OPTICAL FIBER COMMUNICATION

UNIT I Lecture 2
Global Undersea Fiber systems
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Fig. 1-5: Major elements of an optical fiber link
Fig. 1-3: Operating ranges of components
Fig. 1-7: History of attenuation
Fig. 3-1: Optical fiber attenuation
 Fiber media
Optical fibers are the actual media that guides the light

There are three types of fiber optic cable commonly used

Step-index Multimode fiber

Single Mode

Plastic optic fiber

How Does fiber optic transmit light
 The advantages of fiber optic over wire
cable
• Thinner
• Higher carrying capacity
• Less signal degradation
• Light signal
• Low power
• Flexible
• Non-flammable
• Lightweight
 Disadvantage of fiber optic over copper
wire cable
• Optical fiber is more expensive per meter than
copper
• Optical fiber can not be join together as easily
as copper cable. It requires training and
expensive splicing and measurement
equipment.
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Numerical Aperture

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 Example:
• A silica optical fiber with a core diameter large enough to be
considered by ray theory analysis has a core refractive index of 1.50
and a cladding refractive index of 1.47.
• Determine: (a) the critical angle at the core–cladding interface; (b)
the NA for the fiber; (c) the acceptance angle in air for the fiber.
• ANS: 78.5°, 0.30, 17.4°
• A typical relative refractive index difference for an optical fiber
designed for long distance transmission is 1%. Estimate the NA and
the solid acceptance angle in air for the fiber when the core index is
1.46. Further, calculate the critical angle at the core–cladding
interface within the fiber. It may be assumed that the concepts of
geometric optics hold for the fiber.
• ANS: 0.21, 81.9°
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 OPTICAL FIBER TYPES
• Optical fibers are characterized by their structure
and by their properties of transmission. Basically,
optical fibers are classified into two types.
• The first type is single mode fibers.
• The second type is multimode fibers

24.01.2006 Lecture 2 18
 Multimode Fibers
• As their name implies, multimode fibers
propagate more than one mode. Multimode
fibers can propagate over 100 modes. The
number of modes propagated depends on the
core size and numerical aperture (NA). As the
core size and
• NA increase, the number of modes increases.
Typical values of fiber core size and NA are 50
to 100 micrometer and 0.20 to 0.29, respectively.

24.01.2006 Lecture 2 19
 Single Mode Fibers
• The core size of single mode fibers is small. The
core size (diameter) is typically around 8 to 10
micrometers.
• A fiber core of this size allows only the fundamental
or lowest order mode to propagate around a 1300
nanometer (nm) wavelength.
• Single mode fibers propagate only one mode,
because the core size approaches the operational
wavelength.
• The value of the normalized frequency parameter (V)
relates core size with mode propagation.

24.01.2006 Lecture 2 20
 Single Mode Fibers
• In single mode fibers, V is less than or equal
to 2.405. When V = 2.405, single mode fibers
propagate the fundamental mode down the
fiber core, while high-order modes are lost in
the cladding.
• For low V values (<1.0), most of the power is
propagated in the cladding material. Power
transmitted by the cladding is easily lost at
fiber bends. The value of V should remain
near the 2.405 level.

24.01.2006 Lecture 2 21
 Types Of Optical Fibre

Light n1 core
ray n2 cladding
Single-mode step-index fibre no air

n1 core
n2 cladding
Multimode step-index fibre no air
Variable
n
Multimode graded-index fibre Index porfile
24.01.2006 Lecture 2 22
 Multimode Step Index Fiber
• Core diameter range from 50-1000mm
• Light propagate in many different ray paths, or
modes, hence the name multimode
• Index of refraction is same all across the core of the
fiber
• Bandwidth range 20-30 MHz

24.01.2006 Lecture 2 23
 Multimode Graded Index Fiber
• The index of refraction across the core is
gradually changed from a maximum at the
center to a minimum near the edges, hence the
name “Graded Index”
• Bandwidth ranges from 100MHz-Km to 1GHz-
Km

24.01.2006 Lecture 2 24
 Skew rays

• The point of emergence of skew rays from the fiber in air will depend upon
the number of reflections they undergo rather than the input conditions to the
fiber.
• When the light input to the fiber is non-uniform, skew rays will therefore tend
to have a smoothing effect on the distribution of the light as it is transmitted,
giving a more uniform output.
• The amount of smoothing is dependent on the number of reflections
encountered by the skew rays.
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 Thus the acceptance conditions for skew rays are:

For meridional rays cos γ is equal to unity and θas becomes equal to θa.
Thus although θa is the maximum conical half angle for the acceptance of
meridional rays, it defines the minimum input angle for skew rays.

