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Course Material Prepared By:

Transmission Faculty, NSCBTTC, Kalyani
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Optical communication systems date back to the 1790s, to the optical semaphore
telegraph invented by French inventor Claude Chappe. In 1880, Alexander Graham Bell
patented an optical telephone system, which he called the Photophone. However, his
earlier invention, the telephone, was more practical and took tangible shape.
By 1964, a critical and theoretical specification was identified by Dr. Charles K.
Kao for long-range communication devices, the 10 or 20 dB of light loss per kilometer
standard. Dr. Kao also illustrated the need for a purer form of glass to help reduce light
loss. By 1970 Corning Glass invented fiber-optic wire or "optical waveguide fibers"
which was capable of carrying 65,000 times more information than copper wire, through
which information carried by a pattern of light waves could be decoded at a destination
even a thousand miles away. Corning Glass developed an SMF with loss of 17 dB/km at
633 nm by doping titanium into the fiber core. By June of 1972, multimode germanium-
doped fiber had developed with a loss of 4 dB per kilometer and much greater strength
than titanium-doped fiber.c Prof. Kao was awarded half of the 2009 Nobel Prize in
Physics for "_
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". In April 1977, General Telephone and Electronics tested and
deployed the world's first live telephone traffic through a fiber-optic system running at 6
Mbps, in Long Beach, California. They were soon followed by Bell in May 1977, with an
optical telephone communication system installed in the downtown Chicago area,
covering a distance of 1.5 miles (2.4 kilometers). Each optical-fiber pair carried the
equivalent of 672 voice channels and was equivalent to a DS3 circuit. Today more than
80 percent of the world's long-distance voice and data traffic is carried over optical-fiber
cables.
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FIBRE OPTICS: The use and demand for optical fiber has grown tremendously
and optical-fiber applications are numerous. Telecommunication applications are
widespread, ranging from global networks to desktop computers. These involve the
transmission of voice, data, or video over distances of less than a meter to hundreds of
kilometers, using one of a few standard fiber designs in one of several cable designs.
 Carriers use optical fiber to carry plain old telephone service (POTS) across their
nationwide networks. Local exchange carriers (LECs) use fiber to carry this same service
between central office switches at local levels, and sometimes as far as the neighborhood
or individual home (fiber to the home [FTTH]).
Optical fiber is also used extensively for transmission of data. Multinational firms
need secure, reliable systems to transfer data and financial information between buildings
to the desktop terminals or computers and to transfer data around the world. Cable
television companies also use fiber for delivery of digital video and data services. The
high bandwidth provided by fiber makes it the perfect choice for transmitting broadband
signals, such as high-definition television (HDTV) telecasts. Intelligent transportation
systems, such as smart highways with intelligent traffic lights, automated tollbooths, and
changeable message signs, also use fiber-optic-based telemetry systems.
Another important application for optical fiber is the biomedical industry. Fiber-optic
systems are used in most modern telemedicine devices for transmission of digital
diagnostic images. Other applications for optical fiber include space, military,
automotive, and the industrial sector.
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Fibre Optics has the following advantages :
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' Fiber optic networks operate at high speeds - up into the gigabits
‡ (: large carrying capacity
‡   ' Signals can be transmitted further without needing to be "refreshed" or
strengthened.
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  ' Greater resistance to electromagnetic noise such as radios, motors or
other nearby cables.
)c*  'cFiber optic cables costs much less to maintain.
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Optical Fibre is new medium, in which information (voice, Data or Video) is
transmitted through a glass or plastic fibre, in the form of light, following the
transmission sequence give below :
(1) Information is Encoded into Electrical Signals.
(2) Electrical Signals are Coverted into light Signals.
(3) Light Travels Down the Fiber.
(4) A Detector Changes the Light Signals into Electrical Signals.
(5) Electrical Signals are Decoded into Information.
- Inexpensive light sources available.
- Repeater spacing increases along with operating speeds because low loss
fibres are used at high data rates.
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Ôc Total Internal Reflection - The Reflection that Occurs when a Ligh Ray
Travelling in One Material Hits a Different Material and Reflects Back into
the Original Material without any Loss of Light.
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Speed of light is actually the velocity of electromagnetic energy in vacuum such
as space. Light travels at slower velocities in other materials such as glass. Light
travelling from one material to another changes speed, which results in light changing its
direction of travel. This deflection of light is called Refraction.
 The amount that a ray of light passing from a lower refractive index to a higher
one is bent towards the normal. But light going from a higher index to a lower one
refracting away from the normal, as shown in the figures.
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As the angle of incidence increases, the angle of refraction approaches 90o to the
normal. The angle of incidence that yields an angle of refraction of 90o is the critical
angle. If the angle of incidence increases amore than the critical angle, the light is totally
reflected back into the first material so that it does not enter the second material. The
angle of incidence and reflection are equal and it is called Total Internal Reflection.
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The optical fibre has two concentric layers called the core and the cladding. The
inner core is the light carrying part. The surrounding cladding provides the difference
refractive index that allows total internal reflection of light through the core. The index of
the cladding is less than 1%, lower than that of the core. Typical values for example are a
core refractive index of 1.47 and a cladding index of 1.46. Fibre manufacturers control
this difference to obtain desired optical fibre characteristics. Most fibres have an
additional coating around the cladding. This buffer coating is a shock absorber and has no
optical properties affecting the propagation of light within the fibre. Figure shows the
idea of light travelling through a fibre. Light injected into the fibre and striking core to
cladding interface at grater than the critical angle, reflects back into core, since the angle
of incidence and reflection are equal, the reflected light will again be reflected. The light
will continue zigzagging down the length of the fibre. Light striking the interface at less
than the critical angle passes into the cladding, where it is lost over distance. The
cladding is usually inefficient as a light carrier, and light in the cladding becomes
attenuated fairly. Propagation of light through fibre is governed by the indices of the core
and cladding by Snell's law.
Such total internal reflection forms the basis of light propagation through a optical
fibre. This analysis consider only meridional rays- those that pass through the fibre axis
each time, they are reflected. Other rays called Skew rays travel down the fibre without
passing through the axis. The path of a skew ray is typically helical wrapping around and
around the central axis. Fortunately skew rays are ignored in most fibre optics analysis.
 The specific characteristics of light propagation through a fibre depends on many
factors, including
- The size of the fibre.
- The composition of the fibre.
Ôc The light injected into the fibre.
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A hair-thin fiber consist of two concentric layers of high-purity silica glass the
core and the cladding, which are enclosed by a protective sheath as shown in Fig. 5. Light
rays modulated into digital pulses with a laser or a light-emitting diode moves along the
core without penetrating the cladding.

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The light stays confined to the core because the cladding has a lower refractive
index²a measure of its ability to bend light. Refinements in optical fibers, along with the
development of new lasers and diodes, may one day allow commercial fiber-optic
networks to carry trillions of bits of data per second.
The diameters of the core and cladding are as follows.