Chapter 3 Signal Degradation in Optical Fibers

What about the loss in optical fiber ?

Why and to what degree do optical signals gets distorted as they
propagate along a fiber ?

Fiber links are limited by in path length by attenuation and pulse distortion.
 Chapter 3 Signal Degradation in Optical Fibers

3.1 Attenuation

Three transmission windows:

1st window: 800 900 nm (low cost)
2nd window: around 1300 nm (low disp.)
3rd window: around 1500 nm (low loss)
Chapter 3 Signal Degradation in Optical Fibers

3.1 Attenuation

Losses occurring in glass fibers can be classified as

absorption, scattering, and geometric effects.
Absorption:
- Intrinsic absorption due to strong electronic and
molecular transition bands, mainly in UV and infrared
- Impurities: OH ion and transition-metal ions

Rayleigh Scattering: It arise from

microscopic variations in the material Fig.3.3

density from compositional

fluctuations, and from structural
inhomogeneities or defects occurring
during fiber manufacture.

Geometric effect: bending losses

 Chapter 3 Signal Degradation in Optical Fibers
3.1.1 Attenuation Unit
dB is a convenient measure of the relative power levels in a communications
system.
P1 P2 P3 P4
x x

Power level in cascaded system

P2
Fractional transmission efficiency between P1 and P2 is:
P1
P
Loss between P1 and P2 in dB is: dB = 10 log 10 2
P1
P4 P3 P2
Fractional transmission efficiency for the cascaded system:
P3 P2 P1
Total loss for the cascaded system:
P P P P P P P
dB = 10 log10 4 = 10 log10 4 3 2 = 10 log10 4 + 10 log10 3 + 10 log10 2
P1 P3 P2 P1 P3 P2 P1
Obviously, total loss (in dB) is just the sum of the loss (in dB) of the individual
cascaded elements. This illustrates the major advantage of the dB scale.
 Chapter 3 Signal Degradation in Optical Fibers

3.1.1 Attenuation Unit

P
Optical power in dBm: P (dBm) = 10 log (unit : dBm)
1mW

Optical power decreases exponentially with distance

z
P( z ) = P (0)e p
p: Attenuation coefficient ( unit: km -1 )
1 P (0)
p = ln z : path length
z P( z )

For simplicity, express attenuation coefficient in units of dB/km :

10 P(0)
Convert to dB from km -1 : (dB / km) = log = 4.343 p (3 1c)
z P( z )
 Chapter 3 Signal Degradation in Optical Fibers

3.1 Attenuation

Example
Consider a 30-km long optical fiber that has an attenuation of
0.8dB/km at 1300 nm. Find the loss of the fiber in dB and fractional
transmission efficiency

Example
A system has -23 dB of loss. Compute its transmission efficiency.

Example 3-2 (p93)

Consider a 30-km long optical fiber that has an attenuation of
0.8dB/km at 1300 nm. Suppose we want to find the optical output
power Pout if 200 W of optical power is launched into the fiber:
 Chapter 3 Signal Degradation in Optical Fibers
Fiber links are limited by in path length by attenuation and pulse distortion.
3.2 Signal distortion in optical waveguides
Optical signal becomes increasingly distorted as it travels along a fiber.

Dispersion Pulse spread Signal distortion

Material dispersion
Intramodal dispersion :
Waveguide dispersion
Intermodal dispersion : Multimode dispersion

Material dispersion: arise from the variation of the refractive index of the
core material as a function of wavelength
- Spectral width of optical source
- n() group velocity
Waveguide dispersion: since 20% of the light propagating in the cladding
travels faster than the light confined to the core. The arises the dependence of
the group velocity on the ratio between core radius and the wavelength (a / ),
i.e., fiber designs.
 Chapter 3 Signal Degradation in Optical Fibers
3.2.1 Information Capacity Determination

Information capacity is specified by the Bandwidth distance product in

MHz.km
 3.2.2 Group Delay

Material dispersion : n () group velocity

Optical source: has spectral width

Phase velocity: Vp =

d
Group velocity: Vg =
d
3.2.2 Group Delay

As signal propagates along the fiber , each spectral component can be

assumed to travel independently and to undergo a Group delay or time delay

For a distance L traveled by the pulse, the group delay is:

L L 2 d
g = = = L (3 13)
Vg d / d 2 c d

The amount of pulse spreading arises from Group Delay Variation

d g L d 2 d
2
In terms of : = = 2 + (3 15a )
d 2 c d d 2

1 d g d 1 2 c d 2
Dispersion: D= = = 2 2 (3 17) 2 =
L d d Vg d 2

2 : GVD (group velocity dispersion)

