pulse broadening in a fiber optic

link are essential in calculating fiber optic link budgets and designing communication links because
pulse broadening can cause intersymbol interference and increase the bit error rate (BER.)

In this experiment, dispersion parameters of seven fibers of different types (Single-Mode, Multi-

Mode, Dispersion-Compensating, and Dispersion-Shifted) as well as combinations of those fibers

were measured using a time-domain dispersion measurement method with an apparatus comprised

of an optical impulse generator, an optoelectric converter, and an oscilloscope.

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2 Theory

The theory of pulse broadening and dispersion is discussed in Appendix A. In this section the
theory of time-domain dispersion measurement is discussed.

In addition to the pulse broadening caused by the fiber, the receiver and the transmitter also
cause pulse broadening. The detected width of a pulse that propagates from a transmitter through
a fiber and is detected by a receiver is given by (1).

√
2 2 2 2
στ,out = στ,in + στ,RX + στ,F + στ,T X (1)

Where στ,in is the width of the input pulse, στ,RX , στ,T X , στ,F are the pulse spread of the transmitter,
the receiver, and the fiber, respectively. The dispersion parameter D is one of the parameters of

the fiber and it is usually given by the manufacturer. It is used for link budget calculations and

dispersion management calculations. The dispersion parameter of a fiber can be found using (2).

|στ,F | = σλ |D|L (2)

Where σλ is the bandwidth of the input pulse to the fiber and L is length of the fiber.

στ,RX and στ,T X can be lumped together to form the pulse spread of the system known as the

system response, στ,sys , which is defined by (3).

στ,sys = στ,RX + στ,T X (3)

If στ,in is known, στ,sys can be found by replacing the fiber with a fiber optic jumper. Finding
dispersion using (2) This a suitable method for Single-Mode fibers where chromatic dispersion is

the dominant factor.

Since modal dispersion is the dominant cause of dispersion in Multi-Mode fibers, the parameter
Bandwidth-Distance Product, ∆fb z, is the parameter that characterizes the pulse spread and

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it is given by (4) [1]. √
ln2
∆fb z = z [M Hz − Km] (4)
π|∆τ |

Where ∆fb is the bandwidth of the fiber defined as the half-width at half maximum (HWHM) of
the power transfer function and ∆τ is pulse spread.

3 Apparatus

The pulse spreads of seven different optical fibers listed in Table 1 were measured in this lab.

Table 1: Fibers Under Test

Fiber Label Type Length(Km)

A DCF 0.28
B SM 36.46
C DSF 6.66
D SM 41.38
E SM 1.46
F MM 4.81
G MM 2.79

To measure the pulse spreads of the fibers in Table 1, the set-up in Figure 1 was used. A
Tektronix 502 1.3 micron Optical Impulse Generator (OIG) was connected to the input of the

fiber under test which was connected to a Tektronix P6703A Opto-Electronic (O/E) converter that

produced the signal to the input of a TDS 784A Tektronix oscilloscope. Once all the connections
were made, the OIG was switched to active, an input pulse width was selected (either 35 ps or 300
ps), and the output was read from the oscilloscope display. The output pulse width was measured
by using the oscilloscope cursors to measure the full width of the pulse at half the maximum
amplitude. Because the O/E converter and the oscilloscope contribute to pulse spreading, a
measurement of the pulse spread using only a jumper fiber (negligible pulse spreading) was taken.
This measurement was used to obtain στ,sys , which is the combined pulse spread of the O/E
converter and the oscilloscope.

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 Figure 1: Apparatus used to measure the dispersion parameters of fibers.

The output pulse was then measured for each of the fibers of Table 1. The same measurements

were repeated for the following combination of fibers, A+B, A+C, A+D, C+E, and F+G. The
connections between fibers under test were made with bulkhead connectors. Both the 35 ps and

the 300 ps input pulses of the OIG were used for each fiber and the combinations except for the

single mode fibers, B and D, and the F+G, B+A, and D+A combinations. Only the 300 ps input

pulse was used for these fibers because no output signal could be detected for the 35 ps input

pulse.

Once the output pulse widths were measured, the length of each fiber was measured using the

OTDR. Then, the spectral width of the 1.3 micron OIG was measured using a spectrum analyzer.
The resolution of the analyzer was set to 1.0 ns. The full width at half maximum was measured
for both the 35 ps and 300 ps pulses.

