Transmission Characteristic

of Optical Fibers
 Introduction

 Most optical fibers are used for transmitting information

over long distances.

 Two major advantages of fiber: (1) wide bandwidth and (2)

low loss. (High Transmission Capacity & Long transmission
distance)

 Attenuation cause mainly by absorption, fiber bends and

scattering.

 Bandwidth is limited by an effect called dispersion.

 SIGNAL DEGRADATION IN OPTICAL FIBERS

• What are the loss or signal attenuation

mechanism in a fiber?

• Why & to what degree do optical signals get

distorted as they propagate down a fiber?
 Signal Degradation in the Optical Fiber
Signal Attenuation
•Fiber loss or signal loss – Loss of light energy as light pulse
travels from one end of cable to another.
•It determines the maximum unamplified or repeaterless
separation between transmitter and receiver.

Signal Distortion
•Causes optical pulses to broaden.
•Overlapping with neighboring pulses, creating errors in the
receiver output.
•It limits the information carrying capacity of a fiber.
 Optical fiber attenuation vs. wavelength

Optical fiber attenuation as a function of wavelength yields nominal values of 0.5 dB/km at 1310
nm and 0.3 dB/km at 1550 nm for standard single mode fiber. Absorption by the water
molecules causes the attenuation peak around 1400nm for standard fiber. The dashed curve is
the attenuation for low water peak fiber.
Light Propagation
• Light travels along a fiber cable by a process called 'Total Internal Reflection' (TIR), this is
made possible  by using two types of glass which have different refractive indexes. The inner
core has a high refractive  index and the outer cladding has a low index. This is the same
principle as the reflection you see when  you look into a pond. The water in the pond has a
higher refractive index than the air, and if you look at it  from a shallow angle you will see a
reflection of the surrounding area, however, if you look straight down  at the water you can
see the bottom of the pond. At some specific angle between these two view points  the light
stops reflecting off the surface of the water and passes through the air/water interface
allowing  you to see the bottom of the pond. In multi-mode fibres, as the name suggests,
there are multiple modes  of propagation for the rays of light. These range from low order
modes which take the most direct route  straight down the middle, to high order modes
which take the longest route as they bounce from one side  to the other all the way down the
fibre. This has the effect of scattering the signal because the rays from one pulse of light,
arrive at the far end  at different times, this is known as Intermodal Dispersion (sometimes
referred to as Differential Mode  Delay, DMD). To ease the problem, graded index fibres were
developed. Unlike the examples above  which have a definite barrier between core and
cladding, these have a high refractive index at the centre  which gradually reduces to a low
refractive index at  the circumference. This slows down the lower order  modes allowing the
rays to arrive at the far end  closer together, thereby reducing intermodal dispersion and
improving the shape of the signal.
• So what about the single-mode fibre?
• Well, what's the best way to get rid of Intermodal  Dispersion?, easy, only allow one mode of 
propagation. So a smaller core size means higher  bandwidth and greater distances.
 Attenuation (fiber loss)
• Power loss along a fiber:As light travels along a fiber,its power decreases
exponentially with distance

Z=0 Z= l
 pl
P(0) mW P (l )  P (0 )e mw

 p z
P( z)  P(0)e
• The parameter  is called fiber attenuation coefficient in a units of for
p
example [1/km] or [nepers/km]. A more common unit is [dB/km] that is
defined by:
10  P (0) 
 [ dB/km ]  log    4 .343  p [1 / km ]
l  P (l ) 
 Attenuation

• Logarithmic relationship between the optical output power and the optical
input power
• Measure of the decay of signal strength or light power

P( z )  Po e   z 
p

• where:
P(z) = Optical Power at distance z
from the input
Po = Input optical power (W)
-p = Fiber attenuation coefficient, [dB/km]
 Attenuation

