APPLICATION OF OPTICAL FIBER

COMMUNICATION

DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRONICS AND COMMUNICATION

ROLL NO:- RN6801B50 ECE 115 Reg no:- 10806783

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Abstract— is considerably less signal degradation. Additionally,

Advanced optical applications (such
as fiber optics) demand the engineering of innovative
materials which provide the requisite optical performance in
a form with specific functionality necessary for the desired
application. We will report on recent efforts to engineer new
non-oxide glasses with tailored photo-sensitive response, and
multi-component oxide glasses optimized for use in next
generation Raman amplification applications. The ultimate
performance of such glasses relies on control of the
formation and stability of defective and/or met stable
structural configurations and their impact on physical as
well as linear and nonlinear optical properties. Direct laser
writing has drawn considerable attention since the
development of femtosecond lasers and the recognition that
such systems possess the requisite intensity to modify,
reversibly or irreversibly the physical properties of optical
materials. Such “structuring” has emerged as one of several
possible routes for the fabrication of waveguides and other
photo-induced structures
optical fiber is immune to electromagnetic interference,
which can seriously impede the transmission of data along
normal metal wires. This adds an added security measure,
as well, since optical fiber can survive an electromagnetic
pulse which would destroy metal cables.
WHAT IS FIBER OPTICS?
Fiber optics are simply strands of flexible glass as thin
as human hair that are used for telecommunications.
These strands carry digital signals with light. Even though
these cables are made of glass, they are not stiff and
fragile. They can bend kind of like wires and are very
strong. When hundreds or even thousands of these
strands are arranged in bundles, it is called an optical
cable.

These glass cables are covered with a special protective

INTRODUCTION coating called cladding. The cladding is made from a
Optical fiber is a term for any sort of plastic or material that reflects the light back into the core or center
glass conduit meant to transport light. The principles of the cable. This cladding creates a mirror-lined wall.
behind optical fiber are actually quite old, but in recent The final outer layer is a buffer coating to protect this
years it has become an incredibly important technology, special glass cable from damage and moisture.
as communications infrastructure has begun to use optical
fiber to transmit data at extremely high rates. Aside from
fiber optic communications, however, optical fiber has a
number of applications in medicine, consumer products,
and physics.
These sorts of fibers offer a number of advantages over
traditional metal wire, the most important being that there
Single-mode and multi-
mode are the two main
types of fiber optic cable.
Single-mode fiber cables
send signals using laser
light. They are smaller in
thickness than multi-
mode. Multi-mode fibers
send signals using light-
emitting diodes or LEDs.
They are bigger in
thickness or diameter than
the single-mode cables.
Fiber optics work using
the total internal reflection
principle. When light is
transmitted into the glass
cable, the light bounces off the reflective cladding on the
sides of the glass cable, so the light can travel around
corners. In other words, the light bounces off the inside of
the cable until it gets to its destination.
There are more parts to the fiber optic system than the
cables. The first thing is the transmitter. It produces the
signals that will travel through the cable. The optical
regenerator is needed when the light signal is weakened
by traveling over a long distance and needs a re-boost or
strengthening. Actually, the light signal is copied and a
new one with the same characteristics is sent by the
regenerator. Finally, there is the optical receiver. It
receives the light signals and encodes them into a
readable form for the device at the end.
Fiber optics have lots of uses. The Internet uses fiber
optic cables. It is a perfect application because it is digital
information and the fiber optic cables send digitally.
Telephones were one of the first uses for fiber optics.
Many times internet and telephone signals travel over the
same cables. Digital television (also known as cable TV)
is often transmitted by fiber optic cables.
Three other kinds of uses are totally different from the
above items. One is medical imaging. Surgeons use
special scopes using fiber optics to enlarge areas of
patients that are hard to see, kind of like a very accurate
magnifying glass. A very similar use is mechanical
inspection. Engineers and mechanics can use a similar
scope device to see hard to reach places during safety
inspections. Another similar use is to inspect plumbing
and sewer lines.
Fiber optic cables without
optical regenerators can be up to
about one kilometer in length.
With regenerators, they can go
on almost forever. They can be placed in buildings, up on
power lines, buried in the ground or even placed in the
ocean! Fiber optic cables are not perfect; they can break.
Sometimes when crews are digging, they accidentally can
tear up the cables. They can be repaired using a technique
called splicing. It is when a worker cuts off the broken
ends and reconnects them using special adhesives, heat, or
special connectors.
APPLICATION OF OPTICAL FIBER
Fiber optic cables find many uses in a wide variety of
industries and applications. Some uses of fiber optic
cables include:
• Medical
Used as light guides, imaging tools and also as lasers
for surgeries
• Defense/Government
Used as hydrophones for seismic and SONAR uses, as
wiring in aircraft, submarines and other vehicles and
also for field networking
• DataStorage
Used for data transmission
• Telecommunications
Fiber is laid and used for transmitting and receiving
purposes
• Networking
Used to connect users and servers in a variety of
network settings and help increase the speed and
accuracy of data transmission
• Industrial/Commercial
Used for imaging in hard to reach areas, as wiring
where EMI is an issue, as sensory devices to make
temperature, pressure and other measurements, and as
wiring in automobiles and in industrial settings
• Broadcast/CATV
Broadcast/cable companies are using fiber optic
cables for wiring CATV, HDTV, internet, video on-
demand and other applications
Fiber optic cables are used for lighting and imaging
and as sensors to measure and monitor a vast array of
variables. Fiber optic cables are also used in research
and development and testing across all the above
mentioned industries.,
USE OF OPTCAL FIBER COMMUNICATION IN product with the precise tolerance that your
MEDICAL FIELD application requires.

Fiber optics have been used in the medical industry

for years. The physical characteristics of fiber make it
a natural choice for many different applications.
Commonly used for illumination, flexible image
bundles, light conductors, flexible light guides, laser
delivery systems, and equipment interconnects, fiber
optics provide a very compact, flexible conduit for
light or data delivery in equipment, surgical, and
instrumentation applications.

Traditional medical fiber optic applications include

light therapy, x-ray imaging, ophthalmic lasers, lab
and clinical diagnostics, dental hand pieces, surgical
and diagnostic instrumentation, endoscopy, surgical
microscopy, and a wide range of equipment and
instrument illumination.

Timbercon manufactures multiple glass and plastic

optical fiber products for use in a myriad of medical
applications.

1) Fiber Optics for Medical Research

optical sensor for CO2 detection

Medical research covers a wide

range of applications and areas of study within the
medical field. Often, fiber optic products in this area
are designed to be very application specific as each
products requirement is intended to support and/or test
a theory, procedure, or instrument. While some
applications share various product attributes with
another product, the vast majority require precise and
unique characteristics achieved through specialty
product design.
Timbercon specializes in application specific and
custom product design, development, and
manufacturing. Our medical fiber optic technologies
have been designed to allow a high degree of
customization and specialty product development.
This balance of technology and customization
capability enables Timbercon to create the exact
FIBER OPTICS FOR MEDICAL INTRUMENTS
Medical Instruments utilize fiber optics for a variety
of applications including illumination, image transfer,
and laser signal delivery.
A large portion of the fiber used in these applications
support site illumination either as an integrated
component of an instrument or as an individual light
source.
• Examination lights
• FO headlight
• Vet otoscope
• Laryngoscope (blade illumination)
• Anoscope (with annular illumination)
• Otoscope
• Binocular indirect ophthalmoscope
• Amnioscope
 • Microscope illumination
• Heart catheter

Taking perimeter security beyond the days of

chain links and barbed wire to offer security fences
made from optical fiber. A bend or break in the fiber
sounds an alarm.

optical fiber endoscope

USE OF OPTICAL FIBER IN

DEFENSE/GOVERNMENT

The first military

communications had the form of sending/receiving
simple signals (often hidden or encoded to be
unrecognizable for the enemy). Respectively, the
first distinctive tactics of military communications
were called Signals, while units specializing in those
tactics received the Signal Corps name. Later
Signals and Signaller became a highly-distinct
military occupation dealing rather with general
communications methods (similar to those in civil
use) than with weapons. Military Tactical Cables

Present-day militaries Fiber Optics for Data Storage Equipment

of an informational society conduct very intense and
complicated communicating activities on a daily
basis, using modern high-tech telecommunications
and computing methods. Only a small part of these
activities is immediately related to the combat
actions. That's why some prefer the term "military
communications".
 The main function of fiber optics in
data storage equipment is to provide the communications
link between multiple devices on a network and/or part of
a storage system, typically NAS, SAN, or CAS. Fiber
optic connectivity offers very high bandwidth over
extended distances making optical communication an
ideal conduit for device-to-device connections, enabling
faster, simultaneous information access from across the
room or across the country. While some data storage
devices use copper connections and cabling for device-to-
device connections, more data storage administrators are
replacing copper ports with optical ports to improve
performance and ensure these devices can support ever
increasing bandwidth requirements now and in the future.
FIBER OPTICS FOR TELECOMMUNICATION
Optical fiber can be used as a
medium for telecommunication and networking because it
is flexible and can be bundled as cables. It is especially
advantageous for long-distance communications, because
light propagates through the fiber with little attenuation
compared to electrical cables. This allows long distances
to be spanned with few repeaters. Additionally, the per-
channel light signals propagating in the fiber have been
modulated at rates as high as 111 gigabits per second by
NTT,[15][16] although 10 or 40 Gbit/s is typical in
deployed systems. Each fiber can carry many independent
channels, each using a different wavelength of light
(wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM)). The net data
rate (data rate without overhead bytes) per fiber is the per-
channel data rate reduced by the FEC overhead,
multiplied by the number of channels (usually up to
eighty in commercial dense WDM systems as of 2008).
The current laboratory fiber optic data rate record, held by
Bell Labs in Villarceaux, France, is multiplexing 155
channels, each carrying 100 Gbit/s over a 7000 km fiber.
Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation have also
managed 69.1 Tbit/s over a single 240 km fiber
(multiplexing 432 channels, equating to 171 Gbit/s per
channel). Bell Labs also broke a 100 Petabit per second
kilometer barrier (15.5 Tbit/s over a single 7000 km
fiber). For short distance applications, such as creating a
network within an office building, fiber-optic cabling can
be used to save space in cable ducts. This is because a
single fiber can often carry much more data than many
electrical cables, such as 4 pair Cat-5 Ethernet cabling.
[vague] Fiber is also immune to electrical interference;
there is no cross-talk between signals in different cables
and no pickup of environmental noise. Non-armored fiber
cables do not conduct electricity, which makes fiber a
good solution for protecting communications equipment
located in high voltage environments such as power
generation facilities, or metal communication structures
prone to lightningstrikes. They can also be used in
environments where explosive fumes are present, without
danger of ignition. Wiretapping is more difficult
compared to electrical connections, and there are
concentric dual core fibers that are said to be tap-proof
FIBER OPTIC SENSORS
Fibers have many uses in remote sensing. In some
applications, the sensor is itself an optical fiber. In other
cases, fiber is used to connect a non-fiber optic sensor to a
measurement system. Depending on the application, fiber
may be used because of its small size, or the fact that
no electrical power is needed at the remote location, or
because many sensors can be multiplexed along the length
of a fiber by using different wavelengths of light for each
sensor, or by sensing the time delay as light passes along
the fiber through each sensor. Time delay can be
determined using a device such as an optical time-domain
reflectometer
OTHER USES OF OPTICAL FIBER
Fibers are widely used in illumination applications. They
are used as light guides in medical and other applications
where bright light needs to be shone on a target without a
clear line-of-sight path. In some buildings, optical fibers
are used to route sunlight from the roof to other parts of
the building (see non-imaging optics). Optical fiber
illumination is also used for decorative applications,
including signs, art, and artificial Christmas trees.
Swarovski boutiques use optical fibers to illuminate their
crystal showcases from many different angles while only
employing one light source. Optical fiber is an intrinsic
part of the light-transmitting concrete building product,
LiTraCon.
Optical fiber is also used in imaging optics. A coherent
bundle of fibers is used, sometimes along with lenses, for
a long, thin imaging device called an endoscope, which is
used to view objects through a small hole. Medical
endoscopes are used for minimally invasive exploratory
or surgical procedures (endoscopy). Industrial endoscopes
(see fiberscope or borescope) are used for inspecting
anything hard to reach, such as jet engine interiors.

REFERNCES

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_fiber
2. http://www.wikinvest.com/industry/Fiber_Optics
3. www.timbercon.com/Medical-Fiber-Optics/
4. www.springerlink.com/index/u22q1254q086nq2.
pdf
5. www.alibaba.com/.../medical-instruments-
optical-fiber.html
6. www.timbercon.com/Military-Fiber-Optics/
7. www.thinklogical.com/.../gov%20military
%20app%20-%202.pdf
8. www.voscom.com/fiber-optic-military.asp
9. www.thinklogical.com/.../gov%20military
%20app%20-%202.pdf