Signal Attenuation & Distortion

in
Optical Fibers
 Signal Attenuation & Distortion in
Optical Fibers
• Signal attenuation (fiber loss) largely determines
the maximum repeater less separation between
optical transmitter & receiver.
• Signal distortion cause that optical pulses to
broaden as they travel along a fiber, resulting in the
limitation of information-carrying capacity of a fiber.
 Attenuation

• Signal attenuation within optical fibers is usually

expressed in the logarithmic unit of the decibel.

• The decibel, which is used for comparing two power

levels, may be defined for a particular optical

wavelength as the ratio of the output optical power Pout

from the fiber to the input optical power P in.

 Attenuation (fiber loss)

10  Pout 
 (dB / km )  Log10  
L P
 in 

where  is the attenuation coefficient

Pin is the input power and Pout is the output power.

 is usually expressed in dB/km

Note that positive  means loss

 Attenuation (fiber loss)
• Power loss along a fiber:

Z=0 Z= l
  p l / 10
P(0) mW P (l ) P (0) *10 mw

  p z / 10
P ( z ) P (0) *10
• The parameter  p is called fiber attenuation coefficient in a units of for
example [1/km] or [nepers/km]. A more common unit is [dB/km] that is
defined by:
10  P (0 ) 
 [dB/km]  log 
l  P (l ) 
The signal on the optical fiber attenuates due to following
mechanisms :

1. Material absorption in the fiber.

Intrinsic absorptionExtrinsic absorption Absorption due to

material/atomic defects
Infrared Region UV Region impurities OH molecules

2. Scattering due to micro irregularities inside the fiber.

Rayleigh and Mie

3. Bending or radiation losses on the fiber.

Macrobending and microbending

The first two losses are intrinsically present in any fiber and the
last loss depend on the environment in which the fiber is laid.
 Intrinsic absorption
• Intrinsic absorption is associated with basic fiber
material (e.g. pure SiO2)

• Intrinsic absorption set fundamental lower limit on

absorption for any particular material

Results from

1. Electronic absorption band in UV region

2. Atomic vibration bands in near IR region

 Intrinsic absorption
(1) a fundamental UV absorption

This is due to the electron transitions within the glass molecules.

Absorption occurs when a photon interacts with electron in valence band

and excites it to a higher energy level

(2) A fundamental infrared and far-infrared absorption

Due to molecular vibrations (such as Si-O).

An interaction between the vibrating bond and the electromagnetic field

of the optical signal results in transfer of energy from the field to the bond,

giving rise to absorption.

 Absorption due to material defects
• Atomic defects are imperfections in atomic structure of fiber

material.

• Examples

– Missing molecules

– High density clusters of atom groups

– Oxygen defects in the glass structure

• Atomic defects are small compared to instincts and extrinsic

absorption unless fiber is exposed to ionizing radiation as nuclear

reactor environment
 Extrinsic Absorption
• Impurity absorption results from presence of minute quantities of impurities in the
fiber material.
• These impurities include OH (water) ions that are dissolved in the glass and transition
metal ions such iron, chromium, cobalt, copper.
• Transition metal impurities present in the starting material used for direct melt fiber
range from 1 and 10 parts per billion (ppb) causes loss from 1 to 10 dB/km.
• Water impurity concentrations of less than few parts per billion causes the
attenuation to be less that 20 dB/km
• Early optical fibers had high levels of OH ions which resulted in large absorption peaks
occurring at 1400, 950 and 725 nm.
• Major extrinsic loss mechanism is caused by absorption due to water (as the hydroxyl
or OH- ions) introduced in the glass fiber.
• Peaks and valleys in the attenuation curve resulted in “transmission
windows” to optical fibers.
 Scattering Loss
• It occurs due to microscopic variations in the material
density, compositional fluctuations, structural in
homogeneities and manufacturing defects.
• Scattering results in attenuation (in the form of
radiation) as the scattered light may not continue to
satisfy the total internal reflection in the fiber core.
 Rayleigh Scattering losses
 Mie Scattering Losses
 Waveguide Scattering Losses
a) Rayleigh Scattering Losses:
• These losses are due to microscopic variation in the
material of the fiber.
• Unequal distribution of molecular densities or
atomic densities leads to Rayleigh Scattering losses