• Usually, attenuation is expressed in terms of decibels

• Attenuation Conversion:  = 4.343p

 Pout 
z / 10 10 log 
P ( z )  Po 10  Pin 

z

where:
P(z) = Optical Power at distance z
from the input
Po = Input optical power
 = Fiber attenuation coefficient, [dB/km]
 = scattering + absorption + bending
 Example 1
• Given: Input Power = 1mW
Length = 1.3km
Attenuation Coefficient, a = 0.6dB/km
Find: Output Power
• Solution: P(z) = Po10-z/10
= 1mW10-0.6·1.3/10
= 836W a = 0.6B/km
Pin = 1mW Pout = ?
1.3km
 Problem 1
• Given: Input Power = 1mW
Length = 2.6km
Attenuation Coefficient, a = 0.6dB/km
Find: Output Power

a = 0.6B/km
Pin = 1mW Pout = ?
2.6km

Answer:
Pout = 698W
 Problem 2
• Given: Input Power = 1mW
Output Power = 250W
Length = 2km
Find: Attenuation Coefficient, a

a=?
Pin = 1mW Pout = 250W
2km

Answer:
a = 3dB/km
 Attenuation
The Basic attenuation mechanisms in a fiber:
1. Absorption:
It is related to the fiber material.

2. Scattering:
It is associated both with the fiber material
and with the structural imperfections in
the optical waveguide.

3. Radiative losses/ Bending losses:

It originates from perturbation (both
microscopic and macroscopic) of the fiber
geometry.
 Types of Attenuation
 Material /Absorption losses
• Intrinsic Absorption
• Extrinsic Absorption
 Scattering loss
• Linear Scattering – Rayleigh Scattering
Mie Scattering
• Nonlinear Scattering – Stimulated Raman Scattering(SRS),
Stimulated Brillouin Scattering(SBS)
 Bending/Radiative loss
• Macrobending loss
• Microbending loss
 Mode coupling loss
 Loss due to leaky modes
 Losses at connectors and splices
 Material Absorption Losses

♣ Material absorption is a loss mechanism related to the

material composition and the fabrication process for the
fiber, which results in the dissipation of some of the
transmitted optical power as heat in the waveguide.

♣ The absorption of the light may be intrinsic or extrinsic

Absorption
1. Absorption by atomic defects

Atomic defects are imperfections in the atomic structure of

the fiber material.
Examples:
•Missing molecules
•High density clusters of atom groups
•Oxygen defects in the glass structure.

•Absorption losses arising from these defects are negligible

compared with intrinsic and impurity absorption.

•Can be significant if the fiber is exposed to ionization radiations.

Absorption
2. Extrinsic absorption by impurity atoms
The dominant absorption factor in silica fibers is the presence of
minute quantities of impurities in the fiber material.
•These impurities include
• OH- (water) ions dissolved in the glass.
• Transition metal ions, such as iron, copper, chromium and
vanadium

Origin :
OH ion impurities in a fiber preform results mainly from the
oxyhydrogen flame used in the hydrolysis reaction of the SiCl4,
GeCl4 and POCl3 starting materials.
Absorption
3. Intrinsic absorption by the basic constituent atoms

Intrinsic absorption is associated with the basic fiber material

(e.g pure SiO2).

Intrinsic absorption results from:

1. Electronic absorption bands in the ultraviolet region
2. Atomic vibration bands in the near infrared region
 Absorption

Extrinsic Intrinsic
Atomic Defects
(Impurity atoms) Absorption

Absorption in Absorption in
Ultraviolet region Infrared region
 Example: Scattering of light by Atmospheric

The colours of the sky are caused by the scattering of light

Scattering Losses

Rayleigh scattering in an optical fiber

light bounces around inside the water droplets in the air and they spread the
white light into a rainbow. In the sky, the tiny particles that float around in
the air ‘scatter’ the light that hits them. This means that, instead of bouncing
around the inside of the water droplets, the light bounces around the outside
of the air particles.
Just like in the water, different colours of light are ‘scattered’ different
amounts, so blue is scattered a lot and red not very much. So, when the
sun is high in the sky, the light going past above your head is scattered
and the blue light comes down towards you and the red light ploughs
out on into space.
When it gets to sunset, the light goes through the atmosphere to get to
you and the blue light is scattered away from you and the red light gets
through to your eyes, so sunsets look red.
tiny, tiny particles scattering light is only true for very, very tiny particles.
Bigger particles don’t do it. They only scatter light according to their colour
(because they absorb all the others colours and reflect the colour you see).
That’s why clouds are usually white, because they are made of steam. And
sand, which is a yellow/orange colour, only scatters that colour light.
as we go higher, the sky begins to look darker as we see less
scattered light, and more of the darkness of space beyond.
 INTRODUCTION
• Scattering losses in glass arise from microscopic
variation in material density, from structural
decomposition and structural inhomogeinity.
Linear Scattering SCATTERING Non-Linear Scattering
Losses LOSSES Losses

