Transmission characteristics

of optical fibers
Transmission Characteristics of Optical Fiber: Attenuation, absorption, linear
and nonlinear scattering losses, bending losses, dispersion, Chromatic
dispersion, Intermodal dispersion , Over all dispersion in single mode and
multimode fibers, dispersion shifted and dispersion flattened fibers, OTDR.
Non-linear effects, scattering effects, Kerr effects, soliton

17-03-2025 Dr. Anuja A Odhekar

Attenuation
• Attenuation is a measure of decay of signal strength or loss of light power that occurs as light
pulses propagate through the length of the fiber.
• In optical fibers the attenuation is mainly caused by two physical factors absorption and
scattering losses. Absorption is because of fiber material and scattering due to structural
imperfection within the fiber. Nearly 90 % of total attenuation is caused by Rayleigh scattering
only.
• Micro-bending of optical fiber also contributes to the attenuation of signal.
• The rate at which light is absorbed is dependent on the wavelength of the light and the
characteristics of particular glass. Glass is a silicon compound, by adding different additional
chemicals to the basic silicon dioxide the optical properties of the glass can be changed.
• The Rayleigh scattering is wavelength dependent and reduces rapidly as the wavelength of the
incident radiation increases.
• The attenuation of fiber is governed by the materials from which it is fabricated, the
manufacturing process and the refractive index profile chosen. Attenuation loss is measured in
dB/km.

17-03-2025 Dr. Anuja A Odhekar

Attenuation-

Attenuation

Absorption Micro-bending Scattering Loss

wavelength of the
light and the
characteristics of
particular glass

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Attenuation Units

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Attenuation calculations

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Absorption
• Absorption loss is related to the material composition and fabrication
process of fiber.
• Absorption loss results in dissipation of some optical power as heat
in the fiber cable.
• Although glass fibers are extremely pure, some impurities still remain
as residue after purification.
• The amount of absorption by these impurities depends on their
concentration and light wavelength.

17-03-2025 Dr. Anuja A Odhekar

Absorption

Absorption

Intrinsic
Extrinsic absorption
Atomic Defects in absorption by
by impurity atom in
glass composition basic constituent
glass material
of fiber material

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Absorption by Atomic Defects
• Atomic defects are imperfections in the atomic structure of the fiber materials such as missing
molecules, high density clusters of atom groups.
• These absorption losses are negligible compared with intrinsic and extrinsic losses

17-03-2025 Dr. Anuja A Odhekar

Extrinsic Absorption
• Extrinsic absorption occurs due to electronic transitions between the
energy level and because of charge transitions from one ion to
another.
• A major source of attenuation is from transition of metal impurity
ions such as iron, chromium, cobalt and copper.
• These losses can be up-to 1 to 10 dB/km. The effect of metallic
impurities can be reduced by glass refining techniques.

17-03-2025 Dr. Anuja A Odhekar

Extrinsic Absorption
• Another major extrinsic loss is caused by absorption due to OH (Hydro-xil) ions
impurities dissolved in glass.
• Vibrations occur at wavelengths between 2.7 and 4.2 µm.

17-03-2025 Dr. Anuja A Odhekar

Intrinsic Absorption
• Intrinsic absorption occurs when material is in absolutely pure state, no density variation
and material is homogenous.
• Thus intrinsic absorption sets the fundamental lower limit on absorption for any
particular material.
• Intrinsic absorption results from electronic absorption bands in UV region and from
atomic vibration bands in the near infrared region.
• The electronic absorption bands are associated with the band gaps of amorphous glass
materials.
• Absorption occurs when a photon interacts with an electron in the valence band and
excites it to a higher energy level.
• UV absorption decays exponentially with increasing wavelength (λ).
• The inherent IR absorption is due to interaction between the vibrating band and the
electromagnetic field of optical signal this results in transfer of energy from field to the
band, thereby giving rise to absorption, this absorption is strong because of many bonds
present in the fiber

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Intrinsic Absorption

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Rayleigh Scattering Losses
• Scattering losses exists in optical fibers because of microscopic variations in the
material density and composition.
• As glass is composed by randomly connected network of molecules and several
oxides (e.g. SiO2, GeO2 and P2O5), these are the major cause of compositional
structure fluctuation.
• These two effects results to variation in refractive index and Rayleigh type
scattering of light.
• Rayleigh scattering of light is due to small localized changes in the refractive index
of the core and cladding material.

17-03-2025 Dr. Anuja A Odhekar

Rayleigh Scattering Losses
• There are two causes during the manufacturing of fiber.