4 Results

Table 2 lists the measurements of the system response and the spectral widths of the OIG inputs.
The system response στ,sys was measured by replacing the fiber of the apparatus shown in Figure

1 with a fiber optic jumper, which allowed to assume that στ,F in (1) was zero, and reading στ,out

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from the oscilloscope. Then (3) and (1) were used to find the system response. Table 3 lists the
measured output pulse widths of the fibers from Table 1. Oscilloscope screen shots of some the
measurements are shown in Appendix B.

Table 2: Measurements of the OIG pulse widths and the System Response

Input Pulse (ps) Output Pulse (ps) System Response (ps) Spectral Width (nm)
35 600 598.98 10.8
300 610 531.13 7.6

Table 3: Measured Output Pulse Widths

Fiber Label Output Pulse Width (ps)

35ps Input 300ps Input
A 612 -
B - 640
C 1560 -
D 636 -
E 660 -
F 772 -
G 610 -
A+B - 630
A+C - 1240
A+D - 660
E+C - 1100
F+G - 760

5 Calculations

The system response was assumed to have remained unchanged each time a new fiber was tested.
Therefore, system response measurements were made only once. The calculated system responses
of Table 2 and the output pulse widths of Table 3 were used in (1) to find the pulse spread of
the fibers. The lengths of the fibers, listed in Table 1, and their corresponding calculated pulse
spreads, στ,F ,were used in (2) to find their dispersion parameters D. σλ was measured with a
spectrum analyzer and its values are listed in Table 2. The subscript l refers to the 35 ps output
of the OIG and the subscript h refers to the 300 ps output.

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 Table 4: Calculated Dispersion Parameters

Fiber Label στ,F,l (ps) στ,F,h (ps) Dl Dh

A 120.6 ... -39.15 ...
B ... 193.0 ... 0.7
C 1440.0 ... -20.01 ...
D ... 179.99 ... -0.57
E 274.95 ... 17.44 ...
F 485.78 ... ... ...
G 110 ... ... ...
A+B ... 157.48 ... 0.56
A+C ... 1079.58 ... -20.45
A+D ... 251.99 ... -0.8
E+C ... 915.37 ... 14.83
F+G ... 453.32 ... ...

Since modal dispersion is the dominant cause of dispersion in Multi-Mode fibers F and G, the
pulse spread of these fibers had to be calculated in terms of fiber bandwidth using (4). Table 5

lists the Bandwidth-Distance Products of the MM fibers and their combination.

Table 5: Calculated Bandwidth-Distance Product of MM Fibers

Fiber Label BWDP (GHz-Km)

F 2.62
G 6.72
F+G 4.44

To find the sign of D, the measured dispersion of the two combined fibers was compared to
the Path-Averaged Dispersion calculated using the dispersion of each of the two components.

For example, to determine the sign of fiber B, the measured dispersions for fiber A and fiber B

were used, as well as the measured dispersion of the combination of fibers A and B. Two Path-
Averaged Dispersions were calculated using both of the individual dispersions of fibers A and B.
One case used negative dispersion for B and the other used positive dispersion for B. Both cases
used negative dispersion for A. The two results were compared to the measured dispersion of the
A and B combination. The Path-Averaged Dispersion for the positive B dispersion case matched
very well with the measured A and B combination dispersion, so fiber B had positive dispersion.
For every combination measured, one of the Path-Averaged Dispersion cases matched very closely

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to the measured combined dispersion.

6 Discussion

For each one of the fibers alone, the measured dispersion parameters of Table 4 showed the expected
values. DCF fibers by the nature of their purposes have large negative dispersions to be used as a
dispersion correction stage in fiber optic links. Fiber A was a DCF which had a large negative value
for D. Measurements of both Single-Mode fibers B and D resulted in having very small dispersion

(|D| < 1). Such results were expected for SM fibers that were designed for zero dispersion at

λ = 1.3µm because the OIG used in this experiment generated narrow pulses with the center
wavelength at 1.3µm (i.e. λm = 1.3µm.) Also the lengths of these two SM fibers were considerably

high (36.46 Km and 41.38 Km for fibers B and D, respectively.) According to (2), if the length of
the fiber is large, the only reason that the pulse spread can remain small is that if D of the fiber,

is very small. This is also consistent with the plot of Figure A.1. Therefore, it was concluded that
both SMF fibers had zero dispersion at λ = 1.3µm. λ = 1.3µm is a very common wavelength used

in fiber optic devices. The negative sign of dispersion for fiber D could have been either due to

material incoherency of the fiber that caused the zero dispersion point to shift or it could have

been the specified dispersion of the fiber. None of the fibers‘ specifications or datasheets were

available to compare with the experimental results.

