Optical Communication

UNIT-1

Block Diagram of Optical Communication System

Basic Block diagram of optical fiber communication system consists of following important blocks. 1. Transmitter 2. Information Channel 3. Receiver Fig shows the block diagram of optical communication system:

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Message origin: Generally message originates from transducer that converts a non electrical signal into electrical signal.For data transfer between computers the message is already in electrical form. Modulator: The modulator has two important functions. 1. It converts the electrical message into proper format. 2. It impresses the signal on to the wave generated by carrier source. Two distinct categories of modulation are used that is analog and digital modulation. Carrier Source: Carrier source generates the wave on which the information is transmitted. This wave is known as carrier. For fiber optic system LD or

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LED is used. They are called optic oscillators, they provide stable, single freq. wave with sufficient power for long distance propagation. Channel coupler: Coupler feeds the power into information channel. For an atmospheric optic system, the channel coupler is a lens used for collimating the light emitted by the source and directing this light towards the receiver. Information Channel: The information channel is the path between transmitter and receiver. In fiber optic system a glass or plastic fiber is the channel. Desirable characteristics of the information channel include low attenuation and large light acceptance cone angle. Another important property of the information channel is the light propagating along the fiber. A signal propagating along the fiber normally contains a range of optic frequencies and divides its power along the several ray paths.

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This results in distortion of propagating signal. In a digital system , this distortion appears as spreading and deforming of pulses . Due to spreading the adjacent pulse begin to overlap and to overlap and become unrecognizable as separate bits of information. Optical Detector: In fiber system the optic wave is converted into an electric current by a photo detector. The current developed by detector is propotional to the power in the incident optic wave. Detector output current contains the transmitted information. This detector output is then filtered to remove the constant bias and then amplified. Properties of detector are small size, economy, long life , low power consumption, high sensitivity to optic signals and fast response to quick variation in optic power.

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Signal Processing: Signal processing include filtering amplification. Power filtering maximizes the ratio of signal to unwanted power. For a digital system decision circuit is additional block. The BER should be very small for quality communications.

Message output: The electrical signal of the message emerging from the signal processor are transformed into a sound wave or visual image . Sometimes these signals are directly usable when computers or other machines are connected through fiber cable.

Advantages of optical Fiber Communication

1. Enormous Potential Bandwidth The optical carrier frequency lies in the range of 1013 1016 Hz. (generally near infrared around 1014-1015 Hz) and therefore it provided enormously large bandwidth than metallic cables i.e. in coaxial cable bandwidth up to 500 MHz is normally obtained. 2. Small Size and Weight Optical fibers have very small diameter hence when they are covered with protective coatings they are far smaller and lighter. This is tremendous boom towards the alleviation of duct congestion in cities and allowing expansion of signal transmissions in mobile e.g. aircrafts ships etc.

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3. Electrical Isolation Optical fibers are fabricated from glass or plastic polymers they are electrical insulator and therefore do not exhibit electro-magnetic induction problems. This property makes them suitable for communication in electrically very hazardous environment, as fibers create no arcing or spark hazard at short circuits. 4. Immunity to interface and Crosstalk

Optical fibers form a dielectric waveguide and therefore are free from EMI, RFI. It is also not susceptible to lightening strikes if used overhead. It is easy to ensure that there is no optical interference between fibers.

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5. Signal Security The light from optical fibers doesnt radiate significantly and therefore they provide a high degree of signal security. That is why they are used in military and banking. 6. Low Transmission Loss The optical fibers have low attenuation or transmission loss in comarision with copper cables. It facilitates the implementation of the communication link with extremely wide repeater spacing, thus reducing system cost and complexity. 7. Potential Low Cost The glass which generally provides optical fiber transmission medium is made of sand, which is not scarce material in comparison with copper conductor fiber offers low cost line communication.

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Disadvantages of fiber optic systems: 1. High initial cost: The initial installation or setting up cost is very high compared to all other systems.

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Maintenance and repairing cost: The maintenance and repairing of fiber optic system is not only difficult but expensive also.