• Glass is made up of several materials like SiO2,

P2O5,etc. compositions, fluctuations can occur

because of these several oxides which rise to
Rayleigh scattering losses
 Rayleigh Scattering
•Dominant scattering mechanism in silica fibers.
•Inhomogeneities manifested as refractive index variations, present in
the glass after manufacture.
•Difficult to eliminate with present manufacturing methods.
•Rayleigh loss falls off as a function of the fourth power of wavelength.
Ar
Rayleigh loss  r  4 dB per km

•λ in this empirical formula is expressed in microns (µm)
•The Rayleigh scattering coefficient Ar is a constant for a given
material.
•For 1550 nm the loss is approximately 0.18 dB per km.
 Scattering Loss
b) Mie Scattering Losses:
• These losses results from the compositional fluctuations &
structural inhomogeneties & defects created during fiber
fabrications, causes the light to scatter outside the fiber.
c) Waveguide Scattering Losses:
• It is a result of variation in the core diameter,
imperfections of the core cladding interface, change in RI
of either core or cladding.
 Scattering Loss
83 2
 4 n  1 k BT f T
2
 scat
3
or

8 3 8 2
 scat  4 n p k BT f T
3

Where p is the photo-elastic coefficient

n is the refractive index
kB is Boltzmann’s constant
βT is the isothermal compressibility of the material
The fictive temperature Tf is the temperature at which the density fluctuations
are frozen into the glass as it solidifies
 Example 1
• Given: Input Power = 1mW
Length = 1.3km
Attenuation Coefficient, ap = 0.6dB/km
Find: Output Power

• Solution: P(z) = P(0) 10-pz/10

a = 0.6B/km P(z) or
P(0) or
Pin = 1mW Pout = ?
1.3km

Pout= 1mW10-0.6·1.3/10
= 836W
 Example 2
• 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
 Example 3
• 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
 Bending Losses
• Radiative losses occur when fiber undergoes a bend
of finite radius of curvature
• Two types of bends
– Macroscopic
– Microscopic
• Macro-bending losses
– As radius of curvature decreases, loss increases exponentially until at
certain critical radius the loss becomes observable
 Macro-bending losses
Gloge has derived the following expression for the effective number of modes N eff that are guided
by a curved multimode fiber of radius a:

   2  2a  3  2/3  
N eff  N  1     
 2  R  2n2 kR   
Where α defines the graded-index profile,
∆ is the core-cladding index difference,
N2 is the cladding refractive index and
K=2π/λ is the wave propagation constant


n1ka  
2
N 
2
• Another radiation loss is caused by random
micro-bends of optical fiber.
• Micro-bends are repetitive small scale
fluctuations in radius of curvature of fiber axis.
They are caused by
– Non uniformities in manufacturing

– Non uniform lateral pressure during cabling (this is

referred to as cabling or packaging losses)
 Core and Cladding Losses
• Since core and cladding have different RI’s and they differ in the
composition, core and cladding attribute to the losses in the fiber
• Core and cladding have different attenuation coefficients denoted
by α1 and α2 respectively

• The loss for a mode of order (v, m) for a step index waveguide

is
Pcore Pclad
 vm 1 2
P P
 Core and Cladding Losses
Pclad P
• Since P
1  core
P
Pcore P
• The equation  vm 1
P
  2 clad
P can be rewritten
as Pclad
 vm 1  ( 2  1 )
P

• In case of (ar )graded index

  (   )
n 2fiber,
(0)  n 2 (r )
1 2 1
n 2 (0)  n22
 Core and Cladding Losses

• The loss encountered


by a given mode is
 (0) p(r) rdr
 gi  0 
 p(r) rdr
0

• Where p(r) is the power density of that mode at r

• Generally it is observed that loss increases with

the increase in mode number
Dispersion: Any phenomenon in which the velocity of propagation of any
electromagnetic wave is wavelength dependent.
An optical becomes increasingly distorted as it propagates along the fiber.
This distortion is a consequence of intramodal dispersion and intermodal delay
effects
• Intramodal dispersion:

