Lecture 1

Basic Fiber Optic

Comm. System
Antonius Suhartomo, Ph.D.

TOPICS AGENDA
Working Safety Environments of Fiber
Basic Fiber Optic Communication System
and Its Applications
Advantage of Fiber Optic Communication
Networking Overview
Multiplexing
Optical Networking
Layer Modeling

SAFETY FIRST!
The light in the fiber can burn your
retina
NEVER look into a fiber unless you
know no light is present - use a
power meter to check it
The infrared light is invisible

FIBER SHARDS
(PECAHAN FIBER)
When you cleave fiber, there are
small scraps of glass produced.
These scraps are very dangerous!
The cleaved ends are extremely
sharp and can easily penetrate your
skin
They are even worse in your eyes,
mouth, etc.

SAFETY RULES
Wear glasses or safety glasses
Dispose of all scraps properly:
Put scraps on black tape
Use a properly marked trashcan

Work on a black pad which makes the

slivers of glass easier to spot (Bekerja pada
celemeh hitam yang dapat membuat irisan
kaca lebih mudah untuk dilihat)
Do not drop scraps on the floor
Do not eat or drink anywhere near the work
area

CHEMICAL SAFETY
Fiber optic splicing and termination use
various chemical adhesives and cleaners
Follow the instructions for use carefully
Isopropyl alcohol, used as a cleaner, is
flammable

ZERO TOLERANCE FOR

DIRT
Airborne particles are about the size
of the core of Single Mode fiber
They absorb lots of light and may
scratch connectors if not removed
Dirt on connectors is the biggest cause
of scratches on polished connectors and
high loss measurements

HYGIENE RULES
Work in a clean area avoid dust
Keep dust caps on all connectors
Use lint free pads and isopropyl alcohol to
clean connectors (Gunakan benang di atas
celemeh dan isopropil alkohol untuk
membersihkan konektor)

FIBER OPTIC COMMUNICATION

SYSTEM

FIBER OPTIC COMMUNICATION

SYSTEM
The light beam pulses are then fed into a fiber optic cable
where they are transmitted over long distances.
At the receiving end, a light sensitive device known as a photocell
or light detector is used to detect the light pulses.
This photocell or photo detector converts the light pulses into an
electrical signal.
The electrical pulses are amplified and reshaped back into digital
form.
Both the light sources at the sending end and the light detectors
on the receiving end must be capable of operating at the same
data rate.
The circuitry that drives the light source and the circuitry that
amplifies and processes the detected light must both have
suitable high-frequency response.
The fiber itself must not distort the high-speed light pulses used
in the data transmission.

FIBER OPTIC COMMUNICATION

SYSTEM
They are fed to a decoder, such as a Digital to
Analog converter (D/A), where the original voice or
video is recovered.
In very long transmission systems, repeater units must
be used along the way.
Since the light is greatly attenuated when it travels
over long distances, at some point it may be too weak
to be received reliably.
To overcome this problem, special relay stations are
used to pick up light beam, convert it back into
electrical pulses that are amplified and then
retransmit the pulses on another beam.
Several stages of repeaters may be needed over very
long distances.
But despite the attenuation problem, the loss is less
than the loss that occurs with the electric cables.

APPLICATIONS OF FIBERS
IN TELECOMMUNICATION
The various applications of fiber optics in the
telecommunication area in voice telephones, video
phones, telegraph services, message services and
data networks all transmitted over common carrier
links.
The conventional problems of wire systems like those
of ringing, cross talk, electromagnetic interference and
induced errors, etc., are completely avoided with the
use of optical fiber communication methods.
Coaxial undersea cable systems have been used as
one of the major transmission systems in international
telecommunication networks over the past 25 years.
Its channel capacity has rapidly increased about ten
times per decade with the growth in overseas traffic.

SPACE APPLICATIONS OF
OPTICAL FIBERS
Optical fibers offers the following
significant advantages for space
environment, namely high bandwidth,
noise immunity, inherent radiation
hardness, reduced weight, low bit error
rate, size, weight and volume reduction.

Broad-band applications of
optical fibers
Optical fibers offer many new opportunities to system
planners interested in broadband video and other services.
In the private customer application, a coalescence of the
existing community antenna television system (CATV)
and telecommunications services seems likely, with the
development of wide band switched integrated networks.
Primarily providing educational and entertainment TV, but
with a capability to provide many other services also.
In the business area, highly versatile systems designed to
carry combinations of video wide band data and audio of
varying qualities and with a sufficient range capability to
span much of a city from a central switching point seem
likely to encourage the use of teleconferencing and related
services.

APPLICATIONS IN INFORMATION
TECHNOLOGY
A modern large computer system is
composed
of
a
large
number
of
interconnections ranging in length over 16
orders of magnitude from the micrometer
dimensions of the on chip very large scale
integration
(VLSI)
connections
to
thousands of kilometer for terrestrial links
in computer networks.
The transmission line features of fiber
optics are potentially attractive for many
of these computer connections.

OTHER APPLICATIONS OF
OPTICAL FIBERS
Optical fibers can be used as sensors for the
measurement mechanical force, pressure, electric field,
electric current, magnetic field, temperature, nuclear
radiations, density etc.
In computers, fibers are used to exchange the
information between different terminals in a network.
The optical fibers are used in industrial automation,
security alarm system and process control.
The fiber optic cables are widely used in electronic fields
to produce required delay.
It is possible to study interior of the lungs and other parts
of the body that can not be viewed directly (endoscopy).
The fiber optical system widely used in defense services
because high privacy is maintained.

