In a polarization dependant isolator (which does not contain a half wave plate), if
light is entered from left to right at a particular state of polarization (SOP), light
entering the device from the right to left due to a reflection, with the same SOP
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orientation, is rotated by some more angle by the Faraday rotator, and thus
blocked by the first polarizer.
2. What are the key characteristics of optical filtering technologies? Explain the
principle of operation of Bragg Grating.
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The loss should be independent of the state of polarization of the input signals.
The passband of a filter should be insensitive to variations in ambient
temperature.
The individual filters should have very flat passbands, so as to accommodate
small changes in operating wavelengths of the lasers over time.
The passband to stopband transition should be sharp to reduce the amount of
energy passed through from adjacent channels.
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3. What are long period fiber gratings? Discuss the implementation of OADM
using FBG
Long-period fiber gratings are gratings having periods that are much greater
than the wavelength, ranging from a few hundred micrometers to a few
millimeters.
Fiber Bragg gratings find variety of uses in WDM systems, ranging from filters
and optical add/drop elements to dispersion compensators.
Long-period fiber Bragg gratings are used as a gain equalizer for erbiumdoped fiber amplifiers.
A simple optical add drop element (figure 5) based on fiber Bragg gratings
consists of a three-port circulator with a fiber Bragg grating and a coupler.
The circulator transmits light coming in on port 1 out on port 2 and transmits
light coming in on port 2 out on port 3.
4. Distinguish between 1G and 2G optical networks. How does the transition from
transmission links to networks take place?
1G
2G
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Ex: MPLS
Low speed
Relatively cheap
Relatively costly
Most of the early experimental efforts were focused on optical networks for localarea network applications.
Next, optical packet-switched networks and local-area optical networks were
introduced.
Meanwhile, wavelength-routing networks became a major focus area for several
researchers in the early 1990s as people realized the benefits of having an
optical layer.
Optical add/drop multiplexers and crossconnects are now available as
commercial products and are beginning to be introduced into telecommunications
networks, stimulated by the fact that switching and routing high-capacity
connections is much more economical at the optical layer than in the electrical
layer.
At the same time, the optical layer is evolving to provide additional functionality,
including the ability to set up and take down lightpaths across the network in a
dynamic fashion, and the ability to reroute lightpaths rapidly in case of a failure in
the network.
A combination of these factors is resulting in the introduction of intelligent optical
ring and mesh networks, which provide lightpaths on demand and incorporate
built-in restoration capabilities to deal with network failures.
5. What are the various techniques to control dispersion in fibers? What do you
mean by effective area and effective length? Differentiate between positive
dispersion and negative dispersion fibers
Chromatic dispersion,
D=DM+DW
Where Dm material dispersion, Dw waveguide dispersion
For standard single-mode fiber, the chromatic dispersion effects are small in the
1.3 m band, and systems operating in this wavelength range are loss limited.
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On the other hand, most optical communication systems operate in the 1.55 m
band today because of the low loss in this region and the well-developed erbiumdoped fiber amplifier technology.
Optical communication systems in this band are chromatic dispersion limited.
This limitation can be reduced if somehow the zero-dispersion wavelength were
shifted to the 1.55 m band.
We do not have much control over the material dispersion DM, though it can be
varied slightly by doping the core and cladding regions of the fiber.
However, waveguide dispersion DW can be varied considerably so as to shift the
zero-dispersion wavelength into the 1.55 m band. Fibers with this property are
called dispersion-shifted fibers (DSF) (Figure 6).
The waveguide dispersion can be varied by varying the refractive index profile of
the fiber (figure 6 b, c), that is, the variation of refractive index in the fiber core
and cladding.
Figure 6: Refractive index profiles of a) Step index fiber b) Dispersion shifted fiber
c) Dispersion compensating fiber
Effective length
The nonlinear interaction depends on the transmission length and the crosssectional area of the fiber.
The longer the link length, the more the interaction and the worse the effect of the
nonlinearity.
However, as the signal propagates along the link, its power decreases because
of fiber attenuation. Thus, most of the nonlinear effects occur early in the fiber
span and diminish as the signal propagates.
Effective length (Le) is the length over which power is assumed to be constant in
order to understand the effects of non-linearities.
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Where, F(r, )is the fundamental mode, r and denote the polar coordinates
The effective area has the significance that the dependence of most nonlinear
effects can be expressed in terms of the effective area for the fundamental mode
propagating in the given type of fiber. For example, the effective intensity of the
pulse can be taken to be Ie = P/Ae, where P is the pulse power. The effective area of
SMF is around 85 m2 and that of DSF around 50 m2.
Positive and negative dispersion shifted fibers
Fibers can be designed to have either positive chromatic dispersion or
negative chromatic dispersion in the 1.55 m band based on the algebraic sign of
their dispersion. Typical chromatic dispersion profiles of fibers, having positive and
negative chromatic dispersion in the 1.55 m band, are shown in Figure 7.
Figure 7: Typical chromatic dispersion profiles of fibers with positive and negative
chromatic dispersion in the 1.55 m band
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As the carrier density in the amplifier varies with the input signal, it changes
the refractive index as well, which in turn affects the phase of the probe and
creates a large amount of pulse distortion.
This phase-change effect can be used to effect wavelength conversion. The
term cross-phase modulation is used to define this phenomenon. This phase
modulation can be converted into intensity modulation by using an
interferometer such as a Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI).
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The MZI translates this relative phase difference between its two arms on the
probe into an intensity-modulated signal at the output.
7. Show how a 3R regeneration is done using a combination of CGM and CPM
Figure 9: All optical regeneration using reshaping and retiming (3R) using a
combination of CGM and CPM
We assume that a local clock is available to sample the incoming data. This
clock needs to be recovered from the data.
The regenerator consists of three stages as shown in figure 9. The first stage
samples the signal. It makes use of CGM in an SOA.
The incoming signal is probed using two separate signals at different
wavelengths. The two probe signals are synchronized and modulated at twice
the data rate of the incoming signal.
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Consider the operation of the MZI as a demultiplexer; so only one input, say,
input 1, has a signal (Figure 8). After the first directional coupler, the input signal
power is divided equally between the two arms of the MZI, but the signal in one
arm has a phase shift of /2 with respect to the other. Specifically, the signal in
the lower arm lags the one in the upper arm in phase by /2,
Since there is a length difference of L between the two arms, there is a further
phase lag of L introduced in the signal in the lower arm. In the second
directional coupler, the signal from the lower arm undergoes another phase delay
of /2 in going to the first output relative to the signal from the upper arm.
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Thus the total relative phase difference at the first or upper output between the
two signals is /2 + L + /2. At the output directional coupler, in going to the
second output, the signal from the upper arm lags the signal from the lower arm
in phase by /2.
Thus the total relative phase difference at the second or lower output between
the two signals is /2 + L /2 = L.
If L = k and k is odd, the signals at the first output add in phase, whereas
the signals at the second output add with opposite phases and thus cancel each
other. Thus the wavelengths passed from the first input to the first output are
those wavelengths for which L = k and k is odd. The wavelengths passed
from the first input to the second output are those wavelengths for which L =
k and k is even.
Thus the path difference between the two arms, L, is the key parameter
characterizing the transfer function of the MZI.
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