⁻ Material dispersion or spectral dispersion or chromatic dispersion (the

refractive indices of the core and the cladding change with wavelength)
- Waveguide dispersion (where 80 % of the optical power is confined to core
and 20% of light propagates in the cladding which is faster)
• Intermodal dispersion: describes the pulse broadening due to the propagation
delay differences between the propagation modes in multimode fibers.
 Information Capacity Determination

• Dispersion introduced distortion causes light

pulse to broaden as it passes through the fiber
• Pulse broadening causes light pulses to overlap
with neighboring pulses which make the pulses
no longer individually distinguishable
• This limits the information capacity of the fiber
An increasing number of errors may be encountered on the
digital optical channel as the ISI becomes more pronounced.
 Information Capacity Determination

• A measure of information capacity of an optical

waveguide is specified by the Bandwidth-
distance product in MHz-Km
• In step Index fiber, it is 20MHz-Km

• In Graded Index fiber, it is as high as 2.5GHz-Km

Figure: Comparison of attenuation as a function of frequency or data rate of
various coaxial cables and several types of high bandwidth optical fibers
 Group Velocity & Group Delay
• Wave Velocities:
• 1- Plane wave velocity: For a plane wave propagating along z-axis in an
unbounded homogeneous region of refractive index n, 1which is represented by
exp( jωt  jk 1 z )velocity of constant phase plane is:
, the
 c
v 
k1 n1
• 2- Modal wave phase velocity: For a modal wave propagating along z-axis
represented by exp( jωt  jz,)the velocity of constant phase plane is:
ω
vp 

β is the propagation constant
For transmission system operation the most important & useful type of velocity is the
group velocity, .V g

This is the actual velocity which the signal information & energy is traveling down the
fiber. It is always less than the speed of light in the medium.

The observable delay experiences by the optical signal waveform & energy, when
traveling a length of l along the fiber is commonly referred to as group delay.
 Group Velocity & Group Delay
• The group velocity is given by:
1
 d 
Vg c  
 dk 

• The group delay is given by:

L L d
g  
Vg c dk

2
 k

• L is the distance travelled by the pulse, is the propagation constant and
• It is important to note that all above quantities depend both on frequency &
the propagation mode.
 Group Delay
• Group delay per unit length can be defined as:
g d 1 d  2 d
  
L dω c dk 2c d
• If the spectral width of the optical source is not too wide, then the delay
d g
difference per unit wavelength along the propagation path is approximately
d

• For spectral components which are  apart, symmetrical around center

wavelength, the total delay difference  over a distance L is:

d g L  d 2 d  
2
     2  
2 
d 2c  d d 
d d  L   d 2 
      L 
d d V   d 2
 g   
 Group Delay
• The more common parameter is called Dispersion, and can be defined as the
delay difference per unit length per unit wavelength as follows:
1 d g d  1 
  2c  2
D 
L d d  V g 
  2

• In the case of optical pulse, if the spectral width of the optical source is

characterized by its rms value of the Gaussian pulse , the pulse spreading
g
over the length of L, can be well approximated by:
d g
g     DL 
d

•  2Dhas2
d 2 a typical unit of [ps/(nm.km)].
d
• is called GVD parameter, and shows how much a light pulse broadens
as it travels along an optical fiber
 Dispersion

• Dispersive medium: velocity of propagation depends on frequency

• Dispersion causes temporal pulse spreading
– Pulse overlap results in indistinguishable data

– Inter symbol interference (ISI)

• Dispersion is related to the velocity of the pulse

 Intermodal Dispersion
• It is a result of different values of group delay for each individual mode at
a single frequency
• Variations in group velocities of different modes results in group delay
spread giving rise to intermodal Dispersion
• Intermodal Dispersion can be eliminated in single mode fibers, but not in
multimode fibers

• Tmax is travel time taken by the longest ray path and Tmin is travel time taken
by the shortest ray path
• Maximum pulse broadening from Intermodal Dispersion is given by
n L
 Tmod Tmax  Tmin  1
c
 Intermodal Dispersion