1. The first is due to slight fluctuation in mixing of ingredients. The

random changes because of this are impossible to eliminate
completely.
2. The other cause is slight change in density as the silica cools and
solidifies. When light ray strikes such zones it gets scattered in all
directions. The amount of scatter depends on the size of the
discontinuity compared with the wavelength of the light so the shortest
wavelength (highest frequency) suffers most scattering.

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Graphical relationship between wavelength and Rayleigh
scattering loss

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Scattering Loss

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Mie Scattering
• Linear scattering also occurs at in-homogenities and these arise from
imperfections in the fiber’s geometry, irregularities in the refractive
index and the presence of bubbles etc. caused during manufacture.
• Careful control of manufacturing process can reduce Mie scattering to
insignificant levels

17-03-2025 Dr. Anuja A Odhekar

Bending Loss
• Optical fibers suffer radiation losses at bends or curves on their paths. This is due
to the energy in the evanescent field at the bend exceeding the velocity of light in
the cladding and hence the guidance mechanism is inhibited, which causes light
energy to be radiated from the fiber.
• The part of the mode which is on the outside of the bend is required to travel
faster than that on the inside so that a wavefront perpendicular to the direction
of propagation is maintained.
• Hence, part of the mode in the cladding needs to travel faster than the velocity of
light in that medium. As this is not possible, the energy associated with this part
of the mode is lost through radiation.

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Bending Loss
• The loss can generally be represented by a radiation attenuation coefficient
which has the form

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Bending Loss-

Types of the Bend

Macroscopic bends
(having radii that are
Random microscopic
large as compared
bends of fiber axis
with the fiber
diameter)

17-03-2025 Dr. Anuja A Odhekar

Signal Distortion in Optical Waveguide
• The pulse gets distorted as it travels along the fiber lengths.
• Pulse spreading in fiber is referred as dispersion.
• Dispersion is caused by difference in the propagation times of light
rays that takes different paths during the propagation.
• The light pulses travelling down the fiber encounter dispersion effect
because of this the pulse spreads out in time domain.
• Dispersion limits the information bandwidth.
• The distortion effects can be analyzed by studying the group velocities
in guided modes.

17-03-2025 Dr. Anuja A Odhekar

 Dispersion
• Dispersion of the transmitted optical signal causes distortion for both
digital and analog transmission along optical fibers.
• When considering the major implementation of optical fiber
transmission which involves some form of digital modulation, then
dispersion mechanisms within the fiber cause broadening of the
transmitted light pulses as they travel along the channel.
• The effect is known as intersymbol interference (ISI). Thus an
increasing number of errors may be encountered on the digital optical
channel as the ISI becomes more pronounced. The error rate is also a
function of the signal attenuation on the link and the subsequent
signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) at the receiver

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 Dispersion
The effect is known as inter-
symbol interference (ISI).
Thus an increasing number of
errors may be encountered on
the digital optical channel as
the ISI becomes more
pronounced.
The error rate is also a
function of the signal
attenuation on the link and
the subsequent signal-to-
noise ratio (SNR) at the
receiver
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Dispersion
• For no overlapping of light pulses down on an optical fiber link the
digital bit rate BT must be less than the reciprocal of the broadened
(through dispersion) pulse duration (2τ). Hence:

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Dispersion

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 Dispersion Offered by various types of the Fiber

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Dispersion Offered by various types of the Fiber
• It may be observed that the multimode step index fiber exhibits the greatest
dispersion of a transmitted light pulse and the multimode graded index fiber
gives a considerably improved performance.
• The single-mode fiber gives the minimum pulse broadening and thus is capable of
the greatest transmission bandwidths which are currently in the gigahertz range,
whereas transmission via multimode step index fiber is usually limited to
bandwidths of a few tens of megahertz.
• However, the amount of pulse broadening is dependent upon the distance the
pulse travels within the fiber, and hence for a given optical fiber link the
restriction on usable bandwidth is dictated by the distance between regenerative
repeaters (i.e. the distance the light pulse travels before it is reconstituted).