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Example
• An optical fiber in air has an NA of 0.4, compare the
acceptance angle for meridional rays with that for skew rays
which change direction by 100° at each reflection.

• Comment on result:
• the acceptance angle for the skew rays is about 15° greater
than the corresponding angle for meridional rays.
• When the light input to the fiber is at an angle to the fiber
axis, it is possible that γ will vary from zero for meridional
rays to 90° for rays which enter the fiber at the core–cladding
interface giving acceptance of skew rays over a conical half
angle of π/2 radians
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 Electromagnetic mode theory for optical
propagation
• Electromagnetic waves

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 Modes in a planar guide
• The planar guide is the simplest form of optical waveguide.
• It consists of a slab of dielectric with refractive index n1 sandwiched
between two regions of lower refractive index n2.
• The interference of plane wave components within this dielectric
waveguide.
• The conceptual transition from ray to wave theory may be aided by
consideration of a plane monochromatic wave propagating in the
direction of the ray path within the guide
• As the refractive index within the guide is n1, the optical wavelength
in this region is reduced to λ/n1, while the vacuum propagation
constant is increased to n1k.
• When θ is the angle between the wave propagation vector or the
equivalent ray and the guide axis, the plane wave can be resolved into
two component plane waves propagating in the z and x directions, as
shown in Figure 33
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The component of the phase propagation constant in the z
direction βz is given by:

• The component of the plane wave in the x direction is

reflected at the interface between the higher and lower refractive
index media.
• When the total phase change after two successive reflections at
the upper and lower interfaces (between the points P and Q) is
equal to 2mπ radians, where m is an integer, then constructive
interference occurs and a standing wave is obtained in the x
direction.
• This situation is illustrated in Figure 2.8(b)

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•To visualize the dominant modes propagating in the z direction we may consider
plane waves corresponding to rays at different specific angles in the planar guide.
•These plane waves give constructive interference to form standing wave patterns
across the guide following a sine or cosine formula.

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Phase and group velocity

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• Within all electromagnetic waves, whether plane or
otherwise, there are points of constant phase. For
plane waves these constant phase points form a
surface which is referred to as a wavefront. As a
monochromatic light wave propagates along a
waveguide in the z direction these points of constant
phase travel at a phase velocity V p given by

• where ω is the angular frequency of the wave.

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• However, it is impossible in practice to produce perfectly
monochromatic lightwaves, and light energy is generally
composed of a sum of plane wave components of different
frequencies.
• Often the situation exists where a group of waves with closely
similar frequencies propagate so that their resultant forms a
packet of waves.
• The formation of such a wave packet resulting from the
combination of two waves of slightly different frequency
propagating together is illustrated in Figure 2.10.
• This wave packet does not travel at the phase velocity of the
individual waves but is observed to move at a group velocity
Vg given by:

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If propagation in an infinite medium of refractive index n1 is considered, then
the propagation constant may be written as

where c is the velocity of light in free space and assume propagation in the z
direction only and hence cos  is equal to unity.
obtain the following relationship for the phase velocity:

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Fiber Types…..Kaiser

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Fiber Types…..

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Single Mode Fibers

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Graded Index Fiber Structure

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GI Fiber …

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GI Fiber NA

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GI Fiber: Modes

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Fiber Material

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Glass Fibers

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Halide Glass Fibers

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Active Glass Fibers

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Plastic-Clad Glass Fibers

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Plastic Fibers

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 Basic Step index Fiber
Structure

Fiber Optics Communication Technology-Mynbaev & Scheiner