Electrical & Computer Engineering Department

University of Waterloo

E&CE 477
Photonic Communication Systems & Devices
Winter 2006
Instructor:
Office:
Email:
Phone:
Office Hours:
Lecture:
Tutorial:
TAs:

TA office Hours:
Textbook
Course Website (Lecture Notes,
Problem Sets & their solution,
Announcements, News, Marks)
Reference Texts

Grading Policy
Assignments
Lab Instructor

Hamed Majedi
CEIT 4006
ahmajedi@maxwell.uwaterloo.ca
(519)888-4567 ext. 7443
Previous appointment is preferred, (T,Th 4:00-5:00)
T,Th 12:30-1:20, RCH 305
Th 9:00-9:50 RCH 305
1-Mohammad Reza Nezhadahmadi,
mrnezhad@uwaterloo.ca, CEIT 3024
2- Zhizhong Yan
zyan@enagmail.uwaterloo.ca, CEIT 3121
Mohammad Reza: Tuesday 3:00-4:00
Zhizhang:
Wednesday 3:00-4:00
Gerd Keiser, Optical Fiber Communications,
McGrawHill, 2000, 3rd edition
1-http://www.ece.uwaterloo.ca/~ece477
1- B.E.A. Saleh & M.C. Teich, Fundamentals of
Photonics, John Wiley & Sons, 1991
2- S.O.Kasap Optoelectronics & Photonics,
Principles & Practices , McGrawHill, 2001
Midterm 20%, Lab Experiments 20%, Computer
Simulation Lab 10%, Final 50%
7 problem sets will be given gradually at the end of each
chapter. The solutions will be posted in the website.
Eric Praetzel, Office:E2 2357, ext. 5249,
Email:praetzel@uwaterloo.ca

Tentative Schedule
Week

Date

Topic

Jan 3, 5

Jan 10, 12

Jan 17, 19

Jan 24,26

Jan 31, Feb

2

Feb 7, 9

Feb 14,16

Feb 21, 23

Overview of Photonic
Communication, Overview of
EM waves
Optical Fibers: Waveguiding &
Propagation modes
Mode Designation in Fiber
optics, Single-mode Fibers,
Signal Degradation in Optical
Fibers (Loss and Dispersion)
Various dispersion mechanisms
in optical fiber and their
characterization
Photonic Sources &
Transmitters:
LED & Laser Diodes
Single-Mode lasers, Modulation
& Noise
Laser-Fiber Connection

Feb 28,
March 2

Fiber to Fiber joints, splicers,&

connectors

10

March 7, 9

Photodetectors

11

Digital Photonic Receivers

12

March 16,
21
March 23

13

March 28,30

Analog Photonic receivers,

point-to point-links
WDM, Photonic Networks

Reading
Textbook

Home work

1.1, 1.2,1.3
2.1,2.2,2.3,2.4.1,
2.4.2, 2.4.7,2.4.8
2.5,2.7,2.8,2.10

Problem set
#1

3.1,3.2,3.5

Problem set
#2

4.1,4.2,4.3

Problem set
#3

4.4,4.5

Problem set
#4
Review for
midterm

5.1.1, 5.1.2,
5.2(pp.212), 5.2.2
5.3,5.5.1, 5.6
(pp231&232), 5.6.3
(without eqs)
6.1,6.2,6.3.1,6.3.2,6.
5,6.7
7.1.1,7.1.2,7.1.3,
7.2.1
7.5,8.1
10.1,10.2.1,12.1,
12.2.3,12.2.4,12.3.1,
12.3.2,12.4.1

Midterm
Friday Feb.
24, 3:00-5:00
Problem set
#5
Problem set
#6
Problem set
#7

Course Objectives: This course addresses the physical principles for important optical
devices and modules as well as their application in photonic circuits and systems. The
main application focus is optical fiber communication systems and networks.
Course Expectations:
Learning is a cooperative task and students must participate actively. The students are
expected to come to lecture, tutorials & lab sessions prepared to think and learn. The
lecture period will be used to introduce and establish fundamental concepts. The tutorials
will be used to practice engineering skills of problem solving and data acquisition and
analysis. You should discuss your problems regarding concepts with the instructor during
his office hours and talk to the TA regarding your difficulties with problem sets and lab
reports & also contact the lab instructor for problems with lab experiments. Obviously,
TA will also help you to understand basic concepts. To get the most out of the lectures
and tutorials, you need to read sections of the textbook assigned in the tentative schedule,
and go over the examples in those sections.
You are encouraged to work in groups and discuss the homework.
Note 1: The lab sessions will start at the beginning of March. There will be three
experiments regarding fiber spectral attenuation & dispersion measurements. You have to
log in to the http://ece.uwaterloo.ca/signup.html to form your group and sign up for lab
sessions. Each group should be formed by 4 students. The due date to hand in the lab
reports to the TA is Mar 30, 2006.
Note 2: There will be 6 nice & easy computer simulations using Photonic Transmission
Design Suite 1.1 Lite, the CD included with your textbook. The TA will teach you how to
use this CD & post an example for every 6 simulations in the course website. He will
give you questions regarding each simulation & explain how you should hand in your
computer simulations. The due date to hand in your computer assignments is March 31.
The total estimated time to do this computer simulations and preparing the report is about
3 hours. The list of computer simulations is as follows:
1- Bit error rate estimation of digital single channel fiber optic link
2- Influence of fiber dispersion on the bit error rate
3- Fiber dispersion compensation by three different methods
4- 4 channel WDM transmission by four wave mixing
5- Comparison of external vs. direct laser modulation for various bit rate
6- 2 channel WDM add/drop multiplexer using fiber Bragg gratings & circulators.
Note 3: The graduate students who take this course for credit should talk to the instructor.
They must solve and hand in all the problems & do a term project.