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Introduction Element of an Optical Fiber Transmissionlink

• An optical Fiber is a thin, flexible, transparent Fiber Basic block diagram of optical fiber communication
that acts as a waveguide, or "light pipe", to transmit system consists of following importantblocks.
light between the two ends of the Fiber. 1. Transmitter
• Optical fibers are widely used in Fiber-optic 2. Information channel
communications, which permits transmission over 3. Receiver.
longer distances and at higher bandwidths (data rates)
than other forms of communication.
• Fibers are used instead of metal wires becausesignals
travel along them with less loss and are also immune
to electromagnetic interference.

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Block diagram of OFC system

• The light beam pulses are then fed into a fiber – optic
cable where they are transmitted over long distances.
• At the receiving end, a light sensitive device known
as a photocell or light detector is used to detect the
light pulses.
• This photocell or photo detector converts the light
pulses into an electrical signal.
• The electrical pulses are amplified and reshaped back
into digital form.

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Fiber optic Cable

Fiber Optic Cable consists of fourparts. Cladding
Cladding is an outer optical material that
• Core protects the core. The main function of the claddingis
• Cladding that it reflects the light back into the core. When light
• Buffer enters through the core (dense material) into the
cladding(less dense material), it changes its angle,and
• Jacket
then reflects back to the core.
Core. The core of a fiber cable is a cylinder of plastic that
runs all along the fiber cable’s length, and offers protection by
cladding. The diameter of the core depends on the application
used. Due to internal reflection, the light travelling within the
core reflects from the core, the cladding boundary. The core
cross section needs to be a circular one for most of the
applications.

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JACKET
Fiber optic cable’s jackets are available in different
Fiber opticCable colors that can easily make us recognize the exact
Buffer color of the cable we are dealing with. The color
a buffer is a protective yellow clearly signifies a single mode cable, and
orange color indicates multimode.
layer that surrounds
and shields the optical
fiber, providing
mechanical isolation
and protection from
physical damage.

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• In very long transmission systems, repeater units

• Both the light sources at the sending end and the light must be used along the way.
detectors on the receiving end must be capable of • Since the light is greatly attenuated when it travels
operating at the same data rate. over long distances, at some point it may be too
• The circuitry that drives the light source and the weak to be received reliably.
circuitry that amplifies and processes the detected • To overcome this problem, special relay stationsare
light must both have suitable high-frequency used to pick up light beam, convert it back into
response. electrical pulses that are amplified and then
• The fiber itself must not distort the high-speed light retransmit the pulses on another beam.
pulses used in the data transmission. • Several stages of repeaters may be needed oververy
• They are fed to a decoder, such as a Digital–to– long distances.
Analog converter (D/A), where the original voice or • But despite the attenuation problem, the loss is less
video is recovered. than the loss that occurs with the electric cables.

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Characteristics of fiber
1) Wider bandwidth: The optical carrier frequency is 4) Signal security: The transmitted signal through
in the range1013 Hz to 1015 Hz. the fibers does not radiate. Further the signal can
2) Low transmission loss: The fibers having
not be tapped from a Fiber in an easy manner.
5) Small size and weight: Fiber optic cables are
a transmission loss of 0.002 dB/km.
developed with small radii, and they are flexible,
3) Dielectric waveguide: Optical fibers are made from
compact and lightweight. The fiber cables can
silica which is an electrical insulator. Therefore they be bent or twisted without damage.
do not pickup any electromagnetic wave or any high
current lightning.

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Operation of fiber Properties of optical fiber

1) WAVELENGTH : It is a characteristic of light that is
• Ahair-thin Fiber consist of two concentric layers of emitted from the light source and is measures in
high-purity silica glass the core and the cladding, nanometres (nm).
which are enclosed by a protective sheath. 2) FREQUENCY : It is number of pulse per second
• Core and cladding have different refractive indices, emitted from a light source. Frequency is measured in
with the core having a refractive index, n1, which is units of hertz (Hz). In terms of optical pulse 1Hz = 1
slightly higher than that of the cladding, n2. pulse/ sec.
• It is this difference in refractive indices that enables
the Fiber to guide the light. Because of this guiding
property, the Fiber is also referred to as an “optical
waveguide.”