Dispersion: is a result of material dispersion and waveguide dispersion
Unit of Dispersion : ps/(nm.km)
3.2.3 Material Dispersion

2 n( )
= (3 18)

L dn
mat = n (3 19)
c d

d mat L d 2n
mat = 2 = L Dmat ( ) (3 20)
d c d
: Spectral width of a source
mat : Pulse spread

Problem 3-4 (p109)

Consider a typical GaAlAs LED having a spectral width of 40 nm at an
800-nm peak output so that /= 5 percent. As can be seen from Fig.
3-13 the material dispersion at 800 nm is about 110ps/nm.km, find the
pulse spread per km.
3.2.3 Material Dispersion

Material Dispersion
 Chapter 3 Signal Degradation in Optical Fibers
3.2.4 Waveguide dispersion:
Assumption: consider n is independent of
Steps to find pulse spread: find find group delay find variation of
group delay with wavelength d /d pulse spread d

b: normalized propagation constant is defined as
d

ua / k n2
2 2 2 2
b = 1 = (3 21)
V n12 n22
For small value of , we have:
/ k n2 n2 k (b + 1) (3 23)
b (3 22) Question 3-14
n1 n2
L d ( kb ) L d (Vb )
wg = n2 + n2 (3 24) V = NA 2a / wg = n2 + n2 (3 25)
c dk c dV
In Eq. 3-25, 1st term is constant (no dispersion) and 2nd term represents
the group delay arising from waveguide dispersion.
 Chapter 3 Signal Degradation in Optical Fibers
3.2.4 Waveguide dispersion:

d (Vb ) 2 J v2 (ua )
= b 1
dV J v +1 (ua ) J v 1 (ua )
3.2.5 Signal Distortion in Single-Mode Fibers

L d (Vb )
Group delay: wg = n2 + n2 (3 25)
c dV
Find the pulse spread wg for a spectral width of a laser source:
d wg V d wg n2 L d 2 (Vb)
wg = = V = Dwg ( ) L (3 26)
d dV c dV 2

Note: there is an error in our book in Eq. (3-26)

n2 d 2 (Vb)
Dwg ( ) = V
c dV 2

Problem 3-5(p112)
Let n2=1.48 and = 0.2 %. At V=2.4, from Fig. 3-15 the expression in
square bracket is 0.26. At wavelength = 1320 nm, find the Dwg.
3.2.5 Signal Distortion in Single-Mode Fibers

Fig 3-16 Material dispersion & waveguide dispersion as function of

wavelength for stand single-mode fused-silica-core fiber

For standard single-mode fused silica-core fiber

- At wavelength around 1.32 m, zero dispersion
3.2.5 Signal Distortion in Single-Mode Fibers

Dispersion shifted fiber: a specially designed fiber, shift zero

dispersion to 1.5 m from 1.32 m.
3.2.5 Signal Distortion in Single-Mode Fibers
3.2.5 Signal Distortion in Single-Mode Fibers
 Chapter 3 Signal Degradation in Optical Fibers
3.2.6 Polarization-Mode Dispersion
The effect of fiber birefringence on the polarization states of an optical
signal are another source of pulse broadening.

A varying birefringence along its length will cause each polarization mode to
travel at a slightly different velocity and the resulting difference in
propagation time between the two orthogonal polarization modes will result
in pulse spreading. This is the polarization mode dispersion (PMD)

L L
pol =
v gx v gy
 Chapter 3 Signal Degradation in Optical Fibers

3.2.7 Intermodal Distortion

Multi-mode fiber has intermodal distortion.
The intermodal distortion is a result of different values of the group delay
for each individual mode at a single frequency.
This can be obtained from the time difference between the highest an
lowest order modes from geometrical optics:

n1L
Tmod = Tmax Tmin =
c
 Chapter 3 Signal Degradation in Optical Fibers

Simplified modal: a sequence of thin lens

The refractive index is lower at the outer edge of the core than in the center
of the core
Higher-order modes travel faster than lower-order modes
Low intermodal delay distortion
 Chapter 3 Signal Degradation in Optical Fibers

Group velocity dispersion includes the material & waveguide

dispersions.

DGVD ( ) Dmat + Dwg

GVD = DGVD ( ) L

Total dispersion is the sum of group velocity , polarization dispersion

and other dispersion types and the total rms pulse spreading can be
approximately written as:

Dtotal DGVD + D pol + ...

total = Dtotal L