IMPORTANT ADVANTAGES OF
FIBER OPTIC COMMUNICATION
Transmission loss is low.
Fiber is lighter and less bulky than equivalent copper
cable.
More information can be carried by each fiber than by
equivalent copper cables.
There is complete electrical isolation between the sender
and the receiver.
There is no interference in the transmission of light from
electrical disturbances or electrical noise.
The fiber itself can withstand environmental conditions
such as salt, pollution and radiation with no resulting
corrosion and minimal nuclear radiation effects, so it is
more reliable.
The transmission is more secure and private.

COMMUNICATION
SYSTEMS
BASIC BLOCKS
Three basic
components
Source and Transmitter
Destinations and
Receiver
Communication
channel (medium)

Communication
channel

Wired
Wireless
Glass
Water and or materials

COVERAGE AND
TOPOLOGY
Coverage (public
network)
LAN
MAN
WAN

Topology

Bus
Ring
Mesh
Star

CHANGING SERVICE
LANDSCAPE
Network characteristics
Full redundancy
Fast restoration
High availability (99.999 %)
Low latency
High bandwidth
Dynamic allocation and high bandwidth efficiency
Support various services

More providers and equipment builders (due to Deregulation of the

telecom industry)
Providers are expected to provide more services at higher capacity
at lower prices!
A positive feedback business model!
Need for high capacity network
More users

SERVICE TYPES
Two basic service types (switching technologies)
Connection-oriented
Connectionless

Connection-oriented
Based on circuit switching (setup, connect, tear-down)
Example: Public Switching Telephone Network (PSTN)
Originally only supported voice
Not good for bursty traffic

Connectionless
Based on sending datagrams
Examples: Packet, massage, burst switching
Improves bandwidth and network utilization

MULTIPLEXING
Transmitting several signals over a single communications
channel
Multiplexing technologies
Frequency Division Multiplexing (modulating data into different
carrier frequencies)
Wavelength Division Multiplexing
Time division Multiplexing (dividing available time among various
signals)
Statistical Multiplexing (dynamic allocation of time spaces depending
on the traffic pattern)

Statistical Multiplexing
Requires buffering resulting in variable delay
Many packets will have to be buffered
Packets will have to be delayed
Some packets may be lost

Guarantee of Service (QoS)

MULTIPLEXING

EVOLUTION OF OPTICAL
NETWORKS FIRST
GENERATION
Started in 1980
Limited to fiber optic transmission systems the rest
of the system was electrical
Thus, the electronic was the major bottleneck!
The received optical data had to be dropped and then
transmitted this was a point-to-point system
Example: Synchronous Optical Network (SONET) and
Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH), Fiber Distributed Data
Interface (FDDI), Fiber Channel
These systems where based on Optical TDM (10Gb/s and
40Gb/s)
Higher capacity systems were build using WDM technology
(1 Tb/s) remember a single phone line is only 60 Kb/s!)

EVOLUTION OF OPTICAL NETWORKS

SECOND GENERATION
Incoming optical signals could
be switched in optical domain
(optical switching)
No longer limited to pointto-point
Underlying technologies
included
Optical Add-Drop
Multiplexers (OADM)
Optical cross-connets
(OXC)
Optical line terminals (OLT)
Wavelength Add/Drop
Multiplexer (WADM)
Dense WDM (DWDM)
Examples
FTTH, FTTC, ROADM

WADM

OXC

EVOLUTION OF OPTICAL NETWORKS

THIRD GENERATION

All optical packet switching

All packets are processed in optical
domain
Transparent to the service
Handle any arbitrary bit rate

Underlying technologies
Optical buffering!
Fast switching

So far, no optical networks have been

available!

OPTICAL NETWORKING

COMPARING DIFFERENT
OPTICAL NODES

Optical Packet Switching

30

LAYERING MODEL

Open Systems
Interconnection
(OSI) SevenLayer Reference
Model

The layering Model for the IP

PROTOCOL SUITES AND

LAYERING MODELS
Physical Layer (Layer 1)
specify details about the underlying transmission
medium and hardware
all specifications related to electrical properties,
radio frequencies, and signals belong in layer 1

Network Interface (or Data Link) Layer (Layer

2)
Network (physical) addresses
maximum packet size that a network can support
protocols used to access the underlying medium
31

Protocol Suites and Layering Models

Internet Layer (Layer 3)
protocols specifying communication across the
Internet & routing specifications (spanning
multiple interconnected networks)
Logical addressing and path determination

Transport Layer (Layer 4)

Includes specifications on
controlling the maximum rate a receiver can accept data
(flow control)
mechanisms to avoid network congestion
techniques to insure that all data is received in the
correct order

Remember: Each layer contains its own specifications & protocols!

32

Protocol Suites and Layering Models

Application Layer (Layer 5)
specify how a pair of applications interact when
they communicate
specify details about
the meaning of messages that applications can exchange
the procedures to be followed to execute the application

Some examples of network applications in layer 5

email exchange
file transfer
web browsing
telephone services
and video teleconferencing
33

HOW DATA PASSES THROUGH

LAYERS

Each computer has a

layered protocols

IP Over ATM Over SONET

IP Over SONET

IP Over WDM

REFERENCES
Ch 1: Fiber Optics Technicians Manual, 3rd. Ed, Jim
Hayes.
UNIT III LECTURE 8: FIBRE OPTIC
COMMUNICATION SYSTEM APPLICATIONS,
SRM University.
The Handbook of Fiber Optic Data
Communication, Third Edition, Dr. Casimer
DeCusatis, IBM Corporation