Title: Communication Engineering III

Credit-

Reference Books:
Optical communications by John Senior **
Optical fiber communications by Gerd Keiser
Optical Communication by M. J. N. Sibley **
Fiber Optic communication Systems by Govind P.
Agrawal (For Advanced level)
Optical communications, components and Systems,
by J. H. Franz and V. K. Jain

Contents:
Introduction
Brief

to OFC

history

Optical

fiber communication system

Advantage and Limitation of OFC

Introduction
Brief history of Optical Communication Technology:
Before 1792, fire beacons or smoke was used to send information

In 1792, Claude Chappe was invented optical telegraphy

He was succeeded to transmit information between Paris and Lille
By 1830, the network was extended In Europe (Bit/s < 1)

Relay
Station

Optical telegraphy system and its inventor Claude Chappe

Brief history of Optical Comm. Technol.:

The advent of electrical telegraphy in the 1830 replaced the use of
optical telegraphy and began the era of electrical communication
The bit rate of electrical telegraphy was increased to ~ 10 bit/s by

using Morse Code (dots and dashes)

The invention of telephone in 1876 enables to transmit electrical

signals in analog form, which dominate comm. for a century or so.

The development of worldwide telephone networks led to many
advances in the design of Electrical communication systems
Use of coaxial cable instead of wire pairs increased system capacity
considerable

Brief history of Optical Comm. Technol.:

The first coaxial cable put into service in 1940 with 3 MHz system

capacity (300 voice channels or a single television channel)

The bandwidth was limited by frequency dependent cable losses(~10MHz)
This limitation was led to develop Micro-Wave communication (1~10GHz)
The first Microwave system was operated at 4 GHz
Most advanced coaxial cable put into service in 1975 (274 Mb/s, ~1Km)
Microwave communications generally allow larger repeater spacing, but bit
rate is limited by the carrier frequency of such waves

Bit ratedistance
product, BL

108

1970

BL product 100
Mb/s-Km was
achieved by
1970 and limited
due to carrier
frequency

Brief history of Optical Communication Technology:

During 1950 it was realized that BL product can be further increased

if optical waves were used as the carrier

During 1950 there was no coherent optical source nor a suitable
transmission medium
In 1960 first LASER was developed (coherent light source)
After 1960 first idea was developed to use glass material as a
transmission medium
In 1966 first optical fiber was made by Kao and Hockham but loss
was 1000 dB/km
By reducing concentration of transition-metal ions and water ions
(Fe, Cu, Cr, Ni, Mn, Cobalt and HO)
In 1970 Kapron et al. at Corning made a fiber with < 20 dB/km in
the wavelength region near 1 m
In the same time GaAs semiconductor lasers operating continuously
at room temperature at 1 m were developed
Simultaneous availability of compact light source and low loss fiber
led to a worldwide effort for developing FO Comm. systems

Electromagnetic Spectrum
Optical fiber communication
1.7 m

0.8 m

NIR

Microwave

106

108

Visible Spectrum
Red
0.7 m Violet 0.4 m
Millimeter
wave Far
IR

1010

1012

UV

1014

1016

X-ray

1018

Light sources used in OFC having wavelength:

0.85m, 1.3m, and 1.55m

1020

Increase in capacity of lightwave

system after 1980

Due to advent
of WDM tech.

First-generation Fiber optic Systems

Purpose:
Eliminate repeaters used in inter-office trunk lines
Technology:
0.8 m GaAs semiconductor lasers, Multimode silica
fibers
Repeater Spacing:
10 km
Limitations:
Fiber attenuation 3 dB/km, Intermodal dispersion, bit
rate 45 Mb/s
Deployed since 1974

Second-generation Fiber optic Systems

Opportunity:
Development of low-attenuation fiber (removal of H 2O and other
impurities), Eliminate repeaters in long-distance lines

Technology:
1.3 m semiconductor lasers, Muti-mode fiber, lowattenuation silica fibers, bit rate: < 100 Mb/s due to dispersion
1.3 m semiconductor lasers, Single-mode fiber, lowattenuation silica fibers, bit rate: 1.7 Gb/s

Limitation:
Fiber attenuation 0.5 dB/km, repeater spacing 50 km

Deployed since 1978

Third-generation Fiber Optic Systems

Opportunity:
Long-distance Communication

Technology:
1.55 m single-mode semiconductor lasers, Single-mode
fiber, low- attenuation silica fibers, bit rate: 2.5 Gb/s

Limitations:
Fiber attenuation 0.2 dB/km, repeater spacing 60~70
km, Fiber dispersion, electronic repeaters

Deployed since 1982

Fourth-generation Fiber optic Systems

Opportunity:
Development of erbium-doped fiber amplifiers and WDM technology

Technology (deployment began in 1994):

1.55 m single-mode, narrow-band semiconductor lasers, Single-mode,
low-attenuation dispersion-shifted silica fibers, Wavelength-division
multiplexing, with bit rate 2.5 Gb/s over 21000 km and 5 Gb/s over
14300 km by 1996. Using WDM technology bit rate was possible to
increase 2.56 Tb/s by 2002

Nonlinear effects limit the following system parameters:

Signal launch power, Propagation distance without regeneration,
WDM channel separation, Maximum number of WDM channels per fiber

Fifth-Generation !!!!!!
Opportunity:
Development of Raman amplifiers and WDM technology, dry fiber

Technology (deployment began in 1994):

Dry fiber with low loss over the wavelength region 1.3 to 1.65 m lead to
lightwave systems having 1000 WDM channels, Each channel 40 Gb/s,
which can be extended to 160 Gb/s in future

BL product in several generations

of lightwave systems

Optical fiber communication system

Input

Optical
Transmitter

Comm. Channel
(Optical fiber)
Attenuation, Dispersion,
crosstalk & noise

Optical
Receiver

Output

Advantages of OFC
1
2
3
4
6
8
7
5

Greater bandwidth
Low attenuation
Electrical immunity (no RFI, EMI)
Greater security
Flexibility
Falling cost
Long repeater spacing
Smaller size and weight than copper cables

Disadvantages of OFC
Stimulated Raman Scattering (SRS):
An interaction between light and vibrations of silica molecules, causes
attenuation of short wavelength channels in WDM system

Stimulated Brillouin Scattering (SBS):

An interaction between light and sound waves in the fiber, causes frequency
conversion and reversal of propagation direction of light

Four Wave Mixing (FWM):

Two or more optical waves at different wavelengths mix to produce new
waves at other wavelengths
Self Phase Modulation (SPM):
Change in signal phase due to change in intensity of the signal due to group
velocity dispersion
Cross Phase Modulation (XPM):
It is an interaction via the non-linear refractive index between the intensity of
one light wave and optical phase of other light waves
Some other limitations:
Dispersion, laser phase noise, relative intensity noise etc.