Introduction

Transfer of information from one point to other is known

as communication
In a communication system long distance transmission of
information is achieved by modulating the information
on a electromagnetic wave of higher frequency known as
the carrier wave
At the receiving end, the electromagnetic wave is first
received and then demodulated by which the original
information can be retrieved
The electromagnetic career signals can have frequency
ranging from radio waves, microwaves, millimetre waves,
or may even have optical frequencies.

Historical Development
Optical waves or light has been common for many years as a
signalling system (Signal fires, reflecting mirrors and signalling
lamps) but the information transfer was limited
In 1880, Alexander Graham Bell reported the transmission of
speech using a light beam. The prototype of this was
developed which used a telephone with sunlight modulation
and a diaphragm which was so called as the Photophone

Photophone Transmitter

Photophone Receiver

 The use of optical signals were limited due to lack of

suitable light source and were also affected by rain, fog,
snow, dust and other electromagnetic noises. It is also
restricted to the line of sight.
Because of these disadvantages, the career waves (Radio
and microwaves) which were less affected by the above
factors proved useful.
Theoretically, greater the frequency of the carrier wave,
higher the information carrying capacity. So, optical
frequencies have higher data capacity compared to radio
and microwaves.
In context, it may also be noticed that optical frequencies
supports higher bandwidth by a factor 104 over microwave
transmission.
Also at high frequencies in a communication system, the
available power can be concentrated within the available
signal. Thus the system performance can be improved.

 A renewed interest in optical communication was stimulated

after the invention of LASER in 1960s and optical waveguides
Generation

Speciality

Operating
Wavelength

Bit Rate
(Bits/Second)

Repeater
Spacing

First

Uses Ga As LASER

0.8 m

45 Mb/s

10 Km

Second

Uses In Ga As P
LASER

1.3 m

100 Mb/s

50 Km

Third

Uses Direct
Modulation

1.55m

10 Gb/s

100 Km

Fourth

Uses WDM
Technique

1.45 m1.62 m

10 Tb/s

>10,000 Km

Fifth

Uses Roman
1.53 m- 40 Gb/s 160 24,000 Km amplification and
1.57 m
Gb/s
35,000 Km
Optical Solitors

The General System

The Figure shows the basic block diagram of a optical fiber
communication system
Information
Source

Electrical
Transmit

Optical
Source

Optical
Detector

Optical
Fiber
Cable

Electrical
Receive

Destination

A Digital optical fiber link

Encoder

Digital
information
source

Laser drive
circuit
Laser

Optical Fiber
cable

Amplifier
and Equalizer

APD

Decoder

Digital
output

 Initially, the input digital signal from the information

source is suitably encoded for optical transmission.
The laser drive circuit modulates the intensity of the
semiconductor laser with the encoded digital signal.
Hence a digital optical signal is launched into the
optical fiber.
The avalanche photodiode (APD) detector is followed
by a front-end amplifier and equalizer to provide gain
as well as noise bandwidth reduction.
Finally, the signal obtained is decoded to give the
original digital information.

Advantages of O.F.C.

Long Distance Transmission

Large Information Capacity
Small Size and Low Weight
Immunity to electrical interference
Enhanced safety
Increased signal security
Reliable and ease of maintenance
Potential low-cost

Disadvantages of O.F.C

Lack of Bandwidth Demand

Lack of Standards
Radiation Darkening
High Investment cost
Difficulty in splicing( connecting)
Complex testing procedure

Applications of O.F.C
Public Network applications: Trunk network, junction
network and Submerged systems.
Military applications: In military mobiles like aircrafts,
ships and battle tanks.
Consumer applications: transmission controls, engine
controls, seat and window controls in automative
electronics.
Industrial applications: Nuclear testing applications
Local Area Networks (LAN): To meet the on-site
communication requirements of large commercial
organization with centralized computing resources.

OPTICAL FIBER WAVEGUIDE

Optical fiber is a cylindrical waveguide

operating at optical frequencies.
The inner cylindrical structure is called as core
and has a refractive index n1.
The inner core is surrounded by an external
cladding of glass having slightly lower
refractive index n2.

 Cladding reduces scattering losses and

provides mechanical strength to the fiber.
The last layer is a protective jacket layer which
provides strength and also protects from
environmental conditions.
The light travels both in the core and cladding.

Reflection:
When a ray of light travels through a particular
density and strikes another medium of different
density partial bouncing takes place at the interface
between the two mediums.
The bounced ray is called as the reflected ray.

Refraction:
o When a ray of light passes from
one medium to other. It
changes its direction at the
interface.
o The refraction takes place
because light travels at different
speeds in different mediums.
o When a light wave passes from
a rarer medium (air) to denser
medium (glass) the light bends
towards the normal

Incident Beam

Obstacle

Diffracted Beam

The table shows the refractive index of different mediums

MEDIUM

REFRACTIVE INDEX

AIR
VACCUM
WATER
FUSED SILICA
GLASS
FLINT GLASS
DIAMOND

1.0002
1.0
1.333
1.452
1.517
1.655
2.421

Snells Law
Snells Law states how the light reacts when it meets the
interface of two media having different refractive index
If 1 and 2 are the angles of incidence and refraction
respectively, Then according to this law, a relation exists
between refractive index of two materials.

Thus, n1 sin 1= n2 sin 2

Critical Angle
The minimum angle of incidence at which the
rays strikes the interface of two media and
causes angle of refraction equals to 90
Thus c= sin-1 (n2/n1)

Total Internal Reflection

When a ray of light incident to medium of Refractive
index n1 at an angle greater than critical angle, then
all the light will be reflected into the same medium
In this case, the ray can propagate through optical
fiber efficiently.

Acceptance angle
The maximum angle to the axis of the core at which
the light may enter the fiber in order to be
propagated is called the acceptance angle of the
fiber

Modes Of Propagation
There are two types of light rays that can
propagate through optical fiber:
Meridonal rays They lie in a single plane and
propagate along the axis of the core
The path of the Meridonal rays are easy to
track
Skew Rays They follow a helical path along
the fiber. They are transmitted without
passing through the fiber axis
The path of skew rays are difficult to track.

Meridonial Rays

Skew Rays

Numerical aperture for Skew Rays

Fiber Classification
Classification according to the number of paths
Single mode fiber
Multimode fiber
Single mode fibers:
When there is only one path for light to
follow, then it is called as Single mode fibers.
Multimode fibers:
Multimode fibers consists of more than one
path.

Classification according to fiber profiles

Step index fiber
Graded index fiber
Step index fiber:
Refractive Index (RI) makes a step change from
core to cladding i.e., there is drastic change in
RI between core and cladding.
Graded index fiber:
There is a gradual change in the Refractive
Index between core and cladding, where as
Refractive index of cladding remains constant.

DIFFERENCES
1.
2.

3.
4.
5.

Single mode
There is only one path
for light
It is difficult to connect
fiber to the source
Laser is used as source
Dispersion is less
Diameter of fiber is
very small

1.
2.

3.
4.
5.

Multimode
There are multiple
path for light
Easier to connect the
fiber to the source
LED is used as a source
Dispersion is more
Diameter is larger
compared to single
mode

CYLINDRICAL FIBER
MODES
o Optical fiber is a dielectric waveguide which
confines energy in the form of light
o The propagation of light along the waveguide
is described by the Mode of the waveguides
o Each mode has different electric and magnetic
field distribution

o The cylindrical waveguide is bounded in two

dimensions rather than one
o Thus the integers m and l are necessary to
specify the modes
o In cylindrical waveguide the following modes
exists,
- Modes due to meridonal rays ( TElm & TMlm)
- Modes due to skew rays ( HElm & EHlm)

o The propagation constants of the guided

modes lie in the range
N2K < < n1K
Where K = 2/
o The normalized frequency is given by
V = (2/) a (NA)
Where a = radius of the core

Mode coupling:
Coupling of energy from one mode to another
mode is called as mode coupling

Mode coupling occurs due to

- Structural imperfections
- Fiber diameter & RI variations
- Bending of fibers
Mode coupling changes the transmission
properties of fiber such as Dispersive properties
of fibers over long distances.

 Step index fibers:

- In this fiber RI makes a step change from
core to cladding i.e., there is a drastic change
in RI between core and cladding
There are two types of step index fibers
- Single mode step index fibers
- Multimode step index fibers
The single mode step index fiber has the
distinct advantage of low intermodal
dispersion where as with multimode step
index fiber dispersion is more

 The number of modes in step index

multimode fibers is given by
Ms = V2/2 where V = (2/)n1(2)1/2
Graded index fibers:
They do not have a constant refractive index in
the core but a decreasing core index n(r) with
radial distance from a maximum value of n1 to
the axis to a constant n2 value beyond the
core radius a in the cladding.

 The number of modes in graded index

multimode fibers is given by
Mg = (/+2)(V2/2)
where V = (2/)n1(2)1/2

= index profile
For step index profile = infinity
For parabolic profile = 2
For triangular profile = 1

Single mode fibers

The cut off frequency for single
mode fibers occurs at V = 2.405
The cut off frequency for graded
index single mode fibers occurs at V
= 2.405 (1+2/ )1/2
Single mode fibers fiber diameter is
small so difficult to handle (problem)

 In order to increase the dispersion 2 fiber

designs are used matched cladding &
depressed cladding
Matched cladding : Here, the region external
to the core has a constant uniform refractive
index which is slightly lower than the core
region.
Depressed cladding: Here, cladding position
next to core has lower index than outer
cladding.

Mode Field Diameter

Mode Field Diameter (MFD) is an
important parameter for characterizing
single mode fiber properties
It is determined by the electromagnetic
field distribution
MFD = Distance between the opposite
1/e = 0.37 field amplitude points.

 MFD is the measure of the spot size or beam

width of light propagating in a single-mode
fiber.
It is the diameter at which the electric and
magnetic strengths are reduced to 1/e of their
maximum values

Fiber Materials
Requirements of Fiber Optic materials (using
glass & plastic):
The material must be transparent at a
particular optical wavelength for efficient
guiding of light
It must be possible to make a long, thin,
flexible fiber from the material
For the manufacture of core and cladding
materials with slightly different refractive
index must be used

 Majority of fibers are made up of

glass
Plastic fibers are less widely used
due to their high attenuation
Plastic fibers are used only for short
distances but material strength of
plastic fibers is more comparing to
glass fibers.

Glass fibers:
They are generally made by fusing mixtures of
metal oxides, sulphides etc.
They exhibit a molecular structure rather than a
crystalline structure
Due to this, glass does not have well defined
melting point and starting from room
temperature to a few hundred degrees it remains
solid
If temperature is increased to a very high degree,
glass softens and becomes viscous liquid . This
temperature is used for manufacturing glass.

Different types of glass fibers

Silica glass fibers :
- The main raw material for silica is sand and if
the glass is composed of silica then it is called
silica glass.
Properties
o Resistance to deformation at high
temperature and breakage from thermal
shocks
o Better transparency and good chemical
durability

 Halide glass fibers:

- The dopants which are added to silica glass
are Halides ( chlorine, bromine, iodine). Such
fibers are called Halide fibers.
Active glass fibers:
- To improve the optical and magnetic
properties of glass rare earth elements are
added to silica or Halide fibers
- The new properties allow the material to
perform amplification, attenuation and phase
variation on the light passing through it.

- The commonly used dopants in Active glass fibers

are Erbium and Neodymium
Chalgenide glass fibers:
- Here the dopants are chalgenide elements (
sulphur, selenium)
Plastic Optical fibers (POF):
- They are made up of polymethyl metha crylate
and perfluorinated polymer
- They exhibit greater signal attenuation
- They are tuff and durable compared to silica fiber
- Core diameter is greater than silica fiber.