Rayleigh Stimulated Stimulated

Mie Scattering
Scattering Raman Brillouin
Scattering Scattering
(SRS) (SBS)
Scattering Losses

Scattering losses in glass arise from microscopic variation in the

material density from:
1. Compositional fluctuations
2. Inhomogeneties or defects occurring during fiber manufacture

These two effects give rise to refractive index variation, occurring

within the glass over distances that are small compared with the
wavelength.
These index variation case Rayleigh-type scattering of the light
and inversely proportional to wavelength(λ-4 dependance).
It decreases dramatically with increasing wavelength
 Why the sky is
blue..................?

FIGURE 2 – RAY LEIGH SCATTERING

PHENOMENA
 Linear Scattering Losses
• Scattering - Linear Scattering Losses
Scattering is a process whereby all or some of the optical power
in a mode is transferred into another mode. Frequently causes
attenuation, since the transfer is often to a mode that does not
propagate well. (also called a leaky or radiation mode).

o Two major type:

1. Rayleigh
2. Mie scattering
 Rayleigh Scattering
– Rayleigh Scattering - most common form of
scattering
• caused by microscopic non-uniformities making light rays partially scatter
• nearly 90% of total attenuation is attributed to Raleigh Scattering
• becomes important when wavelengths are short - comparable to size of
the structures in the glass: long wavelengths are less affected than short
wavelengths
• Rayleigh scattering causes the sky to be blue, since only the short (blue)
wavelengths are significantly scattered by the air molecules.)
 Expression for Rayleigh
Scattering Coefficient
• Rayleigh scattering is an important component of the
scattering of optical signals in optical fibers.

• Microscopic variations of density and refractive

index: These give rise to energy losses due to the
scattered light, with the following coefficient -
When light passes through a medium whose density is non-uniform, some of the light
is scattered. The kind of scattering due to random density fluctuations is
called Rayleigh scattering, and it has the property of affecting (scattering) shorter
wavelengths more effectively than longer wavelengths. The clear sky appears blue in
color because the blue (shorter wavelength) component of sunlight is scattered more.
The longer wavelengths remain in the path of the sunlight, available to delight us at
sunrise or sunset.
• Rayleigh scattering is the scattering of light by small molecules;
those smaller than the wavelengths of visible light. Rayleigh
scattering affects short wavelengths of light more than long ones
and so blue light is scattered more strongly . Mie scattering is the
scattering of light by larger particles called aerosols, and is largely
independent of wavelength. Rayleigh scattering is what gives the sky
its blue colour and sunsets their red colour. Skies are normally blue
because you’re seeing predominantly the blue light scattered by
Rayleigh scattering. A sunset looks red because you’re looking
towards the sun, and the sunlight at the horizon has to travel
further through the atmosphere to reach you, so the blue light has
already been scattered out by the time the remaining light reaches
you.
 Mie Scattering

 Mie Scattering
▪ caused in inhomogeneities which are comparable in size to the
guided wavelength.
▪ These result from the non-perfect cylindrical structure of the
waveguide and may be caused by fiber imperfections such as
irregularities in the core-cladding interface, core-cladding refractive
index differences along the fiber length, diameter fluctuations,
strains and bubbles.
Nonlinear Scattering Losses
 Non linear scattering causes the power from one
mode to be transferred in either the forward or
backward direction to the same or other modes, at
the different frequency.

 The most important types are;

1. Stimulated Brillouin
2. Raman scattering

 Both are usually only observed at high optical power

density in long single mode fibers
 Stimulated Brillouin Scattering (SBS)

– Stimulated Brillouin Scattering (SBS)

• another way to increase SBS threshold is to phase dither the output of the external modulator
- see Graphs below. A high frequency (usually 2 x highest frequency) is imposed at the external
modulator.
• Erbium-Doped Fiber Amplifiers (EDFAs) reduces the SBS threshold (in Watts) by the number of
amplifiers.
 Stimulated Raman Scattering (SRS)

– Stimulated Raman Scattering (SRS)

• much less of a problem than SBS
• threshold is close to 1 Watt, nearly a thousand times higher than SBS
• with an EDFA having an output power of 200mW, SRS threshold will be reached after 5
amplifiers. Recall that threshold drops with each amplifier.
• Shorter wavelengths are robbed of power and fed to longer wavelengths. (See Graphs
below)
Radiative losses / Bending Losses

