Experiment No.

(1) Optical Fiber Communication System

Experiment No. (1)

Optical Fiber Communication System

 Object:

To be familiar with the use of OptiSystem software in the study of optical

fiber communication system.

 Theory:

For optical fiber communications the system shown in figure (1) the
information source provides an electrical signal to a transmitter comprising an
electrical stage which drives an optical source to give modulation of the light
wave carrier. The optical source which provides the electrical–optical
conversion may be either a semiconductor laser or light-emitting diode (LED).
The optical carrier may be modulated using either an analog or digital
information signal. Analog modulation involves the variation of the light
emitted from the optical source in a continuous manner. With digital
modulation, however, discrete changes in the light intensity are obtained (i.e.
on–off pulses). Although often simpler to implement, analog modulation with an
optical fiber communication system is less efficient, requiring a far higher
signal-to-noise ratio at the receiver than digital modulation. Also, the linearity
needed for analog modulation is not always provided by semiconductor optical
sources, especially at high modulation frequencies. For these reasons, analog
optical fiber communication links are generally limited to shorter distances and
lower bandwidth operation than digital links. The transmission medium consists

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Experiment No. (1) Optical Fiber Communication System

of an optical fiber cable and the receiver consists of an optical detector which
drives a further electrical stage and hence provides demodulation of the optical
carrier. Photodiodes (p–n, p–i–n or avalanche) and, in some instances,
phototransistors and photoconductors are utilized for the detection of the optical
signal and the optical–electrical conversion. Thus there is a requirement for
electrical interfacing at either end of the optical link and at present the signal
processing is usually performed electrically.

Figure (1) The General Optical Communication system

Figure (2) shows a block schematic of a typical digital optical fiber link.
Initially, the input digital signal from the information source is suitably encoded
for optical transmission.
The laser drive circuit directly modulates the intensity of the semiconductor
laser with the encoded digital signal. Hence a digital optical signal is launched
into the optical fiber cable. The avalanche photodiode (APD) detector is
followed by a front-end amplifier and equalizer or filter to provide gain as well
as linear signal processing and noise band width reduction. Finally, the signal
obtained is decoded to give the original digital information.

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Experiment No. (1) Optical Fiber Communication System

Figure (2) A digital optical fiber link using a semiconductor laser source and an
avalanche photodiode (APD) detector

 Procedure:

A) Using the Component Library

In the following example, we design the external modulated transmitter. You

will select components from the Component Library and place them in the Main
layout.
To use the Component Library, perform the following procedure.

1- To start a new project, from the Main toolbar, select File >New.
A blank Main layout appears in the Project layout window.

2- From the Component Library, select Default >Transmitters Library

>Optical Sources.
3- Drag the CW Laser to the Main layout (see Figure 3).

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Experiment No. (1) Optical Fiber Communication System

Figure (3) Adding a CW laser to the main layout

4- From the Component Library, select Default >Transmitters >Optical

Modulators.

5- Drag the Mach-Zehnder Modulator to the Main layout (see Figure 4).

Note: By default, the auto connect feature is on. When you place a component to
the Main layout, the input port of the component connects automatically to the
output port of a component that it can connect to. To turn the auto connect
feature off.

6- From the Component Library, select Default >Transmitters Library

>Bit Sequence Generators.

7- Drag the Pseudo-Random Bit Sequence Generator to the Main layout.

8- From the Component Library, select Default >Transmitters >Pulse

Generators >Electrical.
9- Drag the NRZ Pulse Generator to the Main layout (see Figure 4).

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Experiment No. (1) Optical Fiber Communication System

Figure (4) Adding component to the main layout

a) Auto connect feature

1- To turn the Auto connect feature off, click the active Auto Connect on
Drop button and the Auto Connect on Move button on the Layout
Operations toolbar. The buttons are inactive (see Figure 5) and the
components no longer connect automatically to each other.

Figure (5)

2- To turn the auto connect feature back on, click the inactive Auto Connect
on Drop button and the Auto Connect on Move button on the Layout

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Experiment No. (1) Optical Fiber Communication System

Operations toolbar. The buttons are active (see Figure 6) and the
components connect automatically to each other.

Figure (6)
b) Connecting component manually

1- Place the cursor over the initial port. The cursor changes to the rubber band
cursor (chain link) (see Figure 7).A tool tip appears that indicates the type of
signal that is available on this port (see Figure 8).

2-Click and drag to the port to be connected.