• Higher order modes have a longer path length

– Longer path length has a longer propagation time

– Temporal pulse separation L

 
vg
vg
– is used as the propagation speed for the rays to take into account the material
dispersion
 Intermodal Dispersion

• Path length PL depends on the propagation angle

L
PL 
sin 1
PL L
• The travel time for a longitudinal distance of L is   
v g v g sin 1

• The dispersion is time delay per unit length or D is given as

 1 1 
D  
 v sin  v sin  
 g 2 g 1 
 Intramodal Dispersion
• There are two main contributions:

• – Material dispersion. The refractive index of any medium is a

function of wavelength, and hence different wavelengths having
different refractive indices will propagate with different velocities,
resulting in intramodal dispersion.
• – Waveguide dispersion. Even if the refractive index is constant, and
material dispersion eliminated, the propagation constant β would
vary with wavelength for any waveguide structure, resulting in
intramodal dispersion.
 Intramodal Dispersion
• Single mode optical fibers have zero intermodal dispersion (only one mode)
• Propagation velocity of the signal depends on the wavelength
• Expand the propagation delay as a Taylor
series1 2 g
 g  g o  o    g
 o   
2

 2 2

 g   1     
• Dintraas
Dispersion is defined      
   vg     

 g  g o  o   Dintra 

1
o   2 Dintra
2 
• Propagation delay becomes

• .
 Intramodal Dispersion

• There are two components to intramodal dispersion

Dintra Dmaterial  Dwaveguide

• Material dispersion is related to the dependence of

index of refraction on wavelength
• Waveguide dispersion is related to dimensions of the
waveguide
 Material Dispersion
• The refractive index of the material varies as a function of wavelength,n( )
2 n( )
• The Propagation constant  is given by 


• Material-induced dispersion for a plane wave propagation in homogeneous

medium of refractive index n is Dmat ( )
• mat is the group delay resulting from material dispersion
d 2 d 2 d  2 
mat L  L  L n (  )
dω 2c d  2c d    

L  dn 
  n   
c  d 
• The pulse spread due to material dispersion is therefore:
d mat L  d 2 n
 mat     2  L Dmat ( )
d c d
Dmat ( ) is material dispersion and  is found by differentiating group delay w.r.t wavelength
 Waveguide Dispersion
• Waveguide dispersion is due to the dependency of the group velocity of the
fundamental mode as well as other modes on the V number
• In order to calculate waveguide dispersion, it is consider that RI n is not
dependent on wavelength. Defining the normalized propagation constant b
as: 2 / k 2  n 2 2  / k  n 2 2
b  where k is
n12  n 2 2 n1  n 2 

• solving for propagation constant:  n2 k (1  b)

• Using V number:
2 2
V ka(n1  n2 )1/ 2 kan2 2
 Waveguide Dispersion
• Delay time due to waveguide dispersion can then be expressed as:
L d L  d (k b) 
 wg    n2  n2 
c dk c  dk 
L d (Vb) 
 wg   n2  n2 
c dV 
Where V is the normalized frequency,
2 2
V ka(n1  n2 )1/ 2 kan2 2
For single mode fibers, waveguide dispersion is in the same order of material
dispersion. The pulse spread can be well approximated as:
d wg n2 L  d 2 (Vb)
 wg    L  Dwg ( )  V
d c dV 2
 Polarization Mode dispersion
Intensity
t
Output light pulse
z 
n1 y // y Core Ex

 = Pulse spread
E
Ex y
n1 x // x Ey

t
E
Input light pulse

Suppose that the core refractive index has different values along two orthogonal
directions corresponding to electric field oscillation direction (polarizations). We can
take x and y axes along these directions. An input light will travel along the fiber with Ex
and Ey polarizations having different group velocities and hence arrive at the output at
different times
 Polarization Mode dispersion
• Birefringence is formally defined as the double refraction of light in a
transparent, molecularly ordered material
• The effects of fiber-birefringence on the polarization states of an optical are
another source of pulse broadening.
• Polarization Mode Dispersion (PMD) is due to slightly different velocity
for each polarization mode because of the lack of perfect symmetricity
v and v
of
gx gy

the fiber. If the group velocities

 of two orthogonal polarization modes are
pol
, then the differential time delay
L L between these two polarization
 pol  
over a distance L is v gx v gy