D for the DSF fiber C had a very large negative value. From the graph shown Figure A.1,
it can be concluded that this DSF fiber had a zero dispersion wavelength larger than the carrier
wavelength of the OIG, 1.3 µm.

Results of dispersion measurements of cascaded fibers also were very close to the expected
values based on the measurements of D for each fiber that are listed in Table 4. (A.21) was
used to find the Path-Averaged dispersion. Calculated and measured values of the Path-Averaged
dispersion, Davg , with the high output pulse of the OIG are listed in Table 6.

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 Table 6: Calculated and Measured Values of DAvg

Fibers Calculated DAvg Measured DAvg % Error

A+B 0.39 0.56 -43.6
A+C -20.78 -20.45 1.6
A+D 0.83 0.8 3.6

Except for the A+B cascaded fibers, the results had very low percentage error. D’s for fibers A
and B were small and a small variation resulted in a large percentage error between measured and
calculated DAvg of the A+B (SM+DCF) cascaded fibers.This difference could have been due to an
added chirping effect at the interface of the two fibers which according to (A.12), added chirping
will increase the original pulse width.

One other way to check the validity of the results for the cascaded fibers was predicting the
effects of cascading based on the types of fibers. A+B which was a DCF + SM pair, was supposed

to reduce the dispersion of the SM fiber. The results showed that the Path-Averaged dispersion of

A+B was 0.14 ps/nm-Km less than the SM fiber. The A+C fiber pair which was a DCF+DSF pair
was supposed to produce a more negative Path-Averaged dispersion than that of the fiber with the

least negative dispersion. The results showed that DAvg became 0.44 ps/nm-Km more negative

than the fiber C. The A+D combination was another SM+DCF pair but D itself was measured

to have a negative dispersion. Therefore, its combination with a DCF should have resulted in a

more negative dispersion. The results showed that DAvg became 0.23 ps/nm-Km more negative
than the dispersion of fiber D.

The dispersion parameter D for the 1.46-Km long SM fiber E was calculated to be 17.44.

Among all SM fibers, this relatively short fiber had a very large positive dispersion. From Figure
A.1 and the relationship of the fiber pulse spread and the length given by (2) , it can be concluded
that, if functional, fiber E is a SM fiber with its zero dispersion wavelength far less than 1.3 µm.

As expected, the MM fibers had very large pulse spreads. Both of these fibers were tested
with the low output of the OIG because the high output of the OIG saturated the O/E converter
and no measurement could have been made. This was because the lengths of both of these fibers

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were relatively short and the pulse attenuation was small. The Bandwidth-Distance Product of
these MM fibers was calculated from the pulse width measurements and the results were in the
order of GHz-Km which seemed unusually high. The usual values are in the order of MHz-Km.
One explanation for this result could be the relative small values of the MM fiber pulse spreads
due to their short lengths. In fact, their pulse spreads were comparable with that of the SM
fibers. According to (4), the pulse spread has an inverse relationship with the Bandwidth-Distance
Product (BWDP) parameter. This is why fiber G that is shorter than fiber F had a higher BWDP.
Also BWDP of the F+G fiber pair was reduced from that of fiber G.

7 Conclusion

When planning and designing an optical fiber communication link many factors such as loss, BER,

and dispersion need to be considered. Dispersion is the change in the width of a propagating

pulse due to modal or chromatic effects on the group velocity of the spectral packet of the pulse.
Multi-Mode fibers and Single-Mode fibers have dispersion but with different dominating factors.

Modal dispersion is the dominating factor in dispersion in Multi-Mode fibers and the chromatic

effects are the dominant causes of dispersion in Single-Mode fibers. The dispersion parameter, D,

is used to sum up dispersive characteristics of fibers. D is usually quoted by the manufacturer and

its knowledge is vital in long-range link budget calculations. There are a number of techniques
and technologies available to compress a dispersed pulse. Dispersion-Compensating Fibers (DCF)

can be added to compensate for the D parameter of a dispersive fiber. Also, Dispersion-Shifted
Fiber (DSF), which have a shifted zero dispersion wavelength, can be used to reduce the effects of
material dispersion.

In this experiment, the dispersion parameter, D, of seven different types of fibers and their
combinations were used to find their individual and Path-Averaged dispersions. SM fibers had the
least dispersion and MM fiber had the worst case. DCF and DSF fibers were cascaded with two
SM fibers and the results showed expected improvement in Path-Averaged dispersion.