The ports are connected.

Figure (7)

Figure (8)

To connect the components, click on the port of one component and drag
the connection to the port of a compatible component (see Figure 9).

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Experiment No. (1) Optical Fiber Communication System

a. Connect the Pseudo-Random Bit Sequence Generator output port to the

NRZ Pulse Generator Bit Sequence input port.

b. Connect the NRZ Pulse Generator output port to the available Mach-
Zehnder Modulator input port.
c. Connect the CW Laser output port to the Mach-Zehnder Modulator input
port.

Figure (8)

Figure (9)

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Experiment No. (1) Optical Fiber Communication System

c) Visualizing the results

To visualize the results, perform the following procedures.

1- From the Component Library, select Default >Visualizer Library
>Electrical.

2- Drag the Oscilloscope Visualizer to the Main layout.

The optical signal can be also displayed by selecting visualizers from the library.
For example, use an Optical Spectrum Analyzer and an Optical Time
Domain Visualizer to visualize the modulated optical signal in time domain.

3- From the Component Library, select Default >Visualizer Library

>Optical.

4- Drag the Optical Spectrum Analyzer to the Main layout.

5- Drag the Optical Time Domain Visualizer to the Main layout (see
Figure 10).

Figure (10)

To connect the component and visualizers, click on the output port of the
component and drag it to the input port of the visualizer (see Figure 11).

Note: You can only connect one component to a visualizer input port.

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Experiment No. (1) Optical Fiber Communication System

a. Connect the NRZ Pulse Generator output to the Oscilloscope Visualizer

input port.
b. Connect the Mach-Zehnder Modulator output to the Optical Spectrum
Analyzer input port and to the Optical Time Domain Visualizer input port.

Figure (11)

When we connect a visualizer to a component output port, OptiSystem

inserts a default data monitor to the component output port. we can then connect
the component to the visualizer.
Note: Visualizers always connect to monitors. You can have multiple visualizers
attached to the same component output port, because they are actually attached
to the monitor, not to the component (see the Mach-Zehnder Modulator with
connections to the OTDV and the OSD in Figure 12). Data monitors are

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Experiment No. (1) Optical Fiber Communication System

represented by a rectangle around the component output port (see Figure 12 for
examples of monitors on components).
To connect a monitor to a port, perform the following procedure.

1- From the Layout Tools toolbar, select the Monitor Tool.

The cursor changes to the Monitor tool.
2- Click the CW Laser output port.
3- To disable the Monitor tool, on the Layout Tools toolbar, click the
Layout tool.
The monitor saves the signals at the CW Laser output.

Figure (12)

The optical transmitter consists of the following components:

• Optical source
• Electrical pulse generator
• Optical modulator (see Figure 13).
The launched power is an important design parameter, as indicates how much
fiber loss can be tolerated. It is often expressed in units of dBm with 1 mW as
the reference level (see Figure 14).
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Experiment No. (1) Optical Fiber Communication System

Figure (13)

Figure (14)

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Experiment No. (1) Optical Fiber Communication System

B) Overall Optical System Test

1) Connect the optical transmitter as shown in figure (15)
2) Draw the output of NRZ pulse generator using oscilloscope visualizer.
3) Draw the output of Mach-Zehnder Modulator using optical spectrum
analyzer and optical time domain visualizer at different power values (-3,
-7, -11, -15) dBm. (see figure 15)
4) Connect the optical fiber (single mode fiber (SMF)) with 5 Km length to
the transmitter as shown in figure (15).
5) Connect the PIN photo detector
6) Connect the low pass Bessel filter with cut off frequency =0.7*bit rat
(where bit rate =2.5e+009e).
7) Connect the electrical carrier analyzer to calculate the output signal to
noise ratio.
8) Draw the output of filter using oscilloscope visualizer.
9) Draw the eye pattern using BER analyzer, then measure the values of
BER and Q factor from BER analyzer.
10) Measure the value of S/N from electrical carrier analyzer.
11) Replace the NRZ by RZ pulse generator then repeat the steps
(1 to 10).
12) Repeat steps (1 to11) using another type of fiber as shown in
Fig. (16)

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Experiment No. (1) Optical Fiber Communication System

Figure (15)

Figure (16)

 Discussion:
1) Explain what is mean by Q factor.
2) Discuss the idea of eye diagram.
3) From the results draw the relation between the Q factor and input power.
4) From the results draw the relation between BER and S/N.

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