Radiative losses occur whenever an optical fiber undergoes a

bend of finite radius of curvature.
Fiber can be subject to two types of bends:
1. Macroscopic bends
2. Microscopic bends

Macrobending: Light lost from the optical core due to macroscopic

effects such as tight bends being induced in the fiber itself.
•Bent Radii > fiber diameter

Microbending. Light lost from the optical core due to microscopic

effects resulting from deformation and damage to the core
cladding interface.
• small repetitive fluctuations in the radius of curvature.
 Attenuation Due to Microbending and Macrobending

• microbending - result of microscopic imperfections in the geometry of the fiber

• macrobending - fiber bending with diameters on the order of centimeters
(usually unnoticeable if the radius of the bend is larger than 10 cm)
 Bending Loss (Macrobending & Microbending)

• Macrobending Loss: The

curvature of the bend is much
larger than fiber diameter.
Lightwave suffers sever loss due
to radiation of the evanescent
field in the cladding region. As
the radius of the curvature
decreases, the loss increases
exponentially until it reaches at a
certain critical radius. For any
radius a bit smaller than this
point, the losses suddenly
becomes extremely large. Higher
order modes radiate away faster
than lower order modes.
Optical Fiber communications, 3rd ed.,G.Keiser,McGrawHill, 2000
 Microbending Loss

• Microbending Loss:
microscopic bends of the fiber
axis that can arise when the
fibers are incorporated into
cables. The power is dissipated
through the microbended fiber,
because of the repetitive
coupling of energy between
guided modes & the leaky or
radiation modes in the fiber.

Optical Fiber communications, 3rd ed.,G.Keiser,McGrawHill, 2000

Radiative losses / Bending Losses
Microbending losses:
It is the radiation loss in optical waveguide results from mode
coupling by random microbends.

Fiber curvature causes repetitive coupling of energy between the

guided modes and the leaky or nonguided modes in the fiber.

Microbending is a much more critical feature and can be a major

cause of cabling attenuation.

These stresses are very difficult to define, however, they can be

caused by:
• nonuniformities in the manufacturing of the fiber
• nonuniform lateral pressures during cabling
• Low temperatures
• High pressures
 Radiative losses/
Bending losses

Macroscopic bends Microscopic bends

 Attenuation

Scattering Radiative
Absorption Losses losses/ Bending
losses

Extrinsic
Intrinsic Atomic
(Impurity
Absorption Defects
atoms)

Absorption Absorption
in in Microscopic Macroscopic
Linear Non Linear
Infrared Ultraviolet bends bends
region region

Rayleigh Mie SRS SBS

 Signal Distortion in Fibers
Optical signal weakens from attenuation mechanisms and
broadens due to distortion effects.

Eventually these two factors will cause

neighbouring pulses to overlap.
After a certain amount of overlap occurs, the
receiver can no longer distinguish the
individual adjacent pulses and error arise
when interpreting the received signal.
 Dispersion

• Different modes take a different amount of time

to arrive at the receiver. Result is a spread-out signal
• Graded Index Fiber
– prior discussion concerned with Step Index Fiber
– GRIN fiber is designed so that all modes travel at nearly the same speed
– GRIN fiber core has a parabolic index of refraction
 Dispersion
• Dispersion - spreading of light pulses in a fiber
– limits bandwidth
– most important types
• Intramodal or chromatic dispersion
– material dispersion
– waveguide dispersion
– profile dispersion
• Intermodal/multimode dispersion
• polarization mode dispersion (PMD)
 Dispersion in Optical Fibers
• Dispersion: Any phenomenon in which the velocity of propagation of any
electromagnetic wave is wavelength dependent.

• In communication, dispersion is used to describe any process by which any

electromagnetic signal propagating in a physical medium is degraded
because the various wave characteristics (i.e., frequencies) of the signal
have different propagation velocities within the physical medium.

• There are 3 dispersion types in the optical fibers, in general:

1- Material Dispersion
2- Waveguide Dispersion
3- Polarization-Mode Dispersion(PMD)

Material & waveguide dispersions are main causes of Intramodal

Dispersion.
Pulse broadening and attenuation
Dispersion
Dispersion

Dispersion of optical energy within an optical fiber

falls into following categories:

 Intermodal Dispersion/Delay or Modal Delay

 Intramodal Dispersion /Chromatic Dispersion

Material Dispersion
Waveguide Dispersion

 Polarization –Mode Dispersion

Dispersion
Intermodal delay/ modal delay

Intermodal distortion or modal delay appears only in multimode

fibers.
This signal distortion mechanism is a result of each mode having a
different value of the group velocity at a single frequency.