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Appendices

A Theory

A.1 Background

For an electromagnetic wave traveling in a lossless medium, the velocity of propagation is given
by (A.1) which is independent of frequency.

ω 1
vp = =√ (A.1)
β µϵ

However, in many cases such as propagation in lossy dielectric or in a waveguide, vp will become a

function of frequency. For example, spectral components of a Gaussian pulse, that is a transform

limited pulse, will travel with different propagation velocities which will cause the pulse width
to change. This happens because β varies with frequency in a nonlinear fashion and it can be

approximated by (A.2).
1
β(ω) ≈ β0 + (ω − ω0 )β1 + (ω − ω0 )2 β2 (A.2)
2

Where ω0 is the center frequency of the frequency spectrum, β0 is the phase constant of the
traveling wave at ω0 and β1 and β2 are the first and the second derivatives of β evaluated at ω0
with respect to ω. The first two terms of (A.2) characterize a linear plot of β(ω) and the third term
describes curvature in the plot which is constant. Since all the spectral components travel together

but with different velocities, a new equation is needed to express the velocity of the spectral packet
of a traveling pulse. This new expression is given by (A.3) and it is known as the group velocity.

1 [m]
vg = (A.3)
dβ/dω s

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β2 , also known as the Group-Velocity Dispersion (GVD) parameter [3], determines how much
a pulse would broaden on propagation. For a transform limited propagating pulse with initial
pulse width T , the broadened width is given by (A.4).

√
′
T = T 2 + (∆τ )2 (A.4)

where ∆τ is the Pulse Spread function and it is defined in (A.5).

β2 z
∆τ ≡ (A.5)
T

Where z is the propagated distance. The ratio of the Pulse Spread function to the original width
of the pulse is called the Chirp parameter and it is given by (A.6). C is a linear dimensionless
parameter.
∆τ
C= (A.6)
T

The broadened pulse width equation,(A.4), in terms of C is given by (A.7).

√
T ′ = T 1 + C2 (A.7)

Equations (A.7) and (A.6) for an initially chirped transform-limited pulse with the Chirp parameter

C and the width of T1 will become:

[( )2 ( )2 ]1/2
β2 z β2 z
T2 = T1 + 1+C 2 (A.8)
T12 T1

β2 z ( )
C′ = C + 2
1 + C2 (A.9)
T1

Where C ′ is the Chirp parameter and T2 is the pulse width of the output pulse. If β2 and C are of
opposite sign, then the pulse would compress until C ′ = 0. When C ′ = 0, the pulse is compressed
to the minimum possible width and at farther distances, the pulse would start to broaden and
chirped in the opposite sense.

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 In most practical cases, the spectral bandwidth of a pulse source cannot be determined by the
Fourier transform of the pulse shape. These are pulses with excess bandwidth. In such cases the
effective spectral width, ∆ωef f is used to modify (A.4) and (A.7) to produce (A.10).

[ ( )2 ]1/2
β2 z
T′ = T2 1 + C + (∆ωef f β2 z)2 (A.10)
T2

So far, pulses that have well-defined shapes like Gaussian pulses have been considered. But
in practice, propagating pulses have arbitrary and distorted shapes. The width broadening ex-
pressions for such pulses need to be expressed in terms of rms temporal. The generalized form of

the broadened pulse with an initial rms width of σT and rms bandwidth of σω is given by (A.11).
Where στ = σω β2 z. Using this relationship,(A.11) becomes (A.12).

√
σT′ = σT2 + στ2 (A.11)

[ ( )2 ]1/2
β2 z
σT′ = σT2 1+C 2 + (∆σω β2 z) 2
(A.12)
σT

A.2 Dispersion Parameter

Building on the concept of the group velocity, propagation time of a pulse with spectral components
is known as the group delay and is expressed by (A.13).

dβ z
τg = z = N (A.13)
dω c

Where c is the speed of light and N ≡ n − λ dn

dλ
is the group index of the material that the
wave is propagating in. It is important to note that N is a function of wavelength (frequency).
Therefore, each spectral component experiences a different refractive index. N is used to define a
new parameter D(λ) that can be used to sum up the pulse broadening expressions. D is known

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as the dispersion parameter and is defined by (A.14).

[ ]
dtg 1 dN 2πc d2 β ps
D(λ) ≡ = =− 2 (A.14)
dλ c dλ λ dω 2 km − nm

Where tg = τg /z = dβ/dω. For pulses with small bandwidth, D can be calculated at the center
wavelength λm since β would vary slightly over the range of the bandwidth. This way, the dispersion
parameter of a pulse is D = D(λm ) and its expression is given by (A.15).