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3) WINDOWS :A narrow window is defined as the Disadvantages of optical fiber

range of wavelengths at which a fibre best operates.
4) ATTENUATION: Attenuation in optical fiber is caused • High investment cost
by intrinsic factors, primarily scattering and absorption,
• Need for more expensive optical transmittersand
and by extrinsic factors, including stressfrom the
receivers
manufacturing process, the environment, and physical
bending. • More difficult and expensive to splice than wires
5) DISPERSION :Dispersion is the spreading of light • Price
pulse as its travels down the length of an optical fibre . • Fragility
Dispersion limits the bandwidth or information carrying • Affected by chemicals
capacity of a fibre.
• Opaqueness
• Requires special skills

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Ray Optics
Ray Optics
Refraction of light
Basic laws of ray theory/geometricoptics
• The basic laws of ray theory are quite self- • As a light ray passes from
explanatory one transparent medium to
• In a homogeneous medium, light rays are straight another, it changes direction;
lines. Light may be absorbed or reflected. this phenomenon is called
refraction of light. How much
• Reflected ray lies in the plane of incidence and angle
that light ray changes its
of incidence will be equal to the angle of reflection.
direction depends on the
• At the boundary between two media of different refractive index of the
refractive indices, the refracted ray will lie in the mediums.
plane of incidence. Snell’s Law will give the
relationship between the angles of incidence and
refraction.

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Ray Optics Ray Optics

Refractive Index Snells Law

• Refractive index is the speed of light in a vacuum • When light passes from one
(abbreviated c, c=299,792.458km/second) dividedby transparent material to another, it
the speed of light in a material (abbreviated v). bends according to Snell's law which
Refractive index measures how much a material is defined as:
refracts light. Refractive index of a material, n1sin(θ1) = n2sin(θ2)
abbreviated as n, is defined as where:
• n=c/v n1 is the refractive index of the
medium the light is leaving

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Ray Optics
Critical angle
θ1 is the incident angle between the light beam and
the normal (normal is 90° to the interface between
• The critical angle can be calculated from Snell's law,
two materials)
putting in an angle of 90° for the angle of the refracted
n2 is the refractive index of the material the light is
ray θ2. This gives θ1:
entering
θ2 is the refractive angle between the light ray and Since
the normal θ2 = 90°
So
sin(θ2) = 1
Then
θc = θ1 = arcsin(n2/n1)

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Ray Optics
Total internal reflection
NumericalAperture (NA) For step-index
multimode fiber, the acceptance angle is determined • If the light hits the interface at
only by the indices of refraction: any angle larger than this critical
angle, it will not pass through to
Where the second medium at all.
n is the refractive index of the medium lightis Instead, all of it will be reflected
traveling before entering the fiber back into the first medium, a
nf is the refractive index of the fiber core process known as total internal
nc is the refractive index of the cladding reflection.

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Fiber Optic Modes

Single mode fibers
Mode is the one which describes the nature of • In a fiber, if only one mode is transmitted through it,
propagation of electromagnetic waves in a wave then it is said to be a single mode fiber.
guide. • A typical single mode fiber may have a core radius of
i.e. it is the allowed direction whose associated angles 3 μm and a numerical aperture of 0.1 at a wavelength
satisfy the conditions for total internal reflection and of 0.8 μm.
constructive interference. • The condition for the single mode operation is given
Based on the number of modes that propagates through by the V number of the fiber which is defined as such
that V ≤ 2.405.
the optical fiber, they are classifiedas:
Single mode fibers • Here, n1 = refractive index of the core; a = radius of
• the core; λ = wavelength of the light propagating
• Multi mode fibers through the fiber; Δ = relative refractive indices
difference.

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Single mode fibers Single mode fibers

• Only one path is available.
• V-number is less than 2.405
• Core diameter is small
• No dispersion
• Higher band width (1000 MHz)
• Used for long haul communication
• Fabrication is difficult and costly

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Multi mode fibers

Multimode fibers
• If more than one mode is transmitted through optical
fiber, then it is said to be a multimode fiber.
• The larger core radii of multimode fibers make it
easier to launch optical power into the fiber and
facilitate the end to end connection of similar powers.

Some of the basic properties of multimode optical

fibers are listed below :
• More than one path is available
• V-number is greater than 2.405

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Types of fibers based on Refractive Index Profile

Based on the refractive index profile of the core and

cladding, the optical fibers are classified into two
types:
– Step index fiber
– Graded index fiber

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