The amount of spreading that occurs in a fiber is a function of the

number of modes propagated by the fiber and length of the fiber

Group Velocity: It is the speed at which energy in a particular mode

travels along the fiber.
Intermodal delay/ modal delay

The maximum pulse broadening arising from the modal delay is

the difference between the travel time Tmax of the longest ray and
the travel time Tmin of the shortest ray .

This broadening is simply obtained from ray tracing for a fiber of

length L:

∆T= Tmax – Tmin = n1/c ( L/sinøc –L) = (Ln12/cn2)∆

∆T= Tmax – Tmin = (Ln12/cn2)∆

Step Index Multi-mode

Graded Index Multi-mode

 Intramodal or Chromatic Dispersion

Chromatic Dispersion
 caused by different wavelengths
traveling at different speeds
 is the result of material dispersion,
waveguide dispersion or profile
dispersion
 for the fiber characteristics shown
at right, chromatic dispersion goes
to zero at 1550 nm (Dispersion-
Shifted Fiber)
 For a light-source with a narrow
spectral emission, the bandwidth
of the fiber will be very large.
(FWHM = Full Width Half
Maximum)
58
 Material Dispersion, DM
• Material Dispersion - caused by the fact that
different wavelengths travel at different
speeds through a fiber, even in the same
mode.
• Amount of Material Dispersion Determined
by:
– range of light wavelengths injected into the
fiber (spectral width of source)
• LEDs (35 - 170 nm)
• Lasers (< 5 nm)
– center operating wavelength of the source
• around 850 nm: longer wavelengths (red)
travel faster than shorter wavelengths (blue)
• around 1550 nm: the situation is reversed -
zero dispersion occurs where the wavelengths
travel the same speed, around 1310 nm
• Material dispersion greatly affects single-
mode fibers. In multimode fibers,
multimode dispersion usually dominates.
 Waveguide (DW) and Profile Dispersion
• Waveguide Dispersion, DW
– occurs because optical energy travels in both the core and
cladding at slightly different speeds.
– A greater concern for single-mode fibers than for
multimode fibers
• Profile Dispersion
– the refractive indices of the core and cladding are
described by a refractive index profile
– since the refractive index of a graded index fiber varies, it
causes a variation in the propagation of different
wavelengths
– profile dispersion is more significant in multimode fibers
that in single-mode fibers
 Intermodal or Multimode Dispersion
• Multimode Dispersion (also Modal Dispersion)
– caused by different modes traveling at different speeds
– characteristic of multimode fiber only
– can be minimized by:
• using a smaller core diameter
• using graded-index fiber
• use single-mode fiber - single-mode fiber is only single-mode at
wavelengths greater than the cutoff wavelength
– When multimode dispersion is present, it usually dominates to the
point that other types of dispersion can be ignored.

L( NA ) 2
 
2Cn1
Intermodal dispersion formula, L=fiber length, C= speed of
light, n1=core refractive index
 Polarization Mode Dispersion
• Complex optical effect that occurs in single-mode
fibers
• Most single-mode fibers support two
perpendicular polarizations of the original
transmitted signal
• Because of imperfections, the two polarizations
do not travel at the same speed.
• The difference in arrival times is known as PMD
(ps/km1/2)
 Total chromatic dispersion, D
• The total chromatic dispersion can be obtained by adding DM
and DW i.e. (DM+DW)∆λ.

• Normally DM > DW in the range of wavelengths 800 – 900nm.

• Therefore, waveguide dispersion can be neglected except for

systems operating in the region 1200nm – 1600nm.
 Overall Fiber Dispersion, σT
• The overall dispersion in the fibers comprise both intramodal and
intermodal terms.

• The total rms broadening σT is given by:

σT=(σc2+ σn2)1/2 where σc is the intramodal or chromatic
broadening and σn is the intermodal broadening (i.e. σs for
multimode step index fiber and σg for multimode graded index
fiber)

• However, since waveguide dispersion is generally negligible

compared with material dispersion in multimode fibers, the σc =
σm .