•  pol group
The rms value of the differential DPMDdelayL can be approximated as:
 Mode Coupling
• Mode is the path for light rays through an optical fiber.
• Propagation characteristics of a fiber are very sensitive to deviations of the fiber axis from straightness,
variations in the core diameter, irregularities in the core-cladding interface and refractive index variations.
• In a perfect optical fiber, mode coupling would not occur because each mode have a different propagation
constant.
• However, because of imperfections in fibers, such as micro and macro-bends, etc., propagation constants
of each mode change, and it can happen that two modes have the same propagation constant at a given
point. Each time it occurs, power is exchanged between the two modes, and mode coupling occurs.
• Pulse distortion decreases less rapidly after a certain initial length of the fiber because of Mode Coupling.
• Mode coupling affects the transmission properties of fiber which is a serious cause for concern when
used for long distance communication.
• Mode coupling leads to intramodal dispersion like material dispersion, waveguide dispersion and also
intermodal dispersion.
 Mode Coupling
• If ‘h’ is the additional loss incurred because of mode coupling, having units dB/KM
and after a certain coupling length, L C .

• The improvement in pulse spreading caused by Mode coupling over the distance Z<
LC is related to excess loss hZ over this
2 distance by the equation
 
hZ  c  C , Where
 o 
c
is pulse broadening in the presence of strong mode coupling.
0
is the pulse width increase in the absence of mode coupling.

hZ is the excess attenuation resulting from mode coupling.

C is constant and is independent of refractive indices.

• Extensive mode coupling can occur at connectors, splices and other passive
components in Optical fiber link
 Design Optimization of single mode fibers based on refractive index profiles

Fact 1) Minimum distortion at wavelength about 1300 nm for single mode silica fiber.
Fact 2) Minimum attenuation is at 1550 nm for single mode silica fiber.
Aim: obtaining / shifting the zero-dispersion to longer wavelength for minimum
attenuation and dispersion by Modifying waveguide dispersion by changing from a
simple step-index core profile to more complicated profiles.
There are four major categories to do that:
1- 1300 nm optimized single mode step-fibers: matched cladding (mode diameter 9.6
micrometer) and depressed-cladding (mode diameter about 9 micrometer)
2- Dispersion shifted fibers. (zero dispersion point is shifted to longer wavelengths)
3- Dispersion-flattened fibers. (Dispersion is spread over a wider range)
m 2
4- Large-effective area (LEA) fibers (less nonlinearities for fiber optical amplifier
applications, effective cross section areas are typically greater than 100 ).
Large Area Dispersion-shifted Large Area Dispersion-flattened
3D Refractive Index Profiles of Single Mode Fibers
Matched-cladding 1300nm optimized

Depressed-cladding 1300nm optimized

Triangular Dispersion-shifted
Quadruple clad Dispersion-flattened
 Cutoff Wavelength
• Cutoff wavelength for LP11 is an important transmission parameter because it
separates single mode from the multimode regions

• Fundamental mode is HE11or LP01 with V=2.405 and

2a 2 2
c  n1  n2
V

• The recommended values of λc range from 1100 – 1280 nm to avoid modal noise
and dispersion problems.
• Recommendation G.650 of the ITU-T and the EIA-4554-80A standard specify the
methods for determining an effective cutoff wavelength λc

• International Telegraph Union Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T)

• Energy Information Administration (EIA)
Typical dispersions for a 3 different single mode fiber designs
 ITU-T Fiber Recommendations
G.653 and G.655
ITU-T Rec.G.653 for dispersion shifted single mode fibers:
• Wavelength range : 1550 nm
• Attenuation < 0.25 dB/km
• Dispersion 3.5 ps/(nm.km)

ITU-T Rec.G.655 for dispersion shifted single mode fibers:

• Wavelengths range between 1530 nm and 1565 nm
• Attenuation < 0.25 dB/km
• Minimum dispersion > 0.1 ps/(nm.km)
• Maximum dispersion< 6.0 ps/(nm.km)