Fiber-optic communication

Fiber-optic communication is a method of transmitting information from one place to another by sending pulses of light through an optical fiber. The light forms an electromagnetic carrier wave that is modulated to carry information. An optical fiber (or optical fibre) is a flexible, transparent fiber made of a pure glass (silica) not much wider than a human hair. It functions as a waveguide, or "light pipe", to transmit light between the two ends of the fiber.[1] First developed in the 1970s, fiber-optic communication systems have revolutionized the telecommunications industry and have played a major role in the advent of the Information Age. Because of its advantages over electrical transmission, optical fibers have largely replaced copper wire communications in core networks in the developed world. The field of applied science and engineering concerned with the design and application of optical fibers is known as fiber optics. Optical fibers are widely used in fiber-optic communications, which permits transmission over longer distances and at higher bandwidths (data rates) than other forms of communication. Fibers are used instead of metal wires because signals travel along them with less loss and are also immune to electromagnetic interference. Fibers are also used for illumination, and are wrapped in bundles so they can be used to carry images, thus allowing viewing in tight spaces. Specially designed fibers are used for a variety of other applications, including sensors and fiber lasers.

Need of optical fibre communication

Fiber optic communication refers to the method to communicate via optical fiber. Fiber optic communications is with a short history but with very rapid development in the past and now, and its impact has been in all aspects of communication field. First of all, why use fiber optics for communication? To answer this question, let us take a look at the need for information exchange nowadays. The trend is more and more information to be communicated and more and more information digitalized. The growing information needs a carrier with more bandwidth than ever before. What determine the carriers bandwidth? Its frequency. Which carrier is highest frequency? The light. Now we understand the light is with the highest information carrying capacity, that is why we use the light and optical fibers in nowadays communication networks. We have realized light is the best information carrier, then we need to find a method to conduct the light as the way we like, we need to find a media - obviously the air will not fit light will scattered and fade easily. After a lot of effort, finally people invented the optical fiber, the transparent flexible filament that could guide the light. Light in the optical fiber will follow the internal reflection law to transmit. The invention of optical fiber and fiber cables makes it possible for fiber optic communications. Third, we need to find a transmitter and receiver for the light wave. Fortunately, when the optical fiber was invented, the key components for these devices, the laser diode and photodiode had been available

at that time. That was around the year 1975, the first point-to-point fiber optic communication system was conducted in Bell laboratories. Since then, fiber optic industry developed quickly, the R&D story for fiber optic communication was over and the big business venture began. Nowadays, with submarine fiber networks connecting the whole world, fiber optic communication has connected the people from different places on the earth.

Advantages of optical fibre communication

1. Enormous Bandwidths The information carrying capacity of a transmission system is directly proportional to the carrier frequency of the transmitted signals. The optical carrier frequency is in the range of 1014 Hz while the radio frequency is about 106 Hz. Thus the optical fibres have enormous transmission bandwidths and high data rate. Using wavelength division multiplexing operation, the data rate or information carrying capacity of optical fibres is enhanced to many orders of magnitude. 2. Low transmission loss Due to the usage of ultra low loss fibres and the erbium doped silica fibres as optical amplifiers, one can achieve almost loss less transmission. Hence for long distance communication fibres of 0.002 dB/km are used. Thus the repeater spacing is more than 100 km. 3. Immunity to cross talk Since optical fibres are dielectric wave guides, they are free from any electromagnetic interference (EMI) and radio frequency interference (RFI). Since optical interference among different fibres is not possible, cross talk is negligble even many fibres are cabled together. 4. Electrical Isolation Optical fibres are made from silica which is an electrical insulator. Therefore they do not pick up any electromagnetic wave or any high current lightening. It is also suitable in explosive environment. 5. Small size and weight The size of the fiber ranges from 10 micrometres to 50 micrometres which is very very small. The space occupied by the fiber cable is negligibly small compared to conventional electrical cables. Optical fibers are light in weight. These advantages make them to use in aircrafts and satellites more effectively. 6. Signal security The transmitted signal through the fibre does not radiate. Unlike in copper cables, a transmitted signal cannot be drawn from a fiber without tampering it. Thus, the optical fiber communication provides 100% signal security. 7. Ruggedness and flexibility

The fibre cable can be easily bend or twisted without damaging it. Further the fiber cables are superior than the copper cables in terms of handling, installation, stroage, transportation, maintenance, strength and durability. 8. Low cost and availability Since the fibres are made of silica which is available in abundance. Hence, there is no shortage of material and optical fibers offer the potential for low cost communication. 9. Reliability The optical fibres are made from silicon glass which does not undergo any chemical reaction or corrosion. Its quality is not affected by external radiation. Further due to its negligible attenuation and dispersion, optical fiber communication has high reliability. All the above factors also tend to reduce the expenditure on its maintenance.

Disadvantages
1.Only economical when the bandwidth is fully utilized 2. High cost of installation Optical fiber is expensive and could be difficult to install and modify. In order to join fiber optics, one needs to be trained to use the sophisticated equipment. To install optical cables, and to ensure the light beam remains continuous the connection needs to be very precise to avoid any losses. Therefore, if something happens in the connecting cables, for example, if the line breaks, this could be very serious and could generate a big loss.
3. Strength: Optical fibers have a significantly lower tensile strength than coaxial cable This can be improved by providing protective jacket of PVC. In addition glass fiber is much more fragile than copper wire making fiber less attractive where hardware portability is required. 4. Optical fiber cables are more susceptible to losses introduced by bending the cable Electromagnetic waves propagate through an optical cable by either refraction or reflection. Therefore bending the cable causes irregularities in the cable dimensions; resulting in a loss of signal power. Optical fibers are more prone to manufacturing defects, as even the minor defect can cause excessive loss of signal power. 5. Specialized tools, equipment and training Optical fiber cables require special tools to splice and repair cables and special test equipment to make routine measurements. Not only repairing fiber cables is difficult and expensive but technicians working on optical cables also require special skills and training. Sometimes it is difficult to locate faults in optical cables because there is no electrical continuity.

Fibre optic cables

optical fiber cable use smooth, hair thin strands of glass or plastic to transmit data as a pulse of light and the cable is about the diameter of a human hair. A fiber optic cable is made up of three main sections. They are the core, cladding, and buffer. This is show in Figure 1. The core is at the middle of the cable and it is made up of silica. It functions as the light transmitting section of the fiber and act as a boundary layer for the cable. Next is the cladding. The cladding surrounds

the core. It has a lower index of refraction to keep the light in the core.The cladding is made up of pure silica and it act like a guide for the light waves to travel down the cable. This component is very important because light moves in waves and will shoot out of the core if this component is not present. This cladding will eventually reflect back into the core. An optical fiber has an additional coating around the cladding called protective jacket. It protects the core and cladding from shocks that might affect their optical or physical properties. It has no optical properties affecting the propagation of light within the fiber.

Structure of optical fiber

Types of optical fiber

The type of optical fibers cable in telecommunications network can be divided into two classes based on their modal properties. They are single-mode fiber and multimode fiber. Single-mode fiber has a smaller core than multimode fiber. It only allows one signal to transmit at a time. As for multimode fiber, it has a much larger core than single-mode fiber, allowing hundred of signals to pass through the fiber simultaneously. From what we have just discussed, it may seem that multimode fibers carry more information than single-mode fibers, but in reality, single-mode can keep every light pulse over a longer distance because its transmission of dispersion or degradation is very small, allowing it to have a higher bandwidth. With the high bandwidth, the single-mode fiber is an ideal source of transmission medium for any applications and multimode only applies in the transmission distances within two miles. The two classes can be further divided into multimode index, multimode graded index, and single-mode step index. Step and graded index refers to the variation of the index of refraction with radial distance from the fiber axis. Ultimately, these fibers consist of a core surrounded by a cladding. Step index fiber is an optical fiber with a uniform refractive index core, where else in the gradedindex fibers, the gradual decrease in the index of refraction with the distance will cause the light rays to bend back toward the axis as they propagate. These different types of fiber are displayed in Figure 2.

Figure 2:

Block diagram of Optical fibre communication system

The basic blocks of fiber optic communication systems are transmitter, optical fiber cable and receiver. The transmitter consists of light source and its associated drive circuit, optical fiber cable offers mechanical and environment protection to optical fibers contained inside and receiver consists of photodetector, amplification and signal restoring circuit Information to be conveyed enters an electronic transmitter. In electronic transmitter it is converted into electrical form, modulated and multiplexed. The electrical signal then goes to optical transmitter where it is converted into optical form i.e. into light. The light signal is then transmitted over optical fiber. At the receiver end, light signal is received by optical detector which converts the light signal into an electrical signal. The electrical signal then enters into electronic receiver where electrical signal is processed to get the exact information. Transmitter: The heart of the transmitter is a light source. The main function of light source is to convert an information signal from its electrical form into light. LEDS and laser diodes are used as light sources. Optical Fiber: The transmission medium in fiber optic communication systems is an optical fiber. The optical fiber is the transparent and flexible filament that guides light from a transmitter to a receiver. The optical fiber provides the connection between a transmitter and a receiver. The

optical fiber basically consists of two concentric layers, the light carrying core and the cladding. The cladding acts as a refractive index medium which allows the light to be transmitted through the core and to the other end with very little distortion or attenuation. Receiver: The heart of an optical receiver is the photo detector. The major task of a photo detector is to convert an optical information signal back into an electrical signal. Q. 12. Draw the block diagram of optical transmitter and the optical receiver and explain function of each component.

The main function of an optical transmitter is to convert the electrical signal into optical signal and to launch the optical signal into the optical fiber. Optical transmitter consists of optical source, modulator and a channel coupler. Light emitting diodes (LEDS) and Laser diodes are used as optical sources. The input electrical signal modulates the intensity of light from the optical source. The optical carrier can be modulated internally or externally using an electrooptic modulator or acoustooptic modulator. Now a days electro-optic modulators are widely used as external modulators which modulate the light by changing its refractive index through given input electrical signal. The function of a coupler is to couple the optical signal to optical fiber cable. The coupler is a micro lens that focuses the optical signal onto the entrance plane of an optical fiber with maximum efficiency.

The main function of optical receiver is to convert the received optical signal back onto the original electrical signal. The optical receiver consists of a channel coupler, a poto detector and a demodulator. The coupler focuses the received optical signal onto if photo detector. The photo detector like avalanche photo diode (APD) or positivetrinsic-negative (PIN) diode converts the optical pulses into electrical pulses. The requirements for a photo detectors are similar to those of

an optical source. It should have high sensitivity fast response, Low noise, low cost and high reliability. The demodulator, demodulates the received electrical signal back to original information. The design of demodulator depends on the modulation formate used by light wave system.

Light propagation through fiber In order to understand the propagation of light through an optical fibre, consider the figure (2). Consider the ray of light entering the fiber(glass or plastic) at one end (launching end) undergoes total internal reflection at the core cladding interface as shown in fig.

Ray OA travelling in air enters the core of the fiber at angle o. It gets reflected at an angle