( )
−2πc
D(λm ) = β2 (A.15)
λ2m

Taking advantage of the D parameter, the pulse spread function ∆τ and its rms form can be
written as:
∆τ = −∆λef f D(λm )z (A.16)

στ = −σλ D(λm )z (A.17)

To find the width of a dispersed pulse using (A.4) or (A.11), only the knowledge of the D param-

eter,the propagation length z, and the initial bandwidth ∆λef f or σλ is needed. Also finding the

value of D experimentally is a trivial task. For a pulse to have negative dispersion (compression)

the chirp parameter C and β2 should be of opposite sign. Therefore, while using the D parameter

for dispersion calculations, it is important to note that D and β2 have opposite signs.

A.3 Dispersion in Optical Fibers

A.3.1 Multi-Mode (MM) Fibers

Group velocity (group delay) is different among modes in a MM fiber. As was mentioned in
previous sections, each spectral component of a pulse propagates with different velocity. Therefore,
spectral components of a pulse will be guided in different modes. This modal effect is known as
the differential mode delay (DMD) and it is the dominant factor affecting the group delay.

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All other factors such as the material dispersion effects can be neglected. In MM fibers, the group
delay is the function of λ and the V number (which is used to determine the cut-off conditions for
the modes, power confinement, and phase constants) i.e. tg = f (λ, V ).

A.3.2 Single-Mode (SM) Fibers

As opposed to MM fibers, the chromatic broadening effects are the dominant contributing factors
of dispersion in SM fibers. Modal effects are almost non-existent and the effects of the LP01 mode
become the main concern. In SM fibers the dispersion parameter D is broken down into three
terms:
D(λ) = Dm (λ) + Dw (λ) + Dp (λ) (A.18)

Where Dm is the composite material dispersion, Dw is the waveguide dispersion, and Dp is the

profile dispersion. All these factors can be lumped together into a net group index dispersion
parameter Nf . The simplified expression of D for SM fibers is given by (A.19) [2].

1 dNf
D(λ) = (A.19)
c dλ

A.4 Dispersion Compensation

In a fiber optic digital communication link, pulse broadening at a certain length starts to cause
complications such as intersymbol interference (ISI) that will cause the bit error rate (BER) to

increase. Therefore, dispersion considerations is an essential part of link budget calculations.

There are many techniques and technologies available to overcome pulse broadening and compress
a dispersed pulse to its original width. Here, only adding a Dispersion-Compensating Fiber stage
to a link is discussed.

Figure A.1 shows the plot of the dispersion parameter D versus wavelength for two different
materials. As seen in this graph, for a fiber, D can be designed to be either negative or positive

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 Figure A.1: Plot of dispersion parameter D vs. wavelength [4].

over a certain range of wavelengths. If a fiber with length L1 and dispersion parameter D1 is
cascaded with another fiber with length L2 and dispersion parameter D2 , the total dispersion can

be zero if D1 L1 = −D2 L2 . The second fiber with opposite dispersion parameter sign is called the

Dispersion-Compensating fiber (DCF.) In this case, D can be approximated for pulses with short
widths using A.20.
dD
D(λ) ≈ D(λm ) + ∆ |λ (A.20)
dλ m

In such a two-stage DCF link, the total dispersion, Davg , is defined by A.21. This equation can be

used to easily calculate a link that is not dispersion-limited.

Davg (L1 + L2 ) = D1 L1 + D2 L2 (A.21)

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B Screenshots

(a) Output pulse width through fiber(b) Output pulse width through fiber(c) Output pulse width through fiber
A. B. C.

(d) Output pulse width through fiber(e) Output pulse width through fiber(f) Output pulse width through
D. G. fibers A+D.

(g) Output pulse width through(h) Output pulse width through fiber
fibers E+C. F+G.

Figure B.1: Screenshots of output pulse widths captured by the oscilloscope.

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C Plot of the Bit Error Rate Test

Figure C.1: Plot of the Bit Error Rate test.

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References

[1] Buck, John A, Fall ’09 - Lecture Slides 13 - Dispersion in Single-Mode Fiber, Fiber Bandwidth,
Dispersion Management, slides 15, 16.

[2] Buck, John A., Fundamentals of Optical Fibers, 2nd ed., p. 152.

[3] Agrawal, Govind P., Fiber-Optic Communication Systems, p. 38.

[4] Buck, John A., Fundamentals of Optical Fibers, 2nd ed., p. 139.

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