OPTICAL COMMUNICATION

 For centuries, ancient people communicated through fire and smoke signal
 In the 1850’s Alexander Graham Bell invented the device for sending voices over beams of sunlight
 Photophone
 Today, you can find optical fibers everywhere from long haul telephone systems to small inter
office networks
 A global fiber optic infrastructure is now reaching out to individual homes in desktops with the
promise of exciting new services, never before possible
 To first understand fiber optics, here’s the characteristics of light
 The Electromagnetic Spectrum
 The visible light we are all familiar with makes up only part of the electromagnetic spectrum an
encompasses energy from radio waves all the way up to X-rays and beyond
 All electromagnetic waves move at a speed of light which is about a 186,000mi/s. The difference
lies in the distance between the crust of individual waves known as wavelength, in visible part of
the spectrum, wavelength of the light determines its color
 Long Wavelength (Red/IR), Short Wave (Blue/UV)
 Optical Wavelengths are measured in Nano-meters (nm) for billions of a meter: Blue lights have
around 400nm, Red light is approximately 700nm, the infrared area starts about 800nm, and
increases to about 100,000nm as it approaches the microwave region. It is the infrared area that
we are interested in for most fiber optics applications.
 When light passes to various materials its velocity changes. Light traveling through a vacuum
moves faster than light traveling through denser materials, such as glass. The abrupt slowing of
the light at the vacuum-glass interface causes it to bend slightly, this effect is known as Refraction.
The degree of bending is dependent on the ratio of the light velocities in vacuum and glass, the
ratio called the refractive index is symbolized by (n). Glass can be doped to create materials with
refractive indices tailored for specific applications.

EXAMPLE: Refractive Index Calculations of two common types of glass used in optical fiber.

 Various wavelengths of light will respond differently to the refractive index of a material. When
white light made up of made up of many wavelengths passes through a prism, the refractive index
 bends short wavelength like blue and violet more than green and red, resulting in the familiar
rainbow display of colors
 When a beam of light strikes over a refractive material, the direction of the refracted light will
depend on the angle of incidence of the light beam, as this angle changes so thus the direction of
the refracted light, at a certain critical angle, the light no longer passes through the interface
between the two media, but is reflected as if the interface was a mirror. The critical angle will be
different for various materials and is depended on refractive index. The critical angle is
responsible for the interesting optical phenomenon, that makes fiber optics possible.
 In 1854 Jhon Tyndell discovered total internal reflection. His experiment consisted of a container
of water with a hole near the bottom, and the source of light, light entering the water stream at
the critical angle between the air-water-interface is totally, internally reflected, allowing the
water to act as an optical wave guide.
 Modern fiber optics exploit this natural process, and optical fiber is made of three parts: (1) Buffer
coating – made from plastic materials, provides protection between bending an mechanical
stress, (2) Cladding – under the buffer coating, usually made of pure silica glass, (3) Core –
innermost part is also made of silica and is doped with certain elements to provide a refractive
index usually higher than the cladding. The difference in refractive indices between cladding and
core, forces the light to be totally internal reflected, along the fiber wave guide. Light launch into
the fiber within a small angle of its axis will be transmitted to the opposite end
 The sine of this angle is called the “Numerical Aperture” – which defines a cone of acceptance at
the fiber’s end. Light that enters the fiber, from outside the cone of acceptance will not be
transmitted but instead will be refracted out to the cladding and be lost.
 The structure and chemical make-up of the core is critical to fiber operations. Optical fibers are
divided into 2 broad categories: (1) Multimode Fiber, (2) Singlemode Fiber (The difference
between them is the diameter of the core.
 Singlemode Fiber has a small core diameter compared to over-all fiber diameter. The small core
sizes forces light to travel in a single path way of mode down the axis down the fiber
 Multimode Fiber has a much larger core diameter, allowing the light to take a number of path
ways from one end of the fiber to the other. The fundamental mode travels down the fiber axis,
while higher order modes can take a number of ultimate path ways.
TYPE OF PULSE SPREADING
 When a short pulse of light is launched into a multimode fiber, the axial mode arrives at the other
end first, followed by the higher order modes. This has the effect of stretching the optical pulse
known as modal dispersion. Model dispersion – limits the usefulness of the fiber at high
transmission rates when pulses begins to overlap and garbled the information carried. The effect
increases with fiber distance. For this reason, Singlemode fiber is the preferred choice in long
distance, high bit rate transmission, as it is not affected by modal dispersion.
 Chromatic Dispersion – this occurs because different wavelengths have different propagation
times, through a fiber. Pulse spreading uni-chromatic dispersion of infrared wavelengths is very
small so it only interferes with transmissions of extremely high bit rates. Rates much too fast for
a multimode fiber. In Singlemode fiber however, chromatic dispersion can be a major problem.
Conventional single mode fiber has been optimized for a minimum dispersion of 13000nm.
Dispersion shifted fiber, and nonzero dispersion fiber are optimized for use at 1515nm.
 To further reduce the effect of dispersion over long distances, requires the use of laser light
sources. Lasers produce a light of a single wavelength, for a very small range of wavelengths
compared to LED, refered to as Linewidth. Range of wavelengths produce by a light source is a
measure of its spectral purity and suitability for single mode fiber systems. Singlemode fibers will
propagate as single mode only when the wavelength of the light source is longer than a certain
value.
 As wavelength gets shorter the core has more room for higher order modes to propagate. The
Cut of Wavelength is the minimum wavelength at which the fiber will support only one mode.
The use of sources shorter than the cut of wavelength, turns a singlemode fiber into a multimode
fiber while modal dispersion again becomes a problem. Thus it is important to match single mode
fiber with the proper wavelength sources.
 To reduce the effect of modal dispersion in multimode fibers, manufactures can alter the chemical
makeup of the fiber core. In the original step index type of fiber, the refractive indices of core
and cladding change abruptly at their interface. This type of construction cost less to
manufacturer, but has the highest dispersion. It is used primarily for short distance, low speed
applications such as industrial controls.
 In a graded index fiber layers of glass with smoothly varying refractive indices comprises the core.
Because the core’s center has the highest refractive index, the axial mode is slowed down while
higher order modes travel faster, so all modes will arrive at the end of the fiber closer together.
This reduces modal dispersion allowing long fiber distance runs for higher transmission speeds.
 Because single mode fiber does not need to address the propagation times of higher order modes,
it also has a step index construction. However, unlike multimode fibers where optical power
distribution is entirely within the core, light transmission within single mode fibers assumes a
Gussian distribution. Approximately 80% of light, travels within the core, while 20% travels in the
surrounding cladding. The diameter of the light spot carried is called the MODE FIELD DIAMETER
– fiber manufacturer specification sheets may detail both single mode core and mode field
diameter.
 The larger the mode field the diameter, the easier it becomes to splice and connectorize, but the
more sensitive the fiber is to bending losses. Optical fibers are available with a number of core
and cladding sizes, designed for various applications. Single mode fibers are made with core sizes
ranging from 8 to 10 microns, and a cladding size of 125 microns. Because of wide range of
multimode fibers are available, the fiber specified in micro meters with core diameter first
followed by the cladding diameter.
 Common multimode fibers include the 50/125 and 62.5/125 (For Communication purposes). The
50/125 fiber is generally considered as the European Standard for communications use, while for
62.5/125 is the North American Standard. Other types used for low speed application includes
100/140 and 200/230 both used in industrial controls and low speed data networks.
 Fibers with larger core sizes can handle light volumes, higher optical power levels and are
convenient for use in fiber optics signs and the delivery of laser beams for surgical or industrial
applications.
 Fibers can also be made of plastic materials, offering low cost and ease of use. Today, 1000 micron
plastic fiber with a 189 micron core is well entrenched with lightning sinnage and other mode of
applications it is now becoming a serious competitor to CAT5 UTP wiring, providing an optical
alternative for short distance networks.
 There are a number of methods used to make glass optical fiber, base on the chemical vapor
deposition process or the CVD with the inside method alter pure silica, germanium or other
elements are vaporized and applied to the inside of the silica tube heated by a hydrogen flame.
Each pass of the heat source fuses a small amount of raw materials to the inside of the tube as a
thin layer of glass. The composition of the vapor is designed to create the layer of glass with a
refractive index usually higher than the silica tube. These layers will form the fiber’s core, while
the tube becomes the cladding. When enough core material has been built up, the tube is strongly
heated to collapse it into a solid rod called a “pre-form” which is the scale model of the finished
fiber, only much shorter and thicker. The pre-form is then installed in a drying tower where it is
molted and stretched into optical fibers many kilometers in length.
 In the Outside Deposition Process (ODP) – vaporized raw materials are applied to a rotating
mandrell first to form the core then the cladding and what is called a soot preform. The mandrell
is withdrawn and the soot preform placed in a consolidation furnace which collapses the center
haul and fuses the particles into a solid transparent glass rod. This preform can be withdrawn into
a continuous fiber strand.
 A recent development in fiber manufacture is the vapor faced axial deposition process (VAD) - A
silica glass starting rod is rotated with its end initially with one or more hydrogen flames.
Vaporized components flow through the torches and are deposited as Sooty particles at the end
of the rotating rod. As the rod moves upward, core and cladding layers are applied simultaneously.
To grow a poress soot freeform with no center haul. The soot preform can then be consolidated
and drawn into fiber.
 All optical fibers must pass rigid quality control tests before it can be used