17-03-2025 Dr. Anuja A Odhekar

Dispersion Offered by various types of the Fiber

• Measurement of the dispersive properties of a particular fiber is usually stated as

the pulse broadening in time over a unit length of the fiber (i.e. ns km−1 ).
• Hence, the number of optical signal pulses which may be transmitted in a given
period, and therefore the information-carrying capacity of the fiber, is restricted
by the amount of pulse dispersion per unit length.
• In the absence of mode coupling or filtering, the pulse broadening increases
linearly with fiber length and thus the bandwidth is inversely proportional to
distance. This leads to the adoption of a more useful parameter for the
information-carrying capacity of an optical fiber which is known as the
bandwidth–length product (i.e. Bopt × L).
• The typical best bandwidth–length products for the three fibers shown in Figure
are 20 MHz km, 1 GHz km and 100 GHz km for multimode step index, multimode
graded index and single-mode step index fibers respectively

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Dispersion
• Material Dispersion/Chromatic Dispersion
• Waveguide Dispersion
• Modal Dispersion
• Polarization Mode Dispersion

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Chromatic dispersion
• Chromatic or intra-modal dispersion may occur in all types of optical
fiber and results from the finite spectral linewidth of the optical
source.
• Since optical sources do not emit just a single frequency but a band of
frequencies then there may be propagation delay differences
between the different spectral components of the transmitted signal.
• This causes broadening of each transmitted mode and hence intra-
modal dispersion.
• The delay differences may be caused by the dispersive properties of
the waveguide material (material dispersion) and also guidance
effects within the fiber structure (waveguide dispersion)
17-03-2025 Dr. Anuja A Odhekar
Material dispersion
• Pulse broadening due to material dispersion results from the different
group velocities of the various spectral components launched into the
fiber from the optical source.
• It occurs when the phase velocity of a plane wave propagating in the
dielectric medium varies nonlinearly with wavelength, and a material
is said to exhibit material dispersion when the second differential of
the refractive index with respect to wavelength is not zero
• (i.e. d2 n/dλ2 ≠ 0).

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Recall

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Material dispersion

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Material dispersion

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Material dispersion

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Waveguide dispersion
• The wave guiding of the fiber may also create chromatic dispersion.
• This results from the variation in group velocity with wavelength for a
particular mode. Considering the ray theory approach, it is equivalent to
the angle between the ray and the fiber axis varying with wavelength
which subsequently leads to a variation in the transmission times for the
rays, and hence dispersion.
• For a single mode whose propagation constant is β, the fiber exhibits
waveguide dispersion when d2 β/dλ2 ≠ 0.
• Multimode fibers, where the majority of modes propagate far from cutoff,
are almost free of waveguide dispersion and it is generally negligible
compared with material dispersion (≈0.1 to 0.2 ns km−1 )
• However, with single-mode fibers where the effects of the different
dispersion mechanisms are not easy to separate, waveguide dispersion
may be significant

17-03-2025 Dr. Anuja A Odhekar

Intermodal Dispersion
• Pulse broadening due to intermodal dispersion (sometimes referred to simply as modal or mode
dispersion) results from the propagation delay differences between modes within a multimode
fiber.
• As the different modes which constitute a pulse in a multimode fiber travel along the channel at
different group velocities, the pulse width at the output is dependent upon the transmission
times of the slowest and fastest modes.
• Thus multimode step index fibers exhibit a large amount of intermodal dispersion which gives the
greatest pulse broadening.
• However, intermodal dispersion in multimode fibers may be reduced by adoption of an optimum
refractive index profile which is provided by the near-parabolic profile of most graded index
fibers.
• Graded index fibers used with a multimode source give a tremendous bandwidth advantage
over multimode step index fibers.
• Under purely single-mode operation there is no intermodal dispersion and therefore pulse
broadening is solely due to the intra-modal dispersion mechanisms.
• In theory, this is the case with single-mode step index fibers where only a single mode is allowed
to propagate. Hence they exhibit the least pulse broadening and have the greatest possible
bandwidths, but in general are only usefully operated with single-mode sources.

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Modal Dispersion

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Mechanism to reduce Intermodal Dispersion
• Intermodal dispersion may be reduced by propagation mechanisms within practical
fibers. For instance, there is differential attenuation of the various modes in a step index
fiber. This is due to the greater field penetration of the higher order modes into the
cladding of the waveguide. These slower modes therefore exhibit larger losses at any
core–cladding irregularities, which tends to concentrate the transmitted optical power
into the faster lower order modes. Thus the differential attenuation of modes reduces
intermodal pulse broadening on a multimode optical link.
• Another mechanism which reduces intermodal pulse broadening in non-perfect (i.e.
practical) multimode fibers is the mode coupling or mixing .The coupling between guided
modes transfers optical power from the slower to the faster modes, and vice versa.
Hence, with strong coupling the optical power tends to be transmitted at an average
speed, which is the mean of the various propagating modes. This reduces the intermodal
dispersion on the link and makes it advantageous to encourage mode coupling within
multimode fibers.
• The most successful technique for reducing intermodal dispersion in multimode fibers is
by grading the core refractive index to follow a near-parabolic profile. This has the effect
of equalizing the transmission times of the various modes .
17-03-2025 Dr. Anuja A Odhekar
Modal Noise
• The intermodal dispersion properties of multimode optical fibers create
another phenomenon which affects the transmitted signals on the optical
channel.
• It is exhibited within the speckle patterns observed in multimode fiber as
fluctuations which have characteristic times longer than the resolution
time of the detector, and is known as modal or speckle noise.
• The speckle patterns are formed by the interference of the modes from a
coherent source when the coherence time of the source is greater than the
intermodal dispersion time δT within the fiber. The coherence time for a
source with uncorrelated source frequency width δf is simply 1/δf. Hence,
modal noise occurs when:

17-03-2025 Dr. Anuja A Odhekar

Modal Noise
• Disturbances along the fiber such as vibrations, discontinuities,
connectors, splices and source/detector coupling may cause
fluctuations in the speckle patterns and hence modal noise.
• It is generated when the correlation between two or more modes
which gives the original interference is differentially delayed by these
disturbances. The conditions which give rise to modal noise are
therefore specified as:
• (a) a coherent source with a narrow spectral width and long
coherence length (propagation velocity multiplied by the coherence
time)
• (b) disturbances along the fiber which give differential mode delay or
modal and spatial filtering
• (c) phase correlation between the modes

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How to Avoid Modal Noise
• The use of a broad spectrum source in order to eliminate the modal
interference effects. This may be achieved by either (a) increasing the
width of the single longitudinal mode and hence decreasing its coherence
time
• (b) by increasing the number of longitudinal modes and averaging out of
the interference patterns
• 2. In conjunction with 1(b) it is found that fibers with large numerical
apertures support the transmission of a large number of modes giving a
greater number of speckles, and hence reduce the modal noise generating
effect of individual speckles
• 3. The use of single-mode fiber which does not support the transmission of
different modes and thus there is no intermodal interference.
• 4. The removal of disturbances along the fiber. This has been investigated
with regard to connector design in order to reduce the shift in speckle
pattern induced by mechanical vibration and fiber misalignment.
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How to Avoid Modal Noise
• Hence, modal noise may be prevented on an optical fiber link through suitable choice of
the system components. However, this may not always be possible and then certain
levels of modal noise must be tolerated.
• This tends to be the case on high-quality analog optical fiber links where multimode
injection lasers are frequently used.
• Analog transmission is also more susceptible to modal noise due to the higher optical
power levels required at the receiver when quantum noise effects are considered
Therefore, it is important that modal noise is taken into account within the design
considerations for these systems.
• Modal noise, however, can be present in single-mode fiber links when propagation of the
two fundamental modes with orthogonal polarization is allowed or, alternatively, when
the second-order modes are not sufficiently attenuated.
• The former modal noise type, which is known as polarization modal noise, Modal noise
can therefore be introduced into single-mode fiber systems by time-varying interference
between the LP01 and the LP11 modes when the fiber is operated at a wavelength which
is smaller than the cutoff wavelength of the second-order modes.
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Polarization Mode Dispersion

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Overall Dispersion
• Overall Dispersion in Single Mode Fiber
• Overall Dispersion in Multi Mode Fiber

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Overall Dispersion in Multi Mode Fiber

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Overall Dispersion in Single Mode Fiber
• The pulse broadening in single-mode fibers results almost entirely from chromatic or
intra-modal dispersion as only a single-mode is allowed to propagate. Hence the
bandwidth is limited by the finite spectral width of the source.

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Overall Dispersion in Single Mode Fiber

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Design Optimization
• Matched cladding fibers.
• Dressed cladding fibers.
• Dispersion Shifted Fiber
• Dispersion Flattened Fiber

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 Nonlinear effects
• Scattering Effect
• Kerr Effect

Nonlinear effects are weak at low powers but they can become much stronger at high optical intensities. This
situation can result either when the power is increased, or when it is concentrated in a small area such as the
core of a single-mode optical fiber.

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Optical time domain reflectometry-OTDR
• This technique is often called the backscatter measurement method.
• It provides measurement of the attenuation on an optical link down
its entire length giving information on the length dependence of the
link loss.

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Link Budget

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