Optical Devices and

Communication Systems

Lecturer Obaid Ullah Khalid

Military College of Signals (NUST)
Course overview
• Emphasis laid on the physical medium (optical
fiber), types of fiber, fiber transmission
characteristics, optical sources and transmitter,
optical detectors and receivers, optical
communication systems including WDM
systems
Topics Covered
• Introduction to optical communication system.
• Structure, manufacturing and types of Optical fibers.
• Transmission Characteristics
• Optical sources/transmitters
• Optical detectors/receivers
• Optical Amplifiers
• Optical Communication systems
Description
• Areas of study will include
▫ Optical Fiber structure, light propagation within the fiber, Snell’s law,
ray theory.
▫ Modes in a cylindrical waveguide, modes in an optical fiber,
▫ Types of fiber, single mode, multi mode, step index, graded index.
▫ Transmission characteristics: Attenuation in fiber due to absorption,
scattering, bending etc, inter and intra modal dispersion of light pulses.
▫ Optical sources: LASER and LED, working, type of sources, optical
transmitter, modulation and multiplexing
▫ Optical detectors: photodiodes, working, type of detectors, APD, optical
receiver, demodulation and de-multiplexing.
▫ Optical communication system performance characteristics, SNR,
WDM systems.
Course Profile
• Credit hours: 3+0
• Marks Distribution
▫ H.W- 5%
▫ Quizzes-15%
▫ Midterm-30%
▫ Final-50%

▫ Project / Technical Report-10% (not confirmed),

quizzes in that case will be 10%
Books
• Text:
▫ Optical Fiber Communications, Principles and Practice by John M.
Senior.

▫ Introduction to Fiber Optics by Ajoy Ghatak and K. Thyagarajan

• Reference:
▫ Understanding Fiber Optics by Jeff Hecht.

▫ Fiber Optic Communications by Govind P. Agrawal

Policy on missed quiz/assignments
• Assignments submitted after the due date will receive
zero credit.
• Missed quizzes will NOT be given average marks or
taken on a latter date, you will be awarded zero credit for
a missed quiz.
• Exceptions for missing the quiz:
▫ Intimate me prior to the quiz if you need to be
somewhere/ or will not be able to attend the class.
▫ You must have a valid reason for missing the quiz i.e.
death of a nearby relative or on duty if intimidated by
the dept (for officers).

• P.S: the mentioned exceptions do not guarantee that you will not receive a zero for a
missed quiz, it will be solely based upon the instructor’s discretion
Contact information
• Office hours:
▫ Mon: 10:00-12:00
▫ Tue: 10:00-12:00
▫ Wed:09:00-10:00
• For any other time, send me an email.
• email: okhalid@mcs.edu.pk
• Cell phone: only given to class senior, must not
be circulated to the whole class!!!!