Railway OFC training

Presented by
Sreerup Chowdhury

Introduction
OFC stands for optical fibre communication which is used in
between railway.
stations for communication purposes.
RailTel which is behind the OFC development has created state
of the art multimedia telecom network using SDH based
transmission systems.
The Corporation was formed in Sept 2000 with the objectives
to create nationwide Broadband Telecom and Multimedia
Network in all parts of the country, to modernize Train Control
Operation and Safety System of Indian Railways.

Training Topics
Optical Fibre.
Advantages, description, additional equipment for handling.

Digital Multiplexing Hierarchies.

SDH,PDH,STM and PDMUX.

NMS(Network Management System).

Software based interface designed to control and configure
fleximux equipment.

Power supply of OFC system.

Advantages of using optical fibre

Low transmission loss - Resulting in large spacing between repeaters
loss in twisted pair and co-axial cable increases with frequency,
whereas; loss in the optical fibre remains flat over a wide range of
frequencies.
Wide Bandwidth resulting in very Large Channel Capacity.
Immunity to Electromagnetic and Radio Frequency Interface being
insulator no electric current flows through the fibre and due to this
reason fibre neither radiate nor pick up electromagnetic radiation.
No Cross Talk - As the signal transmission is by digital modulation, there
is no chance of cross talk in between channels.
Less prone to theft - As the fibre does not have resale value in the
market, optical fibre cable is not theft prone.

Optical Fibre
An Optical Fibre is
a long, thin
strand made with
pure glass about
the diameter of a
human hair.
OFC consists of
Core, Cladding,
Buffers and Jacket
as shown in
figure.

Types of optical fibres.

Single-mode step
index
Multi-mode step index
Multimode graded
index

Additional equipment
OTDR(Optical Time Domain
Reflector)
OTDR uses a system similar to radar
set, It sends out a light pulse and act
on the reflected light from the fibre.
The OTDR can continuously measure
the returned power level and hence
figure out the losses on the fibre link.

Additional equipment
Fusion Splicer
Splicing is the process of connecting two
bare fibres directly without any
connectors.
Splicing provide much lower insertion
loss compared to fibre connectors thats
why Splicing is preferred over the use of
Connectors.
Itis the process of fusing or welding two
fibres together usually by an electric
arc.
It provides for the lowest loss and least
reflectance
It also provides the strongest and most

Splicing Machine

Inserting a fibre in
the Splicer after
cutting

Alignment Check by
the Machine

After the approval of the

Alignment the fusion

Digital Multiplexing Hierarchies

Two types of hierarchies SDH and PDH.
PDH
Greek word Plesio means Close so PDH the different stages of mux are
almost synchronous but not completely synchronous
the PDH is a technology for transporting voice or data between multiple
devices and which are working with clock sources with accepted tolerance
levels for synchronisation
PDH used in2Mb,8Mb,34Mb and 140 Mb systems only.

SDH
All SDH equipment is based on the use of a single master reference clock
source & hence SDH is synchronous
Compatible with the majority of existing PDH bit rates
SDH provides for extraction/insertion, of a lower order bit rate from a higher

Components of SDH hierarchy

STM
It is an electrical device which
converts optical energy to electrical
energy. It consists of 63 E1s.
STM1 COMPONENTS
Synchronous card
Text card
ADM card
PSU card
OLI(optical line interconnect) card
Ethernet card
Various connectors pig tail, patch cord
etc.

PDMUX
I t is an electronics device which can
convert 2 mbps signal of each E1 into
32 time slots with each subscriber
end such as telephone, computer
exchange, etc.
PDMUX components
PSU card
NIM card
TRIB card
Among 32 time slots 30 slots are
usable since time slot 0 and 16 are
used for synchronisation and
signalling respectively.

Components of SDH hierarchy

SDH Multiplexers used in

RAILTEL

NMS(Network Management System)

NMS used in Indian railways Superset Management
System 4.0
It is a window based operating system to control
FLEXIMUX equipment.
It comprises information from all FLEXIMUX equipment
connected in network
Real time monitoring of network
Execution of various diagnostics &telecommunication.

Interface and commands

This Menu Bar consists the following
CREATING A NETWORK

Menu options:

Click Setup->Network-> Edit

Network ...then enter your password

File Draw Drag Site List Equipment State

The Network Configuration screen

appears

Now Click -> File -> Open

Drawing
Board

If no site is created yet, you will receive

message 'Create Site First'. Otherwise,
network diagram will be loaded

Interface and commands

NETWORK DIAGRAM

LIST OF CONTROL
COMMANDS
FLEXIMUX
Auto
Bypass
Digital Bypass
Tribal loop back
Channel loopback
Mw Signal
Tributary B remote
loopback
Activate

A Typical
Network Diagram

Power supply of OFC system

Power supply consists of secondary cells.
Secondary cell is used only due to its discharging purposes DC- 48
V which is absent in primary cells.
Lead Secondary cells (Pb,PbO2 as electrodes and dil. H2SO4 as
electrolyte used for both charging and discharging
Battery charger (50 A,48 v) for charging of cells
SMPS charging
50 A,48 v Manual charger

Power supply of OFC system

Modes of charging of battery cells: Initial charging.
Full charge then full discharge.

Automatic Floating Mode.

Discharge while the equipment is compensated and charging using
charger.

Boost mode.
charging at high rate.
Trickle Mode